VALUE OF NATURE IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

In response to the rapidly unfolding COVID-19 global pandemic, countries and cities around the world have quickly implemented a diverse range of interventions to reduce the spread and impact of the virus. A universal aspect of responses is the necessity of disrupting everyday interactions and an emphasis on maintaining social distance between households. We are forging new daily routines, inclusive of which is the intuitive need to counteract the isolation of households with a connection to the larger, natural world.

In the coming months, recognition of nature’s therapeutic value will likely grow, perhaps especially after the pandemic ends and the traumatic effects continue …. Our post-pandemic challenge will not only be to preserve the last remaining natural places, but to create more of them, especially in cities—and to make sure all children and adults, not just a few, receive the gifts of nature.

- Rich Louv, Author + Founder of the Children & Nature Network, April 1 Op-Ed for REI

VALUE OF NATURE IN THE PANDEMIC RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS

Stephan Schmidt (Jan 3, 2022). What the Pandemic’s ‘Open Streets’ Really Revealed. CityLab.

Zoe Volenec et al. (2021). Public parks and the pandemic: How park usage has been affected by COVID-19 policies. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0251799.

Erica Spotswood et al. (May 1, 2021 pre-publication). Who has nature during the pandemic? COVID-19 cases track widespread inequity in nature access across the United States. Research Square.

Yi Lu et al. (Feb. 27, 2021 pre-publication). Escaping to nature during a pandemic: A natural experiment in Asian cities during the COVID-19 pandemic with big social media data. Environment.

Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore (Jan. 2021). Adapting to a Disrupted World. Urban Solutions Issue 18.

Cities At Center Of International Initiative To Add Jobs And Protect Planet. Eurasia Review (Jan. 28, 2021).

Laura Bliss (Jan. 6, 2021). ‘Slow Streets’ Disrupted City Planning. What Comes Next? CityLab.

Brooks Rainwater (Jan. 4, 2021). The future of cities is walkable, healthy, resilient places. FastCompany.

Lindsay Campbell, Erika Svendsen, Laura Landau, Michelle Johnson, Sophie Plitt (Dec. 20, 2020). Quarantine Fatigue and the Power of Activating Public Lands as Social Infrastructure. The Nature of Cities.

Joshua Morse et al. (Dec. 11, 2020). COVID-19 and human-nature relationships: Vermonters’ activities in nature and associated nonmaterial values during the pandemic. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0243697. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243697.

Scott Kellogg (Dec. 8, 2020). Opportunity in Crisis: Ecojustice Education for Pandemic Resilience. The Nature of Cities.

Feargus O’Sullivan and Laura Bliss (Nov. 12, 2020). The 15-Minute City—No Cars Required—Is Urban Planning’s New Utopia. Bloomberg Businessweek.

Sajni Gudka, Bruce Armstrong, Peter Newman (Nov. 12, 2020). Cutting Diesel Exhaust Could Lessen COVID Spread in Cities. Scientific American.

Jared Green (Nov. 4, 2020). Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, Take Time to Reconnect with Nature. ArchDaily.

Kathleen McCormick (Oct. 7, 2020). Room to Roam: The Pandemic Has Underscored the Need for More Urban Parks. So What Comes Next? Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Delfina Grinspan, John-Rob Pool, Ayushi Trivedi, James Anderson and Mathilde Bouyé (Oct. 5, 2020). Green Space: An Underestimated Tool to Create More Equal Cities. The City Fix.

Catherine Knight (Oct. 5, 2020). Post-lockdown, city-dwellers treasure our urban green spaces more than ever. The Spinoff.

Constanza Cerda (Sept. 30, 2020). Urban Gardening As a Response to Food Supply Issues in Dense Urban Areas During the COVID-19 Crisis. The Nature of Cities.

Jonathan Wheatley (Sept. 22, 2020). Virus prompts rethink of developing economies’ urban planning. Financial Times.

Manisha Gulati et al. (Sept. 14, 2020). The Economic Case for Greening the Global Recovery through Cities: 7 priorities for national governments. Coalition for Urban Transitions.

Christine Peterson (September 8, 2020). Americans are observing nature during the pandemic, helping scientists with research. National Geographic.

Sarah Bridge & David Common (Sept. 7, 2020). COVID-19 is pushing students outside to learn, and some say it could improve education. CBC News.

Kimberley Brown (Aug. 27, 2020). Latin America unites to fight global inequalities in new regional pact. Mongabay Environmental News.

Peter Newman (August 21, 2020). Creative Destruction and Covid. thesis eleven.

Mark Watts (August 21, 2020). Local Government is leading on green job creation. C40 cities.

Yun Hye Hwang, Sarah Ichioka (August 15, 2020) Commentary: Let Singapore’s green spaces grow wild. Channel News Asia.

Rachel Shabi (Aug. 9, 2020). Sanctuary in the city: how urban parks saved our summer. The Guardian.

Lisa Prevost (Aug. 6, 2020). Restricting Beach Access to Residents Only. The New York Times.

Winnie Hu and Nate Schweber (July 15, 2020). New York City Has 2,300 Parks. But Poor Neighborhoods Lose Out. The New York Times.

Damian Carrington (July 15, 2020). Nature-led coronavirus recovery could create $10tn a year, says WEF. The Guardian.

Alex Wittenberg (July 14, 2020). How to Design a Post-Pandemic City. Bloomberg CityLab.

Stuart Braun (July 14). Biodiversity blooms in cities when green spaces go wild. DW.

Peter Newman (July 13, 2020). Covid, Cities and Climate: Historical Precedents and Potential Transitions for the New Economy. Urban Sci. 2020, 4(3), 32.

Farhad Manjoo (July 9, 2020). I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing. The New York Times.

Nadra Nittle (July 7, 2020). How Black Communities Are Bridging the Food Access Gap. Civil Eats.

Ainslie Cruickshank (Jul 7, 2020). A green COVID-19 recovery: how Canada can chart a sustainable path forward for the economy. The Narwhal.

Ben Goldfarb (July 6, 2020). Lockdowns Could Be the ‘Biggest Conservation Action’ in a Century. The Atlantic.

Richard Weiss (July 4, 2020). Bicycles Are Pushing Aside Cars on Europe’s City Streets. Bloomberg Green.

Matt Simon (June 29, 2020). The Anthropause: How the Pandemic Gives Scientists a New Way to Study Wildlife. Wired.

Winnie Hu and Matthew Haag (June 29, 2020). Public Spaces Weren’t Designed for Pandemics. N.Y.C. Is Trying to Adapt. The New York Times.

Margaret O’Gorman and Daniel Goldfarb (June 29, 2020). How Urban Industry Can Contribute Green Solutions for COVID-Related Health Disparities. Meeting of the Minds.

Nate Storring (June 26, 2020). Essential Places: Warren Logan on Open Streets Beyond Brunch and Bike Lanes. Project for Public Places.

Rosie Frost (June 25, 2020). Over 60% of Adults Find Relief from Covid-Stress in Nature. euronews.

Zef Egan, Zbigniew Grabowski, Timon McPhearson, Christopher Kennedy and Bianca Lopez (June 18, 2020). Urban Parks as Critical Infrastructure: Equity and Access during Covid-19. Urban Systems Lab.

Sacoby M. Wilson, Participants: Robert Bullard, Jacqui Patterson, and Stephen B. Thomas (June 16, 2020). Roundtable on the Pandemics of Racism, Environmental Injustice, and COVID-19 in America. Env. Justice 13:3.

Smart Cities World news team (June 8, 2020) Melbourne launches largest ever revegetation project to green the city. Smart Cities World : Sharing Ideas to Solve Urban Challenges.

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (June 2020). Quezon City’s COVID-19 Emergency Food Response and Food Security Task Force. C40 Knowledge Hub.

Mohamed Buheji et al. (June 2020). Optimising Pandemic Response through Self-Sufficiency – A Review Paper. American Journal of Economics 2020, 10(5): 277-283.

Saira Asher (June 14, 2020). Coronavirus in Singapore: The garden city learning to love the wild. BBC.

Liz Alderman (June 12, 2020). ‘Corona Cycleways’ Become the New Post-Confinement Commute. The New York Times.

Yasmeen Sherhan (June 9, 2020). Vilnius Shows How the Pandemic Is Already Remaking Cities: Outbreaks of disease have shaped urban life for centuries. The Atlantic.

Nick Sobczyk (June 4, 2020). Pandemic, unrest may elevate environmental justice agenda. E&E News.

Michael Goodier and Josh Rayman (June 3, 2020). Covid-19 is highlighting cities' unequal access to green space. CityMetric.

Cheryl Katz (June 1, 2020). The Pandemic Has Taken Cars Off Urban Streets. Will It Last? Yale Environment 360.

Conserving Nature in a time of crisis: Protected Areas and COVID-19 (May 25, 2020). IUCN.

Tove Danovich (May 20, 2020). With Schools Closed, Their Gardens Take on a New Role. Civil Eats.

Sam Mehmet (May 19, 2020). Sydney fast-tracks safer walking and cycle routes. Intelligent Transport.

Beatrice Jin (May 19, 2020). How the pandemic has changed the natural world, illustrated. Politico.

Bill McKibben (May 14, 2020). When Social Distancing Ends, Will We Rethink the World We Want? Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Alexis Soloski (May 13, 2020). Keeping a Distance, From Everything but Nature. The New York Times.

Joe Lindsay (May 13, 2020). More People Are Cycling During COVID-19. That Matters. Outside.

Tiffany Chu (May 12, 2020). In A Pandemic, Transportation Ushers In A New Age Of Agile Experimentation. Forbes.

Samina Raja (May 11, 2020). Planning and pandemics COVID 19 illuminates why urban planners should have listened to food advocates all along. Agriculture and Human Values: 1. Advance online publication.

Andy Olin (May 11, 2020). Could parklets help Houston restaurants recover from the pandemic? Kinder Institute for Urban Research (Rice University).

K. Samuelsson et al. (May 10, 2020). Urban nature as a source of resilience during social distancing amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Gaby Hinsliff (May 9, 2020). Lockdown has made us see the natural world anew – let's not waste it. The Guardian.

Jamie Carter (May 8, 2020). Is The Night Sky Getting Darker During Lockdown? The Answer Is Not What You Think. Forbes.

Sharon Coolidge (May 8, 2020). So small restaurants can open, some Cincinnati streets will close - and become outdoor dining spaces. Cincinnati Enquirer.

Webinar: Who gets access to public space in a pandemic? Brookings Institute (May 6, 2020).

Michelle Baruchman (May 7, 2020). Seattle will permanently close 20 miles of residential streets to most vehicle traffic. The Seattle Times.

Juan Martinez (May 6, 2020). Nature and Privilege: How COVID19 has uncloaked equity gaps in nature access. Children & Nature Network: Finding Nature.

John Surico (May 6, 2020). Need More Outdoor Public Space? Maybe Cities Already Have It. CityLab.

Mike Houck (May 5, 2020). Nature Nearby, A Path To Resilience. Children & Nature Network: Finding Nature.

David Barton et al. (May 4, 2020). Enabling Access to Greenspace During the Covid-19 Pandemic—Perspectives from Five Cities. The Nature of Cities.

David Maddox et al. (May 3, 2020). Global Roundtable: Covid has upended all the normal routines in our lives and work. How do you imagine you might be changed by it, both professionally, but also personally as you negotiate a new post-virus “normal”? The Nature of Cities.

Stephen Moss (May 2, 2020). Birdsong has risen like a tide of hope from our silenced cities. Is it here to stay? The Guardian.

Lilly Smith (April 29, 2020). Hospitals are bringing nature into stressful COVID-19 ICUs. Fast Company.

Daisy Narayanan (April 29, 2020). Building resilience in a crisis will lay the foundations for a kinder, gentler, fairer world. Transportxtra.

Christopher Klein (April 27, 2020). How Pandemics Spurred Cities to Make More Green Space for People. History.

Harriet Constable (April 26, 2020). How do you build a city for a pandemic? BBC Future.

Xiao Wu, Rachel C. Nethery, M. Benjamin Sabath, and Danielle Braun (updated April 24, 2020). Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: A nationwide cross-sectional study. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Leith Huffadine (April 24, 2020). Survey to stocktake biodiversity in cities starts today. RNZ.

Amy Crawford (April 23, 2020). The Coronavirus Shows It’s Time To Remake The American City. Huffington Post.

Frances Cooperman (April 22, 2020). Ten cities that have redefined public transportation during COVID-19. Mass Transit Magazine.

Aaron Gordon (April 22, 2020). The Fight for Greener Neighborhoods Is a Matter of Life or Death. Vice.

Feargus O’Sullivan (April 22, 2020). Europe’s Cities Are Making Less Room for Cars After Coronavirus. CityLab.

Rina Chandran (April 21, 2020). Urban farms to traffic bans: Cities prep for post-coronavirus future. Reuters.

Robert Muggah and Thomas Ermacora (April 20, 2020). Opinion: Redesigning The COVID-19 City. NPR.

Samuelsson, K., Barthel, S., Colding, J., Macassa, G., & Giusti, M. (April 17, 2020). Urban nature as a source of resilience during social distancing amidst the coronavirus pandemic. OSF (Preprint).

Laura Bliss (April 17, 2020). Oakland's 'Slow Streets' Is an Emergency Measure Long in the Making. CityLab.

Alejandro Schwedhelm, Wei Li, Lucas Harms and Claudia Adriazola-Steil (April 17, 2020). Biking Provides a Critical Lifeline During the Coronavirus Crisis. World Resources Institute.

Sonja Dümpelmann (April 17, 2020) Parks and Trees are Public Health Measures. Penn Institute for Urban Research.

Antonio de Luca, Sasha Portis and Adriana Ramic (April 16, 2020). 17 Artists Capture a Surreal New York From Their Windows. New York Times.

José González (April 16, 2020). Park closures have unequal costs: As we limit outdoor access, consider the impact on underrepresented communities. Perspective. High Country News.

Jason Mark (April 15, 2020). The Rebirth of Urban Ag is a Coronavirus Silver Lining. Civil Eats, Co-Published with SIERRA Magazine.

Abby Wendle (April 14, 2020). Human Life Is Literally Quieter Due To Coronavirus Lockdown. NPR.

William "Ned" Friedman, Joseph G. Allen and Marc Lipsitch (April 13, 2020). Keep parks open. The benefits of fresh air outweigh the risks of infection. The Washington Post.

Alex Davies (April 13, 2020). The Pandemic Could Be an Opportunity to Remake Cities. Wired.

Carlton Reid (April 13, 2020). New Zealand First Country To Fund Pop-Up Bike Lanes, Widened Sidewalks During Lockdown. Forbes.

Andrew Moore and Vera Feeny (April 13, 2020). Connecting Children and Families to Nature During the Pandemic. CitiesSpeak. National League of Cities.

Laura Laker (April 11, 2020). World cities turn their streets over to walkers and cyclists. The Guardian.

John Surico (April 9, 2020). The Power of Parks in a Pandemic. CityLab.

Laura Bliss (April 1, 2020). Longing for the Great Outdoors? Think Smaller. CityLab.

Chris Miller (March 31, 2020). Investment in local open space, greenways and trails is critical. Guest Column. Virginia Mercury.

Jamie Gold (March 31, 2020). 8 Thought Leaders On How The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Change The American Home. Forbes.

Nina Roberts and Caryl Hart (March 26, 2020). To Close Or Not to Close? That is the Question! Parks as sanctuaries and refuges in times of crisis. Bay Nature.

Mandy Godwin (March 25, 2020). 'Nature’s not closed' during coronavirus, but should you still go hiking? Crosscut.

Adele Peters (March 24, 2020). How we can redesign cities to fight future pandemics. Fast Company.

Emily Badger (March 24, 2020). Density Is Normally Good for Us. That Will Be True After Coronavirus, Too. The New York Times.

Michelle Preen (March 24, 2020). The importance of connecting people with nature in times of social isolation. CityTalk (ICLEI).

Laura Bliss (March 23, 2020). What a Coronavirus Recovery Could Look Like. CityLab.

Michael Wilson (March 19, 2020). ‘It Sort of Gives You Hope’: One Place New Yorkers Go to Escape Their Homes. The New York Times.

Elizabeth Blair (March 19, 2020). Yes, You Can Take Your Kids For A Walk. NPR.