COVID-19 Shows Us the Need to Plan
Urban Green Spaces More Systemically
for Urban Health and Wellbeing
Jieling Liu
1 Key Messages
In addition to the necessity and urgency for bottom-up climate actions, the significance of urban green spaces has been highlighted by the complex socio-economic
impacts of COVID-19 on a global scale.
1. Sustainable urban development needs to go beyond segmented actions and to take
a more systemic approach to urban planning, particularly that of green spaces.
2. Urban green spaces are particularly invaluable for those who cannot afford
a spacious living environment, such as migrant workers and other vulnerable
groups.
3. Urban green spaces should be treated as an invaluable common-pool resource for
common health and wellbeing, i.e. one’s use of green spaces should not reduce
the availability of them for others, yet it is impossible and inadequate to exclude
any residents from using green spaces regardless of their socio-economic status.
4. Policymakers should establish universal access to urban green space as the basic
principle of urban planning, integrate climate modelling and public health monitoring into green space planning, and incorporate all societal actors in urban green
space governance from planning to building to use and further to maintenance,
for enhancing both social and environmental sustainability.
J. Liu (B)
Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at Institute of
Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: jielingliu@campus.ul.pt
© Zhejiang University Press 2021
F. W. Gatzweiler, Urban Health and Wellbeing Programme,
Urban Health and Wellbeing,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6036-5_7
39
Urban Green Spaces More Systemically
for Urban Health and Wellbeing
Jieling Liu
1 Key Messages
In addition to the necessity and urgency for bottom-up climate actions, the significance of urban green spaces has been highlighted by the complex socio-economic
impacts of COVID-19 on a global scale.
1. Sustainable urban development needs to go beyond segmented actions and to take
a more systemic approach to urban planning, particularly that of green spaces.
2. Urban green spaces are particularly invaluable for those who cannot afford
a spacious living environment, such as migrant workers and other vulnerable
groups.
3. Urban green spaces should be treated as an invaluable common-pool resource for
common health and wellbeing, i.e. one’s use of green spaces should not reduce
the availability of them for others, yet it is impossible and inadequate to exclude
any residents from using green spaces regardless of their socio-economic status.
4. Policymakers should establish universal access to urban green space as the basic
principle of urban planning, integrate climate modelling and public health monitoring into green space planning, and incorporate all societal actors in urban green
space governance from planning to building to use and further to maintenance,
for enhancing both social and environmental sustainability.
J. Liu (B)
Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at Institute of
Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: jielingliu@campus.ul.pt
© Zhejiang University Press 2021
F. W. Gatzweiler, Urban Health and Wellbeing Programme,
Urban Health and Wellbeing,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6036-5_7
39