Green Infrastructure in the Time of Social Distancing: Urban Policy and the Tactical Pandemic Urbanism

Krzysztof Herman,Łukasz Drozda

doi:10.3390/su13041632

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a number of changes in the functioning of urban areas all over the world and had a visible impact on the use of green infrastructure, including city parks. The study discusses and compares operation and use of two such parks located in Wellington, New Zealand and Warsaw, Poland by adopting “pandemic urban ethnography”, an approach that includes autoethnography, interviews with users, non-participant observation, and analysis of social media content. As indicated by the findings of the study, the importance of less rigidly designed, multifunctional spaces that give their users freedom of “tactical” adjustments, significantly grows during times of lockdown and “social distancing”. During such a crisis, the management and everyday use of urban parks are highly related to urban policies. The article provides insight into how those policies impact the functional values of green infrastructure confronting it with user-generated adaptations and the landscape design itself. The global health emergency showed how access to green areas becomes a crucial determinant on environmental justice while proving the significance of “tactical pandemic urbanism” as both a design and management method.

Highlights

COVID-19 pandemic is not the first and presumably not the last pandemic in which cities and their inhabitants turn to green spaces as a means to alleviate the crisis
This study aims to analyse the functioning of green infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic on selected examples that take into account the geographical and spatial diversity of these areas
Exact figures on the scale of the pandemic there are not known, but the number of reported deaths was nearly 80,000 more than the year before [62]. The latter more than doubled the number officially reported as a result of Covid-19

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic is not the first and presumably not the last pandemic in which cities and their inhabitants turn to green spaces as a means to alleviate the crisis. It is well documented how the cholera pandemic and the sanitary urges spurred the development of both Olmsted’s Central Park in New York City and Haussmann’s green and spacious promenades in Paris [1,2,3,4,5]. Sunshine and gentle exercise were official treatment methods in the influenza pandemic [7] reducing the number of infections and deaths reported at open-air hospitals [8]. Medical research showed that regular meals, warmth, and plenty of fresh air and sunlight helped severely ill patients recover better than indoor nursed patients [8]

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