Barriers Affecting Women’s Access to Urban Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, urban green spaces (UGS) have gained relevance as a resilience tool that can sustain or increase well-being and public health in cities. However, several cities in Latin America have seen a decrease in their UGS use rates during the health emergency, particularly among vulnerable groups such as women. Using Mexico City as a case study, this research examines the main barriers affecting women’s access to UGS during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America. We applied a sequential mixed-methods approach in which the results of a survey distributed via social media in June 2020 to women aged 18 and older were used to develop semi-structured interviews with 12 women during October 2020. One year later, in November 2021, the continuity of the themes was evaluated through focus groups with the same group of women who participated in the interviews. Our results suggest that (1) prohibiting access to some UGS during the first months of the pandemic negatively impacted UGS access for women in marginalized neighborhoods; (2) for women, the concept of UGS quality and safety are intertwined, including the security level of the surrounding streets; and (3) women who live in socially cohesive neighborhoods indicated using UGS to a greater extent. Our findings highlight that while design interventions can affect women’s willingness to use UGS by improving their perceived safety and comfort, they remain insufficient to fully achieve equity in access to UGS.

Understanding the pathways between the use of urban green spaces and self-rated health: A case study in Mexico City

“…Moreover, having a clearly defined concept of quality might be beneficial for understanding the intrinsic connection between quality and safety. Several studies propose that, especially for women, quality and safety are intertwined and inseparable [123,124], particularly in the Latin American in context [55,125].…”

Use and design of public green spaces in Serbian cities during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Despite PGS in people's living environment having a positive association with the perceived general health ( Maas et al, 2006 ), government restrictions for using PGS fostered staying at home in self-isolation. Isolation of people resulting from social distancing may induce negative consequences, such as anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness (Ma et al, 2020), while for some population groups, such as women, especially urban poor, prohibiting the use of PGS negatively affected their perceived safety and comfort of PGS ( Mayen Huerta & Utomo, 2022 ; Xie et al, 2020 ). Perception of PGS being unsafe reduced number of visits in countries with no movement restrictions (Lopez et al, 2021), although researchers reported that reason for visiting PGS changed from non-essential to essential during the pandemic ( Ugolini et al, 2020 ; Larcher et al, 2021 ).…”

“A variety of green spaces available to all”: knowledge of patient and community needs in natural spaces as understood by allied health professionals

“…By understanding the broader community preferences for features of natural environments, we can design more inclusive spaces that people choose to spend time in, and that confer health benefits. There is a growing body of literature on these preferences based on community studies (Basu and Nagendra, 2021;Chenyang et al, 2022;Cronin-de-Chavez et al, 2019;Ferreira et al, 2020;Koprowska et al, 2020;Mayen Huerta and Utomo, 2022;Noël et al, 2021;Pool et al, 2023;Smith et al, 2022;Sykes, 2022;Weerasuriya et al, 2019a, b;Wen et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2023), but to our knowledge no study to date has investigated what allied health professionals think should be in natural environments for the benefit of their patients/ clients, and the broader community. These findings may assist in capturing the needs of groups that have otherwise been under-investigated.…”