Increased nationwide use of greenspace in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing concern about the decline in human greenspace use and nature-based recreation in Western countries. While some evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased recreational mobility in urban greenspaces, it is unclear whether the pandemic led to nationwide changes in greenspace use in both densely and less densely populated neighborhoods, and whether social inequalities in greenspace use were reinforced or attenuated. To address these questions, we used daily nationwide aggregated mobility data from more than 2 million cell phone subscribers in 14,331 geographical grids across Norway to examine potential changes in mobility to greenspaces measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) during the pandemic, while controlling for weather conditions, holidays, and neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics. Results from linear mixed model analyses showed a 9.4% increase in recreational dwells in the greenest spaces during the pandemic. Notably, this increase was most prominent in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status and was observed in both high and low population density neighborhoods, although the increase was somewhat stronger in neighborhoods with low population density. Our study findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in increasing nationwide greenspace use in Norway and potentially narrowing the gap of green inequality, highlighting the importance of preserving and promoting green spaces as a public health resource, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.