Zhai, X. and Lange, E. (2021) The influence of Covid-19 on perceived health effects of wetland parks in China. Wetlands, 41 (8). 101. ISSN 0277-5212
Abstract
Wetland parks are designed to support urban ecological protection, flood control and human well-being. Existing research mainly focuses on their influence on ecology and economy. However, their influence on human well-being and health is rarely studied. In China, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Peak), people were very concerned about health, while at the same time wetland parks which are generally considered beneficial to health were closed. Thus, this study explores the public’s perception of the health effects of visiting wetland parks and the impact of the pandemic on the perception. From March 5th to 8th, 2020, before the Peak in China was over, 1,400 respondents participated in a nationwide online survey. It was found that the perceived benefits from visiting wetland parks were higher in terms of mental health than in physical health. Also, the perceived health benefits of wetland parks after the Peak were slightly higher than before the pandemic. The results highlight that wildlife habitat services were considered to be the most important ecosystem services that promote the perceived health benefits. Interestingly, the perceived health benefits of wetland parks by health experts appear to be lower than in other groups, indicating that the health benefits of visiting wetland parks may be overestimated by lay-people or underestimated by health experts. The results provide empirical evidence for managing ecosystem services as delivered by these urban wetlands, in the context of COVID-19 or potential future pandemics, for promoting public health.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Health; COVID-19; Wetland park; Perception; Ecosystem services |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Landscape Architecture (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/R024979/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Nov 2021 10:50 |
Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2021 10:50 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s13157-021-01505-7 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:179817 |