ArticleThe Science of the total environment2021
Associations between COVID-19 transmission rates, park use, and landscape structure.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of the built environment and human factors on the spread of COVID-19: A systematic literature review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- Features of the land use and COVID-19 cases and deaths in urban and land counties in Poland throughout the pandemic: a machine learning approach.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The association between mobility and crime in England and Wales.Crime science · 2026Article
- The spatial dynamics of urban vegetation and housing prices: Insights from pre- and post-pandemic Chicago using OLS and MGWR models.PloS one · 2025Article
- A Global Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Greenspaces on COVID-19 Infection and Mortality Rates.GeoHealth · 2024Article
- Human mobility data demonstrates increase in park visitation since start of COVID-19 pandemic in Buffalo, New York.Preventive medicine reports · 2024Article
- Exploring the spatial pattern of community urban green spaces and COVID-19 risk in Wuhan based on a random forest model.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Article
- A quasi-experimental analysis on the causal effects of COVID-19 on urban park visits: The role of park features and the surrounding built environment.Urban forestry & urban greening · 2023Article
- Associations between COVID-19 risk, multiple environmental exposures, and housing conditions: A study using individual-level GPS-based real-time sensing data.Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England) · 2023Article
- Towards building resilient cities to pandemics: A review of COVID-19 literature.Sustainable cities and society · 2023Review
- Associations between greenness and predicted COVID-19-like illness incidence in the United States and the United Kingdom.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- Modelling Impact of High-Rise, High-Density Built Environment on COVID-19 Risks: Empirical Results from a Case Study of Two Chinese Cities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- The impact of urban spatial environment on COVID-19: a case study in Beijing.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Five waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and green-blue spaces in urban and rural areas in Poland.Environmental research · 2023Article
- Design guidelines for healing gardens in the general hospital.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Population-weighted exposure to green spaces tied to lower COVID-19 mortality rates: A nationwide dose-response study in the USA.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Green spaces, especially nearby forest, may reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate: A nationwide study in the United States.Landscape and urban planning · 2022Article
- Nature's contributions in coping with a pandemic in the 21st century: A narrative review of evidence during COVID-19.The Science of the total environment · 2022Review
- Evaluating the risk of accessing green spaces in COVID-19 pandemic: A model for public urban green spaces (PUGS) in London.Urban forestry & urban greening · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe impacts on global public health. In England, social distancing measures and a nationwide lockdown were introduced to reduce the spread of the virus. Green space accessibility may have been particularly important during this lockdown, as it could have provided benefits for physical and mental wellbeing. However, the associations between public green space use and the rate of COVID-19 transmission are yet to be quantified, and as the size and accessibility of green spaces vary within England's local authorities, the risks and benefits to the public of using green space may be context-dependent. To evaluate how green space affected COVID-19 transmission across 299 local authorities (small regions) in England, we calculated a daily case rate metric, based upon a seven-day moving average, for each day within the period June 1st - November 30th 2020 and assessed how baseline health and mobility variables influenced these rates. Next, looking at the residual case rates, we investigated how landscape structure (e.g. area and patchiness of green space) and park use influenced transmission. We first show that reducing mobility is associated with a decline in case rates, especially in areas with high population clustering. After accounting for known mechanisms behind transmission rates, we found that park use (showing a preference for park mobility) was associated with decreased residual case rates, especially when green space was low and contiguous (not patchy). Our results support that a reduction in overall mobility may be a good strategy for reducing case rates, endorsing the success of lockdown measures. However, if mobility is necessary, outdoor park use may be safer than other forms of mobility and associated activities (e.g. shopping or office-based working).
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