Examining How Access to Green Space Impacts Subjective Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this project is to explore the connections among green space, perception of risk, and well-being in times of a public health emergency that require people to stay indoors and isolated. In a crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic, the role of urban green spaces in promoting public health and well-being may be an especially important co-benefit of green infrastructure (GI) programs. However, there is simultaneous acknowledgement that being outdoors, even in green space, is a continuing source of risk for exposure and/or spread of COVID-19. Therefore, this research asks, how do variations in access to green space, whether due to lack of safe, nearby green space and/or the perceived risk associated with being outdoors in particular kinds of spaces during a public pandemic, impact well-being? To answer these questions, this study uses online surveys and video interviews with college students. These students have traveled home from their campuses, returning to a wide variety of residential and landscape forms, presenting an opportunity to conduct comparative study of how access to green space influences responses to current conditions and well-being. The survey, distributed via email, includes questions about well-being, outdoor activity, risk perception, and personal responses to social distancing/self-isolation measures. Interviewees, solicited from survey participants, will be asked questions about available outdoor green space and activity, lifestyle changes in response to COVID-19 and their effect on well-being, the role of outdoor activity in subjects' well-being, and barriers to outdoor activity under present circumstances. Both statistical analyses and qualitative coding analyses will be used to determine (a) subjects' access to different types of green space; (b) subjects' willingness to utilize green space with respect to type, accessibility, and risk perception; and (c) the association of (a) and (b) with subjects' well-being during the pandemic.