Abstract
COVID-19 poses a massive challenge to urban public-health emergency and governance systems. Urban planners and policymakers engaged in spatial planning and management should carefully consider how a “people-oriented” principle can be incorporated into spatial-planning systems to reduce the negative impacts on both cities and people. However, there is limited literature discussing the aforementioned issues, particularly using qualitative methods. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implications of COVID-19 on spatial planning, well-being, and behavioural change using Changchun as a case study. Semi-structured interviews are used to examine the views and insights of 23 participants. Our results show that, first, the shift to home working has changed people's way of life, affected their subjective well-being, and significantly affected spatial planning within cities, placing greater demands on architectural design and community spatial planning. Therefore, additional open public spaces and a more supportive infrastructure are required. Second, it is found that Changchun has not established an effective community-based spatial planning system, something which should have been taken into consideration in the master plan for the future. Third, our findings suggest that being a resilient city is vital for the sustainable development of second-tier cities like Changchun, which is reflected in urban development patterns, disaster prevention, and long-term functional layout, among other aspects. This study contributes to the existing literature on resilient cities, particularly from the perspective of sustainability with regard to resilience to and recovery from major urban crises. In terms of policy implications, planning departments should work with public health and public safety departments to formulate guidelines and management rules in order to improve the spatial planning of cities during periods of extraordinary change and challenge.
Highlights
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a series of practical problems
Our research has explored the implications of COVID-19 for spatial planning, well-being and behavioural change using Changchun as a case study
First, the shift to home working has changed people’s way of life, affected their subjective well-being, and significantly affected spatial planning within cities, placing greater demands on architectural design and community spatial planning
Summary
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a series of practical problems. At this critical moment, the governments in many countries, including China, committed to national and joint mobilisations aimed at transparently tackling and controlling the pandemic. The pandemic has exposed shortcomings in urban spatial planning. Spatial planning is the long-term planning and arrangement of territorial space, resources and layouts. It aims to achieve effective control and the scientific governance of territorial space and promote a balance between development and protection (OECD, 2001; Hu et al, 2013; Adams et al, 2016). Spatial planning requires consideration of the “multiple-gauge fusion” mode of planning, implementation, management and supervision mechanisms, in addition to other factors such as the protection of ecology (Faludi and Institute, 2002; Dühr et al, 2010)
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