Abstract
Significant challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that features of a modern, sustainable and resilient city should not only relate to fulfilling economic and social urban strategies, but also to functional urban design, in particular, related to urban blue and green infrastructure (BGI). Using results from a web-based questionnaire survey conducted May–July 2020 in Moscow (Russia) and Perth (Australia), this paper provides insights regarding citizens’ needs for and values of urban BGI as well as their changes during and after the COVID-19 restrictions. Survey data collected during the lockdown period have captured information about people’s ability to access green and blue spaces within urban BGI, inequalities in access, feelings, and values as well as needs and perceived pathways of future development of urban natural environment. In both cities, lockdowns limited access of people to green spaces which affected their mental and physical health. Survey results revealed that the quality, functionality, and location of open green spaces illustrated a disparity in distribution, meaning that in many cases several communities from particular neighborhoods suffered from limited access to BGI. Furthermore, in addition to analyzing perceptions and values of urban nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, some suggestions for improvement of urban BGI based on the survey responses are provided.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns around the world led to a general decline in physical and mental health because of isolation, lack of social interaction, restriction of movement and travel, and dramatic lifestyle changes [1]
We found out that despite the differences in climate, socioeconomics, history, and land-use, the availability, as well as the access to green and blue areas, was very highly valued among all respondents, supporting the notion that greening should be a fundamental strategy of cities when coping with a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic
This overall result is supported by related research on values and perceptions of urban green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic from other cities of the northern hemisphere, e.g., surveys conducted in China [1], Japan [20], European countries [2,3,23], and the USA [11]
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns around the world led to a general decline in physical and mental health because of isolation, lack of social interaction, restriction of movement and travel, and dramatic lifestyle changes [1]. BGI includes publicly accessible and private green space, natural green space (remnants of native vegetation which experience different intensities of human intervention and where some or all endemic ecosystem processes are affected) as well as designed. Urban green and blue spaces contribute to a sense of place as well as fostering social cohesion and stewardship. These factors are essential for quality of life and regional identity [15,16,17]
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