Urban green spaces and stress during COVID-19 lockdown: A case study for the city of Madrid

Abstract

Due to the unexpected emergence of COVID-19, different cities improvised responses to prevent the virus from spreading and infecting the population. Madrid, capital of Spain and one of the most affected cities in Europe, confined everyone home and closed most public and private spaces, including public parks. The whole situation was surely to be responsible for stress-levels to peak. We developed an online survey to better understand the relationship between people and Urban Green Spaces prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new bond that may have emerged from this interruption. We recruited participants, without gender or age preference, excluding underage children and teenagers, using a combination of convenience sample and a snowball approach. A total of 132 responses were logged. The study was limited to mental health inferences, specifically related to stress and its most frequent manifestations among the urban population. These indicators included physical, mood or behavioral changes and were studied on those participants who had access to UGS before and during confinement. Among the most important findings, we confirmed that when people are confronted with stressful situations, indoor plant interaction is not a substitute for different outdoor green experiences; those who interacted with green spaces in a daily manner managed stress levels better than people who didn't (but their effects might lose strength over time); and turning to green spaces for comfort during stressful times when you don't usually do so helps overcome difficult situations. This article contributes to the growing study of green spaces as a means towards improved mental well-being in urban areas.

Keywords: COVID-19; Indoor plants; Isolation; Mental health; Quarantine; Stress; Urban green spaces; Well-being.

Fig. 1

Main analysis direction.

Fig. 2

Different interactions with Urban Green Spaces before and during lockdown: (a) Main uses of the Urban Green Spaces; (b) Sharing interaction of the Urban Green Space access.

Fig. 3

Stress manifestations, comparison before lockdown and during lockdown.

Fig. 4

Stress Manifestations: (a) People with indoor plants but no Private Urban Green Spaces; (b) People with Private Urban Green Space; (c) People with indoor plants and Private Urban Green Space.

Fig. 5

Frequency of visits: (a) Before lockdown; (b) During lockdown.

Fig. 6

Frequency of visits during lockdown of previous daily users: (a) Urban Green Spaces daily users before lockdown new frequency of use; (b) Daily users during lockdown previous frequency of use of Urban Green Spaces.

Fig. 7

Appreciation of urban green space before and during lockdown: (a) Urban Green Spaces general public appreciation before and during lockdown; (b) Daily users that continued to use Urban Green Spaces daily appreciation before and during lockdown; (c) Previous daily users that stopped using Urban Green Spaces appreciation before and during lockdown; (d) Urban Green Spaces occasional-turned-daily users’ appreciation before and during lockdown.

Fig. 8

Percentage of stress manifestations experimented by: (a) Daily users that continued to use Urban Green Spaces daily before and during lockdown; (b) Daily users that stopped visiting Urban Green Spaces altogether during lockdown; (c) Daily users that started visiting Urban Green Spaces during lockdown.