Spatial distributive effects of public green space and COVID-19 infection in London

Jiayu Pan; Ronita Bardhan; Ying Jin

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127182

Spatial distributive effects of public green space and COVID-19 infection in London

Urban For Urban Green. 2021 Jul:62:127182. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127182. Epub 2021 May 13.

Authors

Jiayu Pan¹, Ronita Bardhan¹, Ying Jin¹

Affiliation

¹ The Martin Centre for Architecture, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1PX, UK.

Abstract

While public green spaces (PGS) are opined to be central in the pandemic recovery, higher accessibility to PGS also mean a higher risk of infection spread from the raised possibility of people encountering each other. This study explores the distributive effects of accessibility of PGS on the COVID-19 cases distribution using a geo-spatially varying network-based risk model at the borough level in London. The coupled effect of social deprivation with accessibility of the PGS was used as an adjustment factor to identify vulnerability. Results indicate that highly connected green spaces with high choice measure were associated with high risk of infection transmission. Socially deprived areas demonstrated higher possibility of infection spread even with moderate connectivity of the PGS. The study demonstrated that only applying a uniform social distancing measure without characterising the infrastructure and social conditions may lead to higher infection transmission.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Risk assessment; Spatial analysis; Urban green space.