Senior Lecturer Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
Background/Question/Methods
Urban nature sites are crucial places for the promotion of human health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, there are few interdisciplinary studies that simultaneously investigate the impact of a range of social and environmental factors on shifts in urban nature site visitation. We sought to examine potential shifts in visitation during the pandemic by analyzing both publicly available geospatial data of the amenities and environmental features of urban nature sites in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, with a web-based survey of residents and their urban nature site visitation. We created a visitation frequency change index to measure the relative change in urban nature site visitation before and during the pandemic, and then developed a multiple linear regression model to characterize the social and environmental variables associated with these shifts in visitation.
Results/Conclusions
The results of our web-based survey show that 53% of surveyed participants decreased visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, while 26% increased visitation, 21% had no change, and only 1.7% were first-time visitors of urban nature sites. Our multiple linear regression model of the shift in urban nature visitation during the pandemic indicates that a relative increase in visitation was positively associated with higher ratings of the physical and mental health contribution of the urban nature sites, higher nature maintenance and accessibility ratings, and visiting with a spouse, but negatively associated with variables such as car transportation, visit length, age, shrub habitat, and visiting alone or for romantic dates. These results suggest that the perceived health benefits and accessibility of urban nature sites could be key in motivating visitation during the pandemic more than the specific environmental features or amenities of these sites. Given the on-going threats of the COVID-19 pandemic and other environmental crises, it is imperative to continue supporting the creation, maintenance, and monitoring of urban nature sites for not only urban ecosystems and biodiversity, but also so that they can contribute to the health of all urban residents.
