Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

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Current Research in Environmental Sustainability

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Investigation of Adoption and Cognizance of Urban Green Spaces in India:

Post COVID-19 Scenarios
Hemant Bherwani a, b, *, Tushar Indorkar a, Ravindra Sangamnere a, Ankit Gupta a, b,
Avneesh Anshul a, b, Moorthy M. Nair c, Anju Singh d, Rakesh Kumar a, b
a
CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur 440020, Maharashtra, India
b
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad 201002, Uttar Pradesh, India
c
Asian Development Research Institute, Patna 800013, Bihar, India
d
National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai 400087, Maharashtra, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Urban open and green spaces provide various ecosystem services such as aesthetics, biodiversity, recreation and
Ecosystem services most importantly health. These spaces, especially in an urban area, are beneficial for the physical and mental
Urban greenery health of people. These services become more important at the time of social and health crisis such as COVID-19.
COVID-19
Access to urban open and green space with suitable precautionary measures such as social distancing and per­
Health and sanitation
Yoga
sonal hygiene would have improved individuals resilience during the pandemic. Due to the COVID-19 imposed
lockdown, people were forced to isolate with no access to any of the recreational spaces to combat the global
challenge. Once the lockdown was eased in India, the public focus shifted towards the need for urban green and
open spaces along with hygiene. The present study examined the change in need, usage patterns, hygiene and
infrastructure facilities for such urban green and open spaces in cities. Multi-parameter analysis was conducted
for the data collected from 27 cities, especially with respect to age and behavioral patterns. 170 valid responses
for the designed survey were received from 27 Indian cities and towns. The results indicated that these areas
were important for a wide range of activities, such as walking and jogging, relaxation, health, and yoga, meeting
with friends, etc. The study results show that 62.35% of people feel that urban open and green spaces should be
increased while 31.18% of people feel that more facilities should increase in current open and green spaces. 85%
of people feel that yoga activities have increased in urban open and green spaces during post COVID-19 imposed
lockdown compared to pre COVID-19 era. 99% of individuals agree that to make their immune system healthy
and to mentally and physically prepare for such pandemic, they need to more often use green spaces for yoga and
other health-related activities. Whereas, 90% of visitors admitted that urban green and open spaces help them
cope with their physical and mental health concerns. People started using green and open spaces for productive
purposes and avoided social gatherings as far as possible in such areas. The results were validated with statistical
analysis using ANOVA in MINITAB14. The statistical analysis indicates a clear effect of age group and lockdowns
on the people’s activities, specially for Health and Yoga with p < 0.05 at confidence interval of 95%. The study
conclusively demonstrates that open and green spaces are certainly needed in urban areas to maintain the mental
and physical health of people and COVID-19 has redfined the importance of urban open and green spaces to the
residentis of urban areas. Overall, COVID-19 pandemic must be considered as as impetus situation in planning a
sustainable and health resilient city.

1. Introduction
In Wuhan, Hubei region, China, several cases of pneumonia type
disease of unknown etiology were found since December 8, 2019 (Chen
et al., 2020; Hui et al., 2020). On the date of 7 January 2020, the Chinese
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention detected a novel coronavirus
from the victim’s throat sample and was subsequently identified it as
2019-nCoV. In few months COVID-19 spread radially throughout the
world and was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Or­
ganization (WHO, 2020; Lu et al., 2020; Worldometer, 2020a). India is

* Corresponding author at: CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur 440020, Maharashtra, India.
E-mail address: h.bherwani@neeri.res.in (H. Bherwani).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2021.100088
Received 17 April 2021; Received in revised form 26 August 2021; Accepted 1 September 2021
Available online 10 September 2021
2666-0490/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
H. Bherwani et al.
the second most affected country with COVID-19 after the USA, and has
India reported a total of 1,52,456 deaths by mid-January 2021
(Worldometer, 2020b). In India, the government had announced a
nationwide lockdown for 21 days on 24 March 2020 and it was
continued up to September 2020 (The Economic Times, 2020; Science
The Wire, 2020). This means that up to 1.3 billion people got stuck in
their homes and avoided going to the public areas. In India, on 30th
January 2020, the first positive case of COVID-19 was identified
(Udhaya Kumar et al., 2020; Andrews et al., 2020). Subsequently, the
number of cases drastically arose in major cities in India. Studies carried
out to know the possible modes of transmission for SARS-CoV-2,
including contact, droplet, airborne, waterborne fomite, fecal-oral,
bloodborne, mother-to-child, and animal-to-human transmission
(Gupta et al., 2020; Bherwani et al., 2020a; Wathore et al., 2020) and to
evaluate the spread of COVID-19 in India to know the impact of
socio-behavioral aspects, especially social distancing (Bherwani et al.,
2020b). As the result of lockdown and travel restrictions in India,
improvement in air quality was reported (Bherwani et al., 2020c;
Bherwani et al., 2021).
According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy
fell by at least 3% in 2020 which is more than the global recession of
2008–2009 (Honey-Roses et al., 2020). In addition to the economic ef­
fects, people have also experienced numerous physical and mental
challenges. People were restricted to their homes due to the lockdown,
which decreased their level of physical activity and created possible
adverse health consequences such as anxiety and maladaptation trig­
gered by physical inactivity (Füzéki et al., 2020). Outdoor recreation
and green exercise have beneficial impacts on both physical and mental
health. This leads to enhanced subscales of self-esteem and depressive
moods such as tension, aggression, and depression (Barton et al., 2009;
Pretty et al., 2007), which exhibit immediate effects onpsychological
health (Gladwell et al., 2013). In addition to the physical and mental
health benefits, the outdoor open and green spaceslead to helping peo­
ple behave more actively in social contexts, setting an environment for
enhancing social interactions and general well-being (Grima et al.,
2020). Also, some study suggests that the presence of plant species and
exposure to open spaces boost the well-being and health of society
(Kaplan, 2001; Maller et al., 2006). Urban green spaces offer pleasant
areas for recreation and socialization, encouraging higher levels of so­
cial interaction and improving connections with the neighborhood
(Sullivan et al., 2004). This may be especially necessary for elderly
people to retain a high standard of life (Sugiyama et al., 2008).
Urban green spaces, such as dense gardens, urban forestry, parks,
botanical gardens, and wetlands offer a wide array of opportunities for
urban human societies and other living species by enhancing the air
quality and minimizing the effect of heatwaves through temperature
reduction thereby indirectly influencing the species health (Scott,
2015). Urban green spaces often minimize the Urban Heat Island (UHI)
effect by providing shade and by cooling the air temperature through the
process of evapotranspiration (Grimmond and Oke, 1991).
There exists handful of study that demonstrates the need of urban
green and open spaces to mentally and physically manage COVID-19
pandemic situations. (Geary et al., 2021) reported that urban green
spaces must be considered from public health perspective towards social
investment so as to restore a synergy between ourselves and nature to
fight such future pandemics. The same study also reported that impor­
tance of publicly accessible urban green space augmented during
COVID-19 situations. (Uchiyama and Kohsaka, 2020) in his study re­
ported that socio economic factors such as income, gender, household
member numbers largely influence the visiting patterns of the public.
Alternatively, residential location of an individual also has certain in­
fluence on the visit made.
During the course of lockdown, it was noticed that people visiting the
green and open spaces in urban areas have greatly reduced mainly due
to strict lockdown imposed by government and fear of contracting
COVID-19(Gupta et al., 2020). People were restricted from exploring or
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Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088
visiting the natural green spaces during the COVID-19 lockdown, due to
which it is hypothesized that there might have been a fundamental
change in the relation between humans and urban green/open space­
smajorly in terms of its use. The current study examines the issues faced
by people all over India, pertaining to physical and mental health, and
the perspective of people regarding open and green urban spaces. This
study primarily concentrate on how people residing in the largest
democratic country in the world make use of both urban and peri-urban
natural spaces before and after the COVID-19 lockdown across the
country. The presumption was that during this global pandemic, these
spaces became more useful and important to locals Individuals. The aim
was to generate evidence that measures the significance of access to
nature and the importance of urban open and green spaces in times of
pandemic or crisis (Grima et al., 2020; Sachdevaa et al., 2018; Gladkikh
et al., 2019). The aim of this study is to explore human behavior,
perception, utilization and attitude towards the urban green and open
spaces all over India before and after the COVID-19 lockdown.
Furthermore, the study also determines citizens satisfaction with urban
green and open spaces in terms of natural scenery, exercise, and recre­
ational facilities in their localities and to take stock of their suggestions
for development in existing facilities. The study is unique in its way such
that it gathers data from the multiple cities from such a diversified
nation and tries to understand the need and importance of urban green
spaces and its role in fight against pandemics such as current one.
1.1. Urban Green Spaces
A Piece of land in an urban area completely covered with grass, trees,
shrubs, or other vegetation. It includes parks, community gardens,
botanical gardens, and cemeteries.
1.2. Urban Open Spaces
A piece of land in an urban area that is undeveloped but accessible to
the public and has no buildings or other built structures.
2. Material and Methods
2.1. Study Area
India is the world’s largest democracy and world’s second-largest
populous nation, with a current population of around 1.3 billion
(Mukherjee et al., 2019). Managing this great volume of people during
the pandemic or emergencies is a daunting challenge. Indian metro
cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Nagpur, etc. have more than 9 sq.
m per capita green spaces (Ramaiah and Avtar, 2019). In order to un­
derstand the change in scenarios related to perception and utilization of
urban green and open spaces in India, offline and online surveys were
conducted. As shown in Fig. 1, responses to the online survey were
received from 27 cities from India and an offline survey is carried out by
randomly visiting 7 parks and natural areas of Nagpur city (Mahara­
shtra, India). The primary focus was on open and green spaces in the
urban and peri-urban areas. Hence, in offline survey green and open
spaces such as NIT Garden, Japanese Garden, Botanical Garden, etc.
located in Nagpur city were selected with a perception that the popu­
lation footfall might have risen after the COVID-19 lockdown. Fig. 1
shows the geographical locations of the study area.
2.2. Methodology
A preliminary survey was conducted to adapt the questionnaire for
better understanding and responses. The preliminary survey responses
were used to tailor the questionnaire of urban green and open spaces for
better responses. The type of data that had to be collected was trans­
parent to demonstrate the actual ground condition. In order to gather
the inputs from the individuals, a set of 27 number of questionnaires was
H. Bherwani et al.
Fig. 1. Geographical coverage of the study area.
prepared for both online and offline survey based on the individual
experiences before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. For the desired
output, the methodology includes the questionsfrom the areas like,
• The frequency of the peoples used to visit the urban open and green
spaces before and after the COVID-19 lockdown.
• The time spent in urban open and green spaces by the individual
respondent.
• Type of activities performed by the individual respondent before and
after the COVID-19 lockdown.
• Perception of people before and after the lockdown towards the
natural areas (green and open spaces).
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Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088
• Changes noticed before and after a lockdown in the surroundings of
the urban and greenspaces.
2.3. Design and Implementation of Survey
The survey was conducted in the period between, 28 January to 7
February 2021. A set of online questionnaires (using Google Forms)
containing multiple choices and open-ended questions were developed
in Hindi (Official language of Republic of India, written in Devanagari
Script) and English language for dissemination to the general public
across India. The survey clearly stated that the responses shall be used
for research purposes, publications and that while responding individual
H. Bherwani et al.
are giving consent for its use. A URL link of this questionnaire was
provided on various social platforms such as WhatsApp so that the
public could respond at ease. A total 170 responses were obtained, out of
which 40 were from offline survey and the remaining from online sur­
vey. The questionnaire set was divided into two sections, one for open
urban spaces and one for green urban spaces. The overall set included 27
questions on the different topics of green/open spaces, such as the sur­
rounding environment of green/open spaces before and after the lock­
down of COVID-19, the perception of people, the amenities available,
recreational opportunities, and public recommendations for open/green
development.
While the offline survey, people of different age groups were sur­
veyed. The intention and concept of the survey were explained to them
to seek prior consent before recording the responses.
2.4. Analysis
Analysis was carried out by taking comprehensive review of the re­
sponses that were received from the online and offline surveys. These
two sets of responses were collated and the redundancies were removed.
The responses received from the groups were evaluated by classifying
them into two subgroups: a) Before Lockdown (BL) and b) After Lock­
down (AL) for both the green and open spaces. According to the ages of
respondents, the reponses are categorised into three groups of range
20–40, 41–60, and 61and above. An exploratory analysis of the collated
data and statistical analysis has been carried out to infer the scope of
urban and green spaces among the respondents.
The temporary changes in importance of these urban, open and green
spaces during the lockdown were ascertained through observation of
absolute responses received from the individuals. The data which was
gathered provided useful insights of how the mindset of the peoples
shifted after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The analysis of absolute responses was supported using statistical
analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been executed to understand
the effect of age group and lockdown on the people’s activity in the
urban space, i.e., open, or green space. One of the factors, i.e., age group
is divided into 3 levels, comprising groups of 20–40 yr, 41–60 yr and 61
yr and above and other factor i.e., effect of lockdown is studied in 2
levels, i.e., before and after the lockdown scenario. The hypothesis
testing using ANOVA is performed with null hypothesis of equal means
(i.e., no effect of the factor is observed) vs alternative hypothesis of
unequal means at significance level (α) of 0.05 (Confidence Interval of
95%) under the assumption of equal variance of the factors. The p-value
thus computed help identify the strength of the effect of the factor on the
response variable i.e., the number of people performing a particular
activity (such as health & yoga, relaxing, walking & jogging, meeting
with friends and others) and frequency of people visit (including Once a
day, twice a day, visit a day after, visit a week, never) both under the
different combination of scenarios of lockdowns or age groups. A high p-
value is inferred as high significance of the factor and rejection of the
null hypothesis (Bower, 2000; Meet MINITAB, 2003; Wass, 2004). The
error terms in the ANOVA are representative of any unaccounted co-
variable or disturbances in the system, which might have influenced
the response (Bower, 2000; Wass, 2004). The statistical analysis has
been performed using MINITAB version 14 (Meet MINITAB, 2003).
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Change in Usage of Urban Green and Open Spaces
A total of 170 valid responses from 27 (shown in Fig. 1) were ob­
tained as a result of combined online and offline surveys. After a detailed
review of the respondent’s responses, similarities in responses received
from both the online and offline surveys were observed.
It was noted that 72% of the people who visited open and green
spaces were between 20- 40 years of age where as 20% of people were
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Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088
between the age 41-60 and 8% of people were of age 61 & above and is
shown in Fig. 2(a). The young generation (age group between 20–40),
being tech-savvy, mostly responded using online medium. The re­
spondents comprised of 64% of male and 36% as female (shown in Fig. 2
(b)). The details of gender delineated on the basis of age using urban
green and open spaces before and after lockdown has been provided in
Supplementary Table 1. It was noticed that both the genders of age
category between 20-40 years were prominent in using urban green and
open spaces. Male candidates were found in larger number over female
candidates in space usage. A consistent drop in space usage in both the
urban green and open space subjected to lockdown conditions was
observed for both category of gender irrespective of the age.
Fig. 3 gives details about frequency of visits of individuals visiting
open spaces. The number of visits twice a day for the group of people
aged 20–40 has significantly decreased after the lockdown, however the
number of visits per week has significantly increased. The number of
people visiting the open spaces once or twice a day significantly
reduced. The numbers dropped from 55 to 46 and 26 to 18 for once and
twice a day visit respectively. People ageing from 20 - 40 who never
visited such areas also increased. The significant drop was seen in the
age group of 41-60 and 61 above. Hence, it can be assumed that they
started doing their physical activities at home and got accustomed to it
or shifted to using the amenities less regularly like once a day after or
once a week. They had improved cognizance of usefulness of open areas
and started visiting more often which is evident from once-a-day visit
number going up from 9 to 14 and 7 to 9 for age group of 40–60 and 60+
categories.
Fig. 4 gives the details about change in usage of urban green spaces,
which is slightly better than the open spaces. The number of people aged
between 41-60 who visit once a day has increased significantly.
whereas, for the age group of 20-40 the number of visit dramatically
decreased. It was also observed that the group of people aged between
20-40 constantly visited the urban green spaces once a week after the
lockdown. People ageing from 20 - 40 who never visited green spaces
before lockdown have also increased, whereas the significant drop have
been observed in the age group of 41-60 and 61 above. Major
improvement is seen in the age group of 40 and above for once a day and
for twice a day number of young people have started visiting more. The
aggregate number has improved from 60 to 62 and from 13 to 15 for
once a day and twice a day respectively. The number of people visiting
once a day after or once a week have almost remained the same, while
people who visited never have actually started using green spaces for
varied activities as the number falls from 22 to 18, with 40+ aged people
bringing the change.
As shown in Fig. 5, 51% of the people were found spending 1 h of
their time in urban open and green spaces and 25% of people spending
half an hour, where as 13% and 11% of people were found spending two
and more than 2 h respectively. The people spending half hour are most
probably are the ones who visit for relaxing and those spending time
more for than 1 h are those who mostly focus on health-related activ­
ities. People of all age groups utilised the open and green spaces for yoga
practices, relaxation, cycling, and jogging, as well as meeting friends
before lockdown as shown in Figs. 6(a) and 7(a).
Following the lockdown, it is clear that the utilization of green and
open spaces for yoga, relaxing, jogging, and walking has increased as
shown in Figs. 6(b) and 7(b). From the spider charts, it is clear that arms
are extending towards health practices after lockdown. whereas, leisure
activities such as meeting with friends and others have reduced.
In terms of absolute numbers, in open spaces number of people
performing yoga have gone up from 19 to 31 irrespective of age groups,
while for green space, the change is more significant with numbers
increasing from 21 to 35 irrespective of all age groups. In green spaces,
people performing walking and jogging have also gone up from 68 to 77.
The leisure activities have dropped across the board.
There are several improvements noticed since the COVID-19 lock­
down, according to the people who visited the urban green and open
H. Bherwani et al. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

Fig. 2. (a) Percentage of different age group people visiting urban open and green spaces, (b) Percentage of gender distribution visiting urban open and green spaces.
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Frequency of Visits-Open Spaces

AL Never

BL Never

AL Ones a week

BL Ones a week

AL One day aer

BL One day aer

AL Twice a day

BL Twice a day

AL Ones a day

BL Ones a day

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

20 - 40 41 - 60 61 - above

Fig. 3. Frequency to visit urban open spaces Before Lockdown (BL) and After Lockdown (AL).

spaces on a regular basis, as the number of facilities such as green gym,
along with cleaning and hygiene has increased considerably. Around
85% of people observed positive changes such as Cleanliness and hy­
giene, and improved facilities after the lockdown. While only 15%
noticed negative changes as shown in Fig. 8.
3.2. Change in User Perception
User perception towards urban open and green spaces has changed
significantly after the pandemic. As shown in Fig. 9, 62% of people (i.e.,
106 users) agree that urban open/green spaces need to be increased in
the city and 31% believe that new facilities need to be increased. While
7% peoples think that the existing facilities should be maintained as it is.
Individuals have noticed that recreational activities have decreased
marginally since the COVID-19 lockdown. According to the individual
frequency of respondents to the urban green and open spaces, 54% of
people have found that recreational activities such as cycling, dog
walking, running, hiking, boating, rafting, etc. have decreased due to
reduced social interactions and reduced presence of instructors, while
19%, 16%, and 11% of people have mentioned that the recreational
activities were increased, stopped, and kept as they are respectively as
shown in Fig. 10. After the COVID-19 lockdown, recreational activities
related to physical and mental health have increased dramatically.
Approximately 85% of people found that the activity of yoga has
increased, while 15% of people have not seen any changes in yoga and
other related activities as shown in Fig. 11.
As shown in Fig. 12, it was observed that, out of 170 respondent 69
respondent agree that number of visitors in urban green and open spaces
has declined significantly since the COVID-19 lockdown. Although 44
respondents believe an increase in number of vistors. It was observed by
the respondents that the people who were frequent to urban green and
open spaces with a group are likely to visit individually after the lock­
down to avoid contact with several people and to maintain proper
physical distance. 99% of people believe that the COVID-19 pandemic
generated cognizance to use green spaces more for yoga and other
health-related practices to strengthen their immune system. It was also

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H. Bherwani et al. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

Frequency of Visits-Green Spaces

AL Never
BL Never
AL Ones a week
BL Ones a week
AL One day aer
BL One day aer
AL Twice a day
BL Twice a day
AL Ones a day
BL Ones a day

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

20 - 40 41 - 60 61 - above

Fig. 4. Frequency to visit urban green spaces Before Lockdown (BL) and After Lockdown (AL). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

consciousness for physical and mental health. Despite decrease in use of

Fig. 5. Percentage oftime spent by individuals in open and green spaces after
the lockdown.
noticed that the people who never used to visit urban green spaces
frequently before the lockdownhas started visiting after the lockdown.
This shows that this pandemic and the imposed lockdown in India have
brought people closer to nature and the environment building
urban green and open space after lockdown, Fig. 9 portrayed space users
perception recommending the need to increase green/open spaces and
existing facility infrastructure. The current reduction in space use is
valid due to the extreme fear of spread of pandemic and controlled ac­
tivities in the country through stringent public advisory on the COVID-
19 externalities. With increase in current population over the year, User
perception depicted in Fig. 9 can be considered as futuristic re­
quirements as the stains of COVID-19 fades, both to lure and cater to
larger set of population to experience the benefits of urban green and
open space utilisation.
Further analysis is carried out with the help of statistical tools and
techniques in order to get insights into the results obtained from the
survey. As depicted in Tables 1 and 2, the ANOVA has been performed to
under the effect of lockdown (LD) and Age Groups (Age) on the fre­
quency of the visits of the people or the activities performed by the
people in the urban spaces. The lower p values (p < 0.05) for the age
factor and high p-values (p > 0.05) for different lockdown conditions,
under all frequency of visits, can be used as a sufficient condition to infer
that the effect of the age groups is dominated by the effect of the lock­
down with respect to visit of the person to urban spaces are concerned.
From Table 2, it can be observed that effect of the age group and lock­
down are clearly established for the activity on Health and Yoga (H&Y)

Fig. 6. Activities performed in urban open spaces: (a) Before COVID-19 lockdown. (b) After COVID-19 lockdown.

6
H. Bherwani et al. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

Fig. 7. Activities performed in urban green spaces: (a) Before COVID-19 lockdown. (b) After COVID-19 lockdown.

Fig. 8. Percentage of changes noticed by people after COVID-19 lockdown.
with p values of 0.002 and 0.004, respectively. However, for other ac­
tivities like relaxing, walking and jogging, meeting with friends etc., the
effect of lockdown is not clearly established with p > 0.05 and is
dominated by a low p-values for the effect of age groups on these ac­
tivities. It is likely that the effect of the lockdown is masked or gets
confounded with the age group effect or the unquantifiable interaction
between these two factors can be attributed, to a high p-value negating
the effect of lockdown. Hence, an individual analysis for lockdown needs
been studied using one-way ANOVA, to distinct attribute the effect of the
lockdowns on the people’s activity.
The results of the one-way ANOVA has been tabulated and presented
in Table 3. From the Table 3, it can be inferred that for the activity on
Health and Yoga at urban spaces (i.e., combined for both open and green
spaces) the effect of lockdown can be clearly seen with p = 0.028.
However, for all the other activities, the effect of lockdown has not been
prominent with high p-values >0.05 at confidence interval of 95%,
which can be attributed to that the fact the combined effect of different
undermined co-variates like social conditions, vicinity to the urban
spaces etc., also plays an important role undermining the effect of the
lockdown, which otherwise could be prominently seen in the Fig. 13.
It was found that after the COVID-19 lockdown, there was a rise in
the number of visitors in urban open and green spaces, which is similar
to other studies that have already been carried out (Grima et al., 2020;
Venter et al., 2020; Mackenzie and Goodnow, 2020). It is evident from
the findings that urban dwellers require urban open and green spaces, as
the result of the post-lockdown indicate the growth in visitors and rec­
reational activities. Most people cite the use of urban roads for taking
children outside, for walking, jogging, cycling, dog walking, etc.
(Christian et al., 2016). Therefore, there is a need to spend more physical
and financial resources on green and open areas to develop services such
as walking, cycling, dog walking, etc. so as to limit use of roads for
walking, cycling, dog walking, etc. thereby enhancing public safety and
mitigate traffic problems (Sreetheran et al., 2014). 90% of visitors
acknowledged that urban green and open spaces help them deal with
their physical and mental health problems. Whereas about 94% of the
people think that the urban green and open spaces should increase in
their city. Natural areas are being used by people to interact with nature,
reduce stress, and improve physical and mental health. Urbanization
creates enormous opportunities and contributes to socio-economic di­
versity that renovates the built environment. However, growth and

Percepon of peoples toward urban open and

green spaces
62
70
60
50
Percentage

40 31
30
20
10 4 3
0
Need to increase No need to increase Provide more other
green/open spaces facilies in exisng
green/open spaces

Fig. 9. Consolidated user perception change.

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H. Bherwani et al. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

Table 1
ANOVA for people’s visit frequency in urban spaces.
Source DF SS MS F p

Once a day
LD 1 4.08 4.083 0.10 0.762
Age 2 986.17 493.083 11.86 0.004
Error 8 332.67 41.583
Total 11 1322.92

Twice a day
LD 1 3.000 3.000 0.41 0.540
Age 2 90.500 45.250 6.19 0.024
Error 8 58.500 7.313
Total 11 152.000

Visit a day after

LD 1 0.333 0.333 0.06 0.816
Age 2 487.167 243.583 42.21 0.000
Fig. 10. Changes noticed in recreational activities after COVID-19 lockdown. Error 8 46.167 5.771
Total 11 533.667

Visit a week
LD 1 8.33 8.33 1.82 0.214
Age 2 6604.67 3302.33 720.51 0.000
Error 8 36.67 4.58
Total 11 6649.67

Never
LD 1 0.083 0.083 0.01 0.936
Age 2 457.167 228.583 18.72 0.001
Error 8 97.667 12.208
Total 11 554.917

Table 2
ANOVA for people’s activitiesin urban spaces.
Source DF SS MS F p

Health and yoga

LD 1 56.33 56.333 16.59 0.004
Age 2 96.17 48.083 14.16 0.002
Error 8 27.17 3.396
Fig. 11. Changes observed in Yoga activity after COVID-19 lockdown.
Total 11 179.67

Relaxing
LD 1 0.750 0.750 0.03 0.862
80 Age 2 645.167 322.583 13.80 0.003
69
70 Error 8 187.000 23.375
Total 11 832.917
No. of Respondents

60
50 44 Walking and jogging
LD 1 5.33 5.33 1.70 0.229
40 32 Age 2 6571.50 3285.75 1044.48 <0.001
30 Error 8 25.17 3.15
17 Total 11 6602.00
20
10
8 Meeting with friends
LD 1 30.08 30.08 1.62 0.239
0
Age 2 1196.17 598.08 32.18 0.000
Very Slightly Same as Slightly Very increased
Error 8 148.67 18.58
decreased decreased previous increased
Total 11 1374.92

Others
Fig. 12. Perception of respondent about the visitors after lockdown.
LD 1 12.00 12.000 3.49 0.099
Age 2 193.50 96.750 28.15 0.000
development have an overwhelming impact on urban microclimate Error 8 27.50 3.437
(UMC), as it modifies key environmental and meteorological parameters Total 11 233.00

creating impacts like urban heat and dry islands, change in precipitation
rate, frequency and intensity and so on (Bherwani et al., 2020d). The fitness activities, and other leisure activities, also for improving car­
city’s natural areas such as green and open spaces can be earmarked as diovascular health (Annerstedt et al., 2012), mental or psychological
pre-requisite to improve mental and physical health especially during health (Annerstedt et al., 2012), and improving pulmonary function (Lee
the uintended situations like COVID-19 pandemic (Grima et al., 2020; and Lee, 2014). It seems pivotal to have natural areas and community
Slater et al., 2020). Global pandemics such as COVID-19 are predicted to garden spaces at the areas of high population density within the city.
increase in the future (Annerstedt et al., 2012). The findings of this study
suggest that urban open and green spaces will alleviate the health issues
4. Conclusion
caused by pandemics or crises. These will provide the community with
non-material ecosystem services and well-being. Open and green spaces
This study was inspired by the complete lockdown that was imposed
are also useful during the so-called regular time for everyday exercise,
during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in India and from the fact that

8
H. Bherwani et al. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088

Table 3
One-way ANOVA for effect of lockdown of people’s activity.
Source DF Seq SS Contribution Adj SS Adj MS F-Value p-Value

Health and yoga

Lockdown 1 169.00 94.41% 169.00 169.000 33.80 0.028
Error 2 10.00 5.59% 10.00 5.000
Total 3 179.00 100.00%

Relaxing
Lockdown 1 2.250 1.11% 2.250 2.250 0.02 0.895
Error 2 200.500 98.89% 200.500 100.250
Total 3 202.750 100.00%

Walking and jogging

Lockdown 1 16.00 38.10% 16.00 16.00 1.23 0.383
Error 2 26.00 61.90% 26.00 13.00
Total 3 42.00 100.00%

Meeting with friends

Lockdown 1 81.00 35.22% 81.00 81.00 1.09 0.407
Error 2 149.00 64.78% 149.00 74.50
Total 3 230.00 100.00%

Other activity
Lockdown 1 36.00 59.02% 36.00 36.00 2.88 0.232
Error 2 25.00 40.98% 25.00 12.50
Total 3 61.00 100.00%

Fig. 13. Box plots depicting the change in people’s activities (A) and visit frequency (B) under pre- and post-lockdownscenario.

urban green spaces have lot of importance in Indian culture and tradi­ lockdown has changed their perception towards the urban green and
tion for healing and health maintenance purposes (Annerstedt et al., open spaces in terms of their importance and necessity. After conducting
2012). The rationale of the current study was to infer the change in an online and offline survey and detailed analysis of the available data, it
people’s visits to open and green spaces at the national level and how the is evidently clear that the visitation and health-related activities

9
H. Bherwani et al.
Fig. 13. (continued).
associated with green and open spaces of urban India have significantly
increased after the COVID-19 lockdown. During the households surveys,
it is observed that people are avoiding making direct contact with the
outsiders and are limiting their recreational and health-related activities
like yoga to their respective homes,.While, they still feel that outdoor
activities in natural areas such as green and open spaces are best for their
health and wellbeing. The middle-aged population and above i.e., 40+
population has taken great cognizance of this fact that urban green and
open spaces are of utmost importance in their life, especially for their
health and wellbeing. This is the reason that activities such as health and
yoga exercises, walking and jogging have increased significantly in their
age group. Nevertheless, young generation of 20–40 age group has also
taken serious cognizance of this fact as well with improvements visible
in visit to urban green areas for health-related activities.
The statistical analysis indicates that a clear effect of the age group
and lockdown on the activity related Health and Yoga (H&Y) with p
values of 0.002 and 0.004, respectively. However, for other activities
10
Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3 (2021) 100088
like relaxing, walking and jogging, meeting with friends etc., the effect
of lockdown is not clearly established with p > 0.05 and is dominated by
a low p-values for the effect of age groups on these activities. It is likely
that the effect of the lockdown is masked or get confounded with un­
accounted co-variates like social conditions of the people, vicinity to the
urban spaces etc., also plays an important role undermining the effect of
the lockdown.
The study also concludes that there is a need to increase more open
and green spaces within the urban areas so that the maximum people
can take advantage during the normal time and during pandemics for
recovery and maintenance of their health. This pandemic has created
challenging times for every citizen worldwide and made us realize the
importance of open and green urban spaces. It is important to encourage
numerous services offered by different urban green and open spaces and
to reinvent urban policy and planning to adapt to new behaviors and
needs that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the analysis it
can be safely concluded that health related activities have increased
H. Bherwani et al.
overall in urban green and open areas, while government has also taken
steps to improve the infrastructural facilities and hygienic environment
in these spaces. However, there is still a lot to be addressed in terms of
further enhancements of such areas and ensuring proper services for the
people visiting them. The current analysis is also restrictive in terms of
the reach of people due to ongoing pandemic and hence there is need to
do a detailed study with a possibility of using a control group once this
pandemic is aptly controlled in India. The data thus generated would be
useful for detailed planning of urban green and open spaces by impli­
cation of more robust tools and techniques including modelling and
statistics. The overall benefits of urban green and open spaces could thus
be quantified and presented for policy makers for improvements in the
current scenario of restrained presence of such areas and to enhance the
frequency of visits in populated country like India.
Declaration of Interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
HB would like to acknowledge Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), India, and its constituent laboratory National Envi­
ronmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) for providing the
support for the research. The manuscript is checked for plagiarism using
licensed iThenticate software wide KRC No. CSIRNEERI/KRC/2021/
FEB/DRC-DZC-PMPD-DIR/1.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.crsust.2021.100088.
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