RESEARCH By Marcus Grant
The COVID-19 Lockdown Papers: insights, reflections and implications for urbanism and landscape On 25 March 2020, Cities & Health journal put out an international call for think pieces, as initial reflections, in response to what was being witnessed, as town and cities started to respond to the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. As part of an ongoing collaboration with Landscape, here is a series of abstracts summarising some of those responses.
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elow, I provide a selection of 12 papers for Landscape. All the COVID-19 Lockdown Papers were written, peer reviewed and revised during the first wave and under national lockdown regulations. Thus, they represent a unique record of observations and thoughts. Our authors confronted the task with innovation and insight. These conditions offered a novel lens to observe people and communities in neighbourhoods and urban support systems under stress. In many cases, this showed that previous health challenges and vulnerabilities became further compounded. We hope these papers help to support the case for addressing the structural problems for urban health and city sustainability – landscape practitioners and urbanists have a central role to play. For ease of accessibility, we present these 12 think pieces in four categories. You will, of course, find many other themes and cross-cutting issues of interest. You can find all of these as full papers, and more, at the Cities & Health journal website (bit.ly/CitiesxHealth). If you are viewing the digital version of Landscape the links to each paper have been provided.
Open space and public realm Green Space and the Compact City: planning issues for a ‘new normal’ We trace the emergence of urban public green space as an issue of concern for planning. Using this platform, we then discuss the emergence of the compact city idea and how this conceives the design and use of such spaces. Using four categories: form & features, distribution, connectivity and resilience – we identify issues to be prioritised in future research for the planning of urban green space in the ‘new normal’ of social distancing consequent on COVID-19. By Mick Lennon The public realm during public health emergencies: Exploring local level responses to the COVID-19 pandemic Public parks and recreational spaces are now some of the main outlets for people to get outdoors, however COVID-19 has created challenges in these spaces. We classify local government responses around maintaining physical distancing in the public realm using a preliminary conceptual map of theories and actions to identify variations in these approaches around the globe. By Alexander Wray, John Fleming & Jason Gilliland
How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the lack of accessible public spaces in Tehran Development trends in Tehran, Iran, have caused high population density, centralised public spaces, car-oriented streets, and smaller houses. Postpandemic, the city should reclaim the flexibility, diversity, and accessibility of public spaces and revise the legislative and financial tools of municipalities for creating a compact city. By Parnian Kordshakeri & Ehsan Fazeli Living conditions and biotic systems
Global change increases zoonotic risk, COVID-19 changes risk perceptions: a plea for urban nature connectedness Ebola and COVID-19 are textbook emerging diseases influenced by humans. Ebola is often considered a result of exotic nature threatening health. Conversely, COVID-19 emerged in an urban environment. To prevent and mitigate zoonotic pandemics, policy should promote nature connectedness and integrate nature-city-inhabitant interactions. By Maarten P.M. Vanhove, Séverine Thys, Ellen Decaestecker, Nicolas Antoine-Moussiaux, Jeroen De Man, Jean Hugé, Hans Keune, Ann Sterckx & Luc Janssens de Bisthoven
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