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Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?
Tansil, D., Plecak, C., Taczanowska, K. et al. Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?. Environmental Management 70, 1004–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01721-9
Tansil, D., Plecak, C., Taczanowska, K. et al. Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?. Environmental Management 70, 1004–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01721-9
Tansil, D., Plecak, C., Taczanowska, K. et al. Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?. Environmental Management 70, 1004–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01721-9
Tansil, D., Plecak, C., Taczanowska, K. et al. Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?. Environmental Management 70, 1004–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01721-9
Abstract
Public green and open spaces fulfil various social, ecological, economic, and aesthetic roles, which complement each another, but can also compete with one another. COVID-19 pandemic catalysed multiple societal changes, including citizens’ perception, needs and expectations posed towards urban green spaces. This article discusses the extent to which the temporally and geographically changed patterns of experiencing these natural spaces also influenced users’ perception and behaviour as well as their appreciation of the conservation areas. The study is based upon two surveys carried out in the greater metropolitan region of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. A quantitative survey (representative online panel) among Viennese population (n=1012), as well as qualitive interviews with experts responsible for conservation areas, administrators of federal parks, along with NGOs representatives were carried out in spring and summer 2021. Our study shows the changed use of urban and suburban large green spaces and conservation areas: first, from the perspective of those responsible for the areas as well as the visitors. Both perspectives supplement one another. They highlight also changed perception of urban citizens towards green spaces during COVID-19 pandemic. An increased importance of time spent in nature (68%) and possibility to visit large green areas (67%) was reported by Viennese citizens. Also, higher recognition of green spaces located close to home was observed among 69% of the respondents. Thus, the presented study contributes to the ongoing international discussion on the transition of societal needs and its effects on urban green spaces induced by the pandemic. Presented results deliver solid arguments highlighting the need of urgent transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient and healthy urban space.
Keywords
pandemic; green areas; protected areas; urban planning; visitor management; protected area management
Subject
Social Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
