Parks before and after Pandemic

1.  Introduction

While some of us are enduring boredom due to the stay-at-home orders, some people are taking this as a ‘new normal’ and preferring the advantage of peaceful isolation over the hectic busy life. While some people are waiting for the market and office to open, others are thinking that lockdown could make our companies more mature with a push for adopting work-from-home culture. Whatever it will be, most us understand the value of the outdoor environment and the importance of spending time in the urban greenery, mainly park. Unlike the economic stimulation packages, although we still may not quantify how much time we need to spend in the park exactly, it is an undeniable truth that we are missing our time in the parks.

Besides environmental benefits, the parks, irrespective of its size, is a unique space that provides an opportunity for a social congregation; simultaneously, for some people, it is also a place for solace and solitude. Urban green space, although we take it for granted, is one of the few places in our society that elevate urban resilience as well as invigorate psychological resilience. Now the question is after lockdown, when people need the park more than ever before to recover from stressful lockdown, how the park itself can cope with the funding crisis and labour crunch.

2.  Parks before Pandemic

Before discussing the scenario after the pandemic, first, we should think briefly about why we do prefer to visit parks. Although the environmental benefits of the urban greeneries enhance the biodiversity and impacts on the urban heat island and enhance, mainly the social benefits of the park attract park visitors. Most of the people love to visit an urban green primarily for two reasons - health and social bonding. Indeed, it is noticeable that most of the park visitors do not have significant knowledge of biodiversity (Paul and Nagendra, 2017; Swamy and Devy, 2010).

With the potential benefits of contact with nature for avoiding health problems, urban greeneries are perhaps the best places to boost our mental and physical health condition. Recently, several authors have showcased how “Green Exercise” (Pretty et al., 2005) and “Nature Experience” (Bratman et al. 2015; Bratman et al., 2019) most effectively boost our mental health and cognitive functioning. Additionally, residing in areas with walkable green spaces and surrounding greenness enhances our life expectancy (Takano et al., 2002; Rojas-Rueda et al., 2019). It also minimises cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease mortality (Richardson and Mitchell, 2010).

Although our hectic urban life is one of the toughest challenges to create a cohesive society, spending time in a park, unlike a shopping mall, allow us to meet people from a different race, culture and socio-economic background. Parks, in turn, gives us an endless opportunity to make friends and strengthen our social bonding. For example, Individuals living adjacent to greener common spaces are more socially active and neighbourly with more concerned, helpful and supportive neighbours, and have a stronger feeling of belonging (Kuo et al., 1998). Similarly, spending time in nearby outdoor common spaces with trees and grass influence elder residents’ social integration; therefore, it also has a positive impact on the well-being of elderly (Kweon et al. 1998).

3.  Parks after Pandemic

Lack of emission from transportation and industrial has given our environment a moment to revive. Even taking this scanty opportunity, every green patch is inviting biodiversity and recovering faster than ever before. Parks are not an exception. Although from an extreme environmentalist perspective, it is a great moment, we need to visit the park for our social and individual well-being. Exposure to nature is the best remedy to recover from the loneliness and prolong mental stress accumulated due to social isolation.

Unfortunately, due to lack of availability and poor accessibility, in many cities in the developing nations, city dwellers already do not even have sufficient opportunity to enjoy the urban greeneries. Moreover, in several cities, urban green spaces are not also distributed uniformly. For example, Across the United States, around 100 million people do not access to a park within a half-mile (10-minute walk) from their home (The Trust for Public Land, 2018). A recent study has found that the neighbourhoods with higher Socio-Economic Status in Mumbai have better access to green spaces, indicating spatial inequities in Urban Green Space distribution in Mumbai (Sathyakumar, V. 2019).

In the current situation, whatever the green patches are available, we should take maximum advantage of it. To make the park available and accessible again, we need collective efforts from the client, consultants and contractors. Besides social isolation norms, The post-pandemic era will the high time to consider the landscape holistically – from maintenance as well as a design perspective. 

3.1. Economic and Funding Crisis

The economic severity of the pandemic and the prolonged recession is so extreme that it may push 500 million people below the poverty line (World Economic Forum, 2020). If we gauge over the timescale, we understand that it took 25 years to uplift around 1.2 million people (the number of people living in extreme poverty from stood at 736 million in 2015, down from nearly 2 billion in 1990 (The World Bank, 2020)). To tackle the economic downturn and extreme uncertainty, the government will reduce its expenditure drastically. For instance, New York City mayor has already declared a USD 1.8 Million budget cut for park maintenance.

Unfortunately, we often forget that maintenance is not only necessary for cleanliness but also proper hygiene and our safety. For example, without a systematic tree pruning our tree may turn unsafe to the park visitors. Without appropriate inspection irrigation system may break down, the wooden structure may get dilapidated and hazardous. Similarly, without pesticides and fertilisers, plants may get infected or may die. And invasive species may grow wild and affect other species. Lack of maintenance may fail to control the population of diseases spreading species such as rodents. Importantly, without surveillance, parks may turn into heaven for criminals.

Therefore, instead of erasing the entire landscape budget, it is essential to assess the site before making a decision. Dividing the landscaped area, categorising under the high, medium and low important zone according to users’ interest and evaluating the minimum requirement of each zone may help to curtail the budget optimally. For instance, the interior part of a park may tag under low maintenance area, keep without maintenance and restrict the visitor access. As a result, the unmaintained section of the park may elevate its biodiversity richness, and adequately maintained area will re-invite the park lovers.

3.2. Workforce Crisis

Concurrently, even if clients remain generous in landscape maintenance budget, it will be almost impossible to get a gardener to maintain the park. Like any other industries, landscape industry will also face the labour crunch. Since the landscape Industry highly depends on menial labour, shortage of workforces will impact onsite maintenance and nursery maintenance and thereby the supply of plants. In the short term, the isolating low maintenance zone may give some relief to the labour shortage. Still, in the long run, the industry should focus on productivity with improved mechanisation and automation instead of depending on manual labour.

Simultaneously, parks could encourage its users to get involved in maintenance activity. For example, community gardening type program may reduce the workforce requirement, and importantly, give the users a chance to get more intimate with nature. It will strengthen the community bonding and create a sense of belonging among the users. However, for such changes, we need a robust effort from management for awareness building programmes and bridging the knowledge gap between maintenance experts and general park users.

3.3. Design Response

Some efforts, emphasising the concept of social distancing, are already coming from different firms. For example, inspired by the French baroque gardens and circular movements in the Japanese Zen-gardens, Austria-based firm Precht has proposed a maze-like park (Figure 1) that may help users to maintain social distancing (Ravenscroft, 2020). However, it will remain questionable whether and how such design allows social integrity and social cohesion.

Simultaneously, for a resilient landscape planning, Landscape Architect should look beyond the spatial heterogeneity and collaborate with botanist and horticulturist more frequently to incorporate species heterogeneity in their planting plans. A strip of a mono-species hedge may give a neat look, but it may not a great idea from the biodiversity perspective. Additionally, prioritising the native species over the exotic species will also enhance the resilience of the landscape itself. Furthermore, I think the future design requirement may demand more robust interdisciplinary coordination and integrated design development process.

The design should also scrutinise under a maintainability matrix. For example, if a planter bed is challenging to access, its maintenance will turn in to labour intensive, besides safety issues. Moreover, the planning process should provide provisions for incorporating automation and inhouse productivity. For instance, an in-house nursery with a potting machine will reduce the workforce requirement and dependency to get supply from a nursery located in the peri-urban area.

4.  Conclusion

In conclusion, we can assume that life may not remain the same as it was before the pandemic. The invention of some vaccines may diminish the risk of getting infected, but can we eliminate the risk of another future pandemic outbreak? Now, here we should have two sets of questions. Firstly, how will the authority assure the maintenance of the landscape with a very minimum budget and invite people? And secondly, how will landscape architect assure that their design may work? I think this pause allows us to rethink about maintenance regime, design brief and design assessment criteria. And ask how we could elevate the resilience of the park itself.

Figure 1: Maze-like Park, emphasising the concept of social distancing (Source: Ravenscroft, 2020)

Reference:

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