The pandemic has impacted our lives in a large number of the way, lots of which can little doubt be felt for years to return. While lots of those effects are clearly negative, UConn researchers have identified no less than one positive impact – our perception of natural spaces modified. The findings are published in Nature Scientific Reports.

As people flocked to outdoor spaces for recreation within the spring of 2020, Sohyun Park, assistant professor in UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, noticed some interesting trends: more people were on the paths, and lots of of those people had traveled from far-off to enjoy nature.

Park was also a part of the team for the Connecticut Trail Census and co-wrote a paper in regards to the trends.

Sohyun Park of the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture in her office within the W.B. Young Constructing. Mar. 8, 2022. (Jason Sheldon/UConn Photo)

What’s interesting was rural trail use increased in comparison with urban trails. I desired to attempt to learn the way people were changing their mindset or their attitudes or perceptions.”

Sohyun Park, assistant professor in UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture

To do that, Park and co-authors Seungman Kim and Jaehoon Lee of Texas Tech University, and Biyoung Heo of James Corner Field Operations, looked to social media data and machine learning techniques to assist make sense of the vast quantities of data on Twitter and check out to search out a pattern amongst those data, says Park. They utilized Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API), which allows researchers to acquire aggregated data from Twitter posts.

“We desired to know from the individuals who have been in greenspaces, what were they doing and what they were writing about on Twitter. We utilized very progressive and advanced levels of machine learning methods,” says Park. “The machine categorized the keywords and classified them into several human-recognizable groups. One group was nature related. The second group is all traditional park-related activities and the third one is clearly the COVID-related one, so mask wearing and social distancing, and things like that.”

A newfound appreciation for nature

Though what people were doing within the parks didn’t change significantly, the researchers noticed some significant changes in keyword usage between pre-pandemic and pandemic Twitter, with people often referencing nature, and their experiences inside it.

“Users began to place the word ‘nature’ and nature-related activities or nature-related pictures on their Twitter,” Park says. “It was very interesting because, previously, there have been not many keywords like that, but people used keywords like ‘playing’, ‘walking the dog’, ‘baseball’, and other traditional, lively park activities that they were having fun with while they were there within the parks. In the event you take a look at post- 2020 Twitter, you may as well see keywords thanking God or showing appreciation for nature, describing the birds singing or water sounds.”

What the researchers found was people looked as if it would have realized a newfound appreciation for nature and greenspaces, very true for those in urban settings. As a landscape architect, Park was interested to see if there was something more to the findings and maybe if there may be some design implications for the outcomes.

Common features in modern parks include benches, walking paths, and sports fields, as an example. Nevertheless, Park says the outcomes of the paper appear to suggest that natural greenspaces appeal to people in another way.

“We’d wish to return to the origin of public parks like those Olmsted designed,” Park says. “In his time in nineteenth century, there was lots of hustle and bustle in town, they usually desired to have space for people to search out respite and peace. We’d wish to return to that era living with a twenty first century health crisis and check out to rethink in regards to the design principles.”

Park says to assume Manhattan’s Central Park, which hosts ponds, wooded areas, and meadows. Most of those natural features were introduced artificially and weren’t there in the primary place. Compare this with contemporary parks:

“Modern parks could also be well managed, maintained, and manicured, all the pieces is clean and tidy,” Park says. “There are some seating areas, paved surfaces, and structures where you’ll be able to play something along with your friends and members of the family, but probably not in a naturalistic style. People can feel that in public spaces.”

The outside as essential resource for overall well-being

Greenspaces impact mental, physical, and spiritual health, and Park reasons that these natural elements may be essential in public spaces, particularly for individuals who have less access to the general public parks, or marginalized communities that have no green areas at their residences.

“I’m arguing that parks aren’t only recreational spaces; greenspaces and parks function essential amenities for all including those with low incomes or disabilities, and the elderly,” Park says. “Parks need inclusive planning approaches that may be added to the present principles for park development.”

Park explains that many individuals are involved within the planning, design, and management of parks and greenspaces. The tricky part is that the more naturalistic, garden concept for public parks may require more planning and maintenance, and subsequently these design features rely more heavily on resources and budgets.

“In the long run, I feel that will probably be the direction that we want to go and now officials and park managers have to work along with those that live nearby in order that we will have some sort of co-managing sort of approaches to the longer term,” Park says.

This study highlights the importance of those design features and their roles in our emotional and spiritual well-being, and Park says it can be crucial for the general public to advocate for our greenspaces. Research like this may inform decision-making.

“It is crucial for the general public and decision-makers to grasp that ultimately, we want to have a budget to have more natural features and nature-oriented programs within the park. All of us have to be more lively by way of the things that towns are doing. That may start with joining your town’s Conservation Commission or attending monthly meetings. Participate and make your voice heard. That makes an enormous change and might impact big decisions. Sometimes these decision makers are really grounded by how the stakeholders are feeling so giving some input and feedback on the general public decision-making needs to be step one. It’s empowering and more people have to be involved in public planning.”

Source:

University of Connecticut

Journal reference:

Park, S., et al. (2022) Evolving norms: social media data evaluation on parks and greenspaces perception changes before and after the COVID 19 pandemic using a machine learning approach. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17077-3.