How the COVID-19 pandemic changed patterns of green infrastructure use: A scoping review

The use of green infrastructure (GI) has been established as a way to alleviate stress and the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a new emphasis on the importance of GI as both a coping mechanism and a source of recreation. This scoping review seeks to address whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected the use of GI, specifically the ways in which the pandemic altered visitation patterns and the frequency of the use of GI. This review identifies studies that explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and GI use and assesses whether the pandemic has altered the use of GI, including whether GI use increased, decreased, or remained the same and examines po-tential changes in visitation structure as well as other effects studied. This review also discusses how future planning for GI can consider the lessons learned from the pandemic. Key findings suggest that GI use increased, as did visitors\u27 appreciation for GI and its benefits. The use of local GI to one\u27s home also increased in impor-tance. Decreases in visitation were typically a result of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and fear of viral transmission within GI

Greening US legacy cities: urban agriculture as a strategy for reclaiming vacant land

Repurposing vacant land for food production is expanding as a response to urban blight, food insecurity and food deserts. As municipalities integrate urban agriculture in their sustainability plans and zoning regulations, scholars are beginning to take a broader look at the benefits from this and other types of greening strategies. This article investigates current state of research and practice of urban agriculture as an emerging strategy for regenerating shrinking cities. It highlights key findings while offering observations on how public officials and practitioners can leverage this research to enhance urban agriculture as a treatment for vacant land

PhillydotMap: The Shape of Philadelphia

This book is the outgrowth of a working group entitled, “Modeling Urban Environmental Impacts on Health, Development, and Behavior sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research. The purpose of the working gropu was to engage faculty from across campus and to encourage their collaborative use of GIS technology in the modeling of urban form and function. These ten chapters represent a wide range of GIS applications, from community-based social services to public history to social science research

Planning for Resilience and Equity through Accessible Community Technology: A Research Agenda

Professor Christina Rosan, Temple University Department of Geography and Urban Studies, and Professor Megan Heckert, Geography & Planning - Planning for Resilience and Equity through Accessible Community Technology: A Research Agend

Parks and the Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Research on Green Infrastructure Use and Health Outcomes during COVID-19

Green infrastructure (GI) has long been known to impact human health, and many academics have used past research to argue for the potential importance of GI as a mechanism for maintaining or improving health within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This scoping review addresses the question: What evidence, if any, have researchers found of a relationship between green infrastructure use and health during the COVID-19 pandemic? Specifically, evaluating the (a) association of GI use with COVID-19 disease outcomes and (b) association of GI use with other health outcomes as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-two studies were identified that measured GI use and studied it in relation to health outcomes during the pandemic. The studies were reviewed for the specific measures and types of GI use, level of analysis, specific types of health outcomes, and the conclusions reached with regard to GI use and health. Studies exploring COVID-19-specific health outcomes showed mixed results, while non-COVID health outcomes were more consistently improved through GI use, particularly with regard to improved mental health. While the evidence strongly suggests that GI use has played a protective role in non-COVID-19 physical and mental health during the pandemic, questions remain with regard to possible impacts on COVID transmission and mortality

Creating GIS-Based Planning Tools to Promote Equity Through Green Infrastructure

The Philadelphia Water Department, now known as Philadelphia Water (PW), has been coordinating with other city and private and non-profit stakeholders to install green infrastructure (GI) across the city as a means of addressing stormwater runoff as well as promoting social, economic, and environmental benefits such as improved health, job creation, and carbon sequestration. While many planning tools exist to assist in the development of green infrastructure projects, recent critiques have highlighted limitations in their considerations of non-environmental concerns, and several new planning tools have been proposed that use indexes and other need-based approaches to account for a wider range of potential program impacts. Even these new ideas, however, fail to systematically account for the possibility that not only desired GI benefits but also the impacts of specific GI projects may vary considerably from place to place. Based on our experiences with a community advisory board working to assess co-benefits of GI, we propose the inclusion of more interactive methods for incorporating community perspectives on the benefits of GI into GI planning methodologies to make them both more equitable and more responsive to community needs

Green Enough Ain\u27t Good Enough: Public Perceptions and Emotions Related to Green Infrastructure in Environmental Justice Communities

The concept of biophilic urban planning has inspired neighborhood greening projects in many older urban communities in the USA and beyond. The strengths (e.g., environmental management, biodiversity, heat island mitigation) and challenges (e.g., greenwashing, green gentrification) of such projects are well-documented. Additional research on the relationship between these projects and various social factors (e.g., public perceptions, feelings, and mental health and well-being) is necessary to better understand how people adapt to said projects while struggling to navigate other more pressing socioeconomic issues, especially in communities facing environmental injustice and health inequity. In this article, we focus on one aspect of biophilic urban planning-green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) (e.g., rain gardens, bio-swales, pervious pavements, and wildflower meadows)-in Waterfront South, a post-industrial neighborhood in Camden, NJ, USA, where residents have faced environmental injustices for decades. Our qualitative analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews of sixteen residents offered a thorough insight into their perceptions and emotions regarding different types of urban GSI projects. Residents acknowledge the many benefits that GSI offers to combat the neighborhood\u27s social and environmental injustices, but they are cautious about the possibility of some projects prompting new issues and concerns within the community. Our findings reveal potential implications in GSI planning, research, and practice in this neighborhood and similar urban places elsewhere that have yet to undergo gentrification