Geneletti Davide, Cortinovis Chiara, Zardo Linda
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano, 77 I-38123 Trento, Italy.
Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 16, D-12489 Berlin, Germany.
Landsc Urban Plan. 2022 Mar;219:104319. doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104319. Epub 2021 Dec 1.
During the COVID-19 emergency, cities around the world introduced measures to guarantee physical distancing that restricted access to urban parks and green areas, with potentially negative effects on citizens' health and wellbeing. This study aims at providing insights to manage access to urban green space in physical distancing times, when the risk of crowding should be avoided. Using the city of Trento (Italy) as a case study, the study simulates policy scenarios corresponding to different restrictions and assesses their effects on green space access and crowding. Policy scenarios are obtained by combining different distances that people are allowed to travel, different types of green areas available for public use (only urban parks or parks and schoolyards), and different target populations (all residents or only people with no private gardens). The results unveil the trade-off between access and crowding of green areas, and can be used to suggest policy interventions and regulations that can be adopted in an emergency. Particularly, the study shows that: i) The relationship between distance threshold and the percentage of people with access to green areas is non-linear, and this should be carefully considered when proposing travel restrictions; ii) Changing the maximum travel distance does not produce major effects on the number of crowded green areas, hence additional or alternative measures need to be adopted; iii) Off-the-shelf measures, such as opening schoolyards, are beneficial and can be implemented rapidly in an emergency. Finally, the study reveals "hotspots" of green space deprivation/overcrowding in the city that should be addressed by urban planning to ensure that green space continues to benefit citizens also during emergency conditions.
在新冠疫情紧急状态期间，世界各地的城市都采取了措施来保证社交距离，这限制了人们进入城市公园和绿地，可能对市民的健康和福祉产生负面影响。本研究旨在提供见解，以便在应避免人群聚集风险的社交距离时期管理城市绿地的使用。以意大利特伦托市为例，该研究模拟了对应不同限制的政策情景，并评估了它们对绿地使用和人群聚集的影响。政策情景是通过结合人们被允许出行的不同距离、可供公众使用的不同类型绿地（仅城市公园或公园及校园）以及不同目标人群（所有居民或仅无私人花园的人群）来获得的。研究结果揭示了绿地使用和人群聚集之间的权衡，并可用于提出在紧急情况下可采用的政策干预措施和规定。具体而言，研究表明：i）距离阈值与能够进入绿地的人群百分比之间的关系是非线性的，在提出出行限制时应仔细考虑这一点；ii）改变最大出行距离对拥挤绿地的数量不会产生重大影响，因此需要采取额外或替代措施；iii）现成的措施，如开放校园，是有益的，并且可以在紧急情况下迅速实施。最后，该研究揭示了城市中绿地匮乏/过度拥挤的“热点”区域，城市规划应解决这些问题，以确保即使在紧急情况下绿地也能继续造福市民。
