Work

Analyzing urban parks’ spatial integration in Budapest to understand changes in visitation patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Globally, dramatic changes in park visitation have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, cities have experienced an overall increase in park visitation after strict lockdowns imposed in the pandemic’s first wave have been removed. However, previous research conducted in Hungary has demonstrated that park visitation varied across parks with different sizes and locations in the city. We hypothesized that the degree of the park’s integration into the urban fabric significantly affected changes in visitation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a space syntax analysis. Findings show that community parks with an area of 10.01-50.00 hectares and a mean spatial integration of 72.37 experienced the highest increase in the number of visitors (based on mobile devices’ GNSS data). Surprisingly, large metropolitan parks providing highly complex ecosystem services lost many visitors during the pandemic, which might be due to their low spatial integration.

Source: Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science

DOI: 10.1177/23998083231217012

Authors: Zoltán Bereczki, György Csomós, Jenő Zsolt Farkas

Institutions: University of Debrecen, ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Language: English

Topic: Urban Green Space and Health

Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Research, Development and Innovation Office