9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

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COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going

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Living conditions created under a pandemic situation are also a reflection of the inadequacies of our
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By Shivali Jainer, (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/shivali-jainer-118155) Shivani Yadav

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/shivani-yadav-167570)
Last Updated: Tuesday 02 June 2020

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed our lack of
preparedness for a global health emergency.

The pandemic may not last forever, but our response to it will shape the future of our
cities for the coming decades. Living conditions created under a pandemic situation are
also a reflection of the inadequacies of our cities.

In such circumstances, should the focus be only on handing issues around COVID-19 or
to be prepared for the future? How prepared are we for a post-pandemic scenario?

Urban planning reforms and public health: Any linkages?

In history, the aspect of public health evolved in high-density urban areas over a period
of time. The link between public health and urban planning is not complex as the
intention is common: To provide safe and healthy environments in which citizens can
live, work and play (characteristics of an ideal, happy city).

This also includes the role of land use and built environment (public buildings, mixed
land uses, pedestrian walkways open spaces and waterbodies) and its impacts on the
health of population.

Timeline of iconic urban planning reforms

Timeline Public health crisis and related urban reforms

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

The bubonic plague

It inspired radical improvements of the Renaissance in which cities

expanded their borders, opened larger open spaces
14th
(https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-
century
22/coronavirus-pandemics-architecture-urban-design) over
suffocated public spaces and hired specialised professionals like
architects and surveyors.

The Great Plague of Marseilles

17th
This is an example of medieval and industrial cities implementing
Century
urban planning practices to aid disease control and how
(1720)
management of water waste helped remake cities post pandemic.

18th
century

Haussman model of zoning in urban planning

It emphasised functionality and a hierarchical order of land use

which separated residential areas from other land uses, especially
industrial land use.

Cholera and malaria outbreaks in New York city

They led to the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health.

1860s It comprises of building and zoning codes to control overcrowding,
mandated better sanitary conditions and propelled infrastructure
investments that have influenced city services

18th
Yellow fever and cholera outbreaks
and
These outbreaks globally identified the need for modern sewerage
19th
and sanitation systems like citywide sewer systems
century

A few reports in the 19th and 20th centuries highlighted the

19th importance of relationship between public health and urban
and planning. For instance, in 1999, the World Health Ogranization
20th published a report titled Healthy cities and the city planning
century process which that emphasised ensuring healthy urban planning of
the urban poor population of cities in the world.

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

Tuberculosis, typhoid, Spanish flu and polio

20th
Originated urban planning reforms like waste management, slum
century
clearance, single-use zoning etc.

Source: Shivali Jainer and Shivani Yadav

Every pandemic in the past has taught us lessons over the importance of our responses
and preparedness, the most important one being this will not be the last one.

It is important to think about our responses at the end of the pandemic, while at the
same time being ready for urgent issues like community disintegration, social
disconnection and inequality, human waste and sanitation issues and water shortage.
With future tensed and present faded, what idea of healthy and resilient cities comes
to our mind?

Architects in Hyderabad
Architectural Designer, Interior Designer ,

Studio One Architects OPEN

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

A healthy city (https://www.who.int/healthy_settings/types/cities/en/) is one that

continually creates and improves physical and social environments and expands
community resources that enable people to mutually support each other in performing
all the functions of life.

A new sourcebook, Integrating Health in Urban and Territorial Planning,

(https://unhabitat.org/integrating-health-in-urban-and-territorial-planning-
sourcebook-for-urban-leaders-health-and) launched by the WHO and UN-Habitat
provides information on ensuring human health as a key consideration for city
planning.

In this concrete urban sprawl, while most of us have locked ourselves and found
alternatives to work from home through digital media, we have missed out on the
‘play’ aspect. Open spaces are never prioritised and often neglected in favour of other
priorities.

Open spaces include recreational spaces, organised green and other common open
spaces (such as floodplains, forest cover etc) in plain areas, according to the 2014
Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation guidelines.

Considering overall open spaces in an urban area, the guidelines suggest a norm of 10-
12 square metres of open space per person. This means a 25-35 per cent allocation of a
city’s area to be earmarked as recreational and open spaces, in addition to
environmentally sensitive areas. Most of our Indian cities do not meet the standards of
required land cover for recreational spaces.
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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

Green open spaces in select Indian cities as per master plans

Source: Urban Green Guidelines, 2014, Town and Country Planning Organization,
Government of India, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India

This pandemic made us realise the value of reachable open spaces that allow
movement within dense urban areas. Physical isolation with absence of adequate open
spaces is one of the major causes of discomfort and poor living conditions.

While several stigmas are attached to the pandemic, the need for open spaces — crucial
for physical and mental health — should not be one of them.

Mental health is a critical issue that needs to be fought through this pandemic: Not
being able to get fresh air and light, no physical movement or exercise, isolation
significantly adds to people’s stress.

It’s no new concept that urban spaces have an important role to play and are effective
in improving public health in urban cities. If we look at history, there are several
examples (https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/08/08/six-epidemics-from-american-
history-show-how-urban-design-affects-our-health/) of how open green spaces and
natural features were key elements of urban planning and design used during and after
pandemics.

In 2017, Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the
Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs came up with two practitioner’s guides:
Water sensitive urban design and planning (https://www.cseindia.org/water-sensitive-
urban-design-and-planning-7988) and Green Infrastructure
(https://www.cseindia.org/green-infrastructure-7985) that highlighted appropriate
methods and strategies to be adopted for multiple uses of open spaces in making
water-sensitive areas at different scales of urban planning, that is, at city / zonal,
neighbourhood / institutional and individual scales.

“There is a need of reintroduction of the natural water cycle in the urban environment
through the use of public open spaces that can be an effective measure to manage
pluvial (urban runoff or surface water) flooding in Indian cities,” said Suresh Kumar
Rohilla, senior director at CSE.

The pandemic should bring attention on the deficiencies in blue-green spaces and
contact with nature at the local neighbourhood level, missing in our dense Indian
cities.

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

Architects in Hyderabad
Architectural Designer, Interior Designer ,

Studio One Architects OPEN

Illustration by Shivani Yadav

How can we move ahead?

Once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, more holistic approaches are needed.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration of public policies, urban planning and design using
open public spaces, parks, urban forests and integrated blue and green infrastructure
are needed as tools to make cities healthy.

Turning zoning regulations into national flagship missions

Smart city and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) city
missions are major steps for managing cities. Both missions emphasise on
environment sustainability, governance, financial and service delivery reforms, self-
reliant revenue mechanisms, etc.

Schemes under the missions have been moderately successful in maintaining existing
parks and green spaces. Circumstantial planning, however, demands decentralisation
of essential services, designs of open spaces in context with distance, proximity, size,
quality and connectivity as a practical response to pandemics.

Promoting the use of blue-green spaces, physical activities on a neighbourhood or

local and approachable level can help negate impacts of infectious diseases, chronic
illnesses etc in ther future.

Step by step access to spaces

The stigma attached to the pandemic will prolong a period of distancing, but the
craving for connection will be even more. We should gradually go back to crowded
public places like restaurants, theatres, etc. In some countries, the government has
allowed people to leave their homes for exercise and physical activity once a day. We
can similarly limit these activities and access to spaces through time regulations.

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

A guideline should be prepared on using green spaces. To reduce crowding, we could

regulate people inflows with time limits and over time periods. Thus, even in limited
spaces, physical distance can be maintained.

With people getting used to work from home, work places may be divided as certain
days of a week from office and rest from home, to reduce load on public transport and
work places.

In dense areas, access to parks and spaces can be limited by dividing them through
house numbers. Access to areas of school playgrounds, private golf clubs etc with time
limits can also be open for public use. Capacity building with citizens is important for
all, as this is a voluntary act.

Pedestrianisation

Well-connected green spaces at local or neighbourhood level have become important

more than ever. Some streets can be designated completely for walking and running
while maintaining distance and reduce crowding on roads and streets.

For example, several cities in the world have stopped cars and pedestrianised streets as
a social-distancing measure. In Toronto, temporary pedestrianisation of downtown
Yonge street — the city’s most important north-south artery — has been proposed.

There are a few sidewalks in all of North America, where two people can cross paths
while maintaining a comfortable six-foot distance.

More refined urban planning and design approach towards blue-green infrastructure:

Public open spaces such as parks, lakes / waterbodies are key elements of the natural
and built environment within neighbourhoods for encouraging a number of activities.

These multipurpose public open spaces can be reformed to fight monsoon floods and
be used for creating temporary shelters to accommodate migrants struggling during
the lockdown.

It is essential to ensure the quantity, quality and accessibility of open spaces at a local
level through urban planning and design. The mapping of underused and low-
functioning sites and their reclamation can be another approach at local levels.

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India Environment Portal Resources :

Space-based quantification of per capita CO2 emissions from cities

(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/467024/space-based-quantification-of-
per-capita-co2-emissions-from-cities/)
Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders
from adolescence into adulthood
(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/466131/residential-green-space-in-
childhood-is-associated-with-lower-risk-of-psychiatric-disorders-from-adolescence-into-
adulthood/)
Ease of Living Index- Assessment Framework 2019
(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/466904/ease-of-living-index-assessment-
framework-2019/)
Lifelong residential exposure to green space and attention: A population-based prospective
study (http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/447743/lifelong-residential-
exposure-to-green-space-and-attention-a-population-based-prospective-study/)
Supporting smart urban development: successful investing in density
(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/456508/supporting-smart-urban-
development-successful-investing-in-density/)
A spatial analysis of proximate greenspace and mental wellbeing in London
(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/466132/a-spatial-analysis-of-proximate-
greenspace-and-mental-wellbeing-in-london/)

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COVID-19 exposes fault lines in peri-urban areas

Lack of sanitation awareness prevails at a greater extent here; it is unclear how COVID-19-centric
awareness campaigns will influence behavioral change 

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

When will this get over?

Science is still exploring a citable answer to this most frequently asked question across
the globe. Available data and trends indicate that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is
not ephemeral and may stay among us until a sustainable weapon is made.

SARS CoV-2, the virus behind the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has now
become a noxious global citizen, but carries unique problems and crisis for different
geographies across the world.

Along with the known biological impacts of the disease, the virus carries multifarious
strains which are impacting the population — socially as well as economically.

The urban sprawl

Urban transition started early in 19th century and by 2050 urban population will reach
70 per cent across the globe. While many developed countries already boast of being
urbanised, the transition trajectory in India still shows steep upward and uneven
growth.

Nearly half the India’s urban population is concentrated in states

(https://doi.org/10.1177/0049085714548538) such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab and West Bengal. Economic and industrial growth in
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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

these states attracted skilled and non-skilled populace from states such as Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand. However, the infrastructure of the receiving states was
never meant to sustain this unprecedented load.

With existing load of intra-state rural-to-urban migration

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/economy/95-migrants-want-to-return-home-
despite-uncertainty-survey-71292), this sprawling further created a concept of ‘peri-
urban’ areas which are often marginalised (http://www.itpi.org.in/pdfs/apr11_08.pdf)
from the formal urban settlement and a spill-over of urban population.

Peri-urban zones are primarily home to labourers and migrants

(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/migrants-denied-basic-human-rights-says-
study-on-kolkata-43995), population of which was estimated to cross 100 million
(http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/SLUMS_IN_INDIA_Slum_Compendium_2015_English.pdf)
by 2016, according to a report submitted in 2010 by Pronab Sen committee constituted
by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Peri-urban Areas in a typical urban landscape

Vaccine, nutrition or sanitation?

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the World Health Organization

(https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-
public) and Indian government (https://www.nhp.gov.in/hand-washing_pg) mandated
measures such as social distancing, frequent handwash and adoption of improved
sanitation behavior for infection prevention and control. This appears to be an
impossible feat in India where several slums like Dharavi struggle with population
density of over 200,000 people per square kilometre and 63.1 per cent of slum
population practices open defecation.

Communicable and infectious diseases, including respiratory infections, tend to spread

at a faster pace (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5780711/) into slums
with high population density. With a limited access to sanitation and hygiene facilities,
poorly maintained drainage and sewerages further exposes the risk of infection spread
through human faeces and shared water resources at community stand posts.

Recent studies from Johns Hopkins (https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-spread-

building-pipes.html) University have not denied that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of
becoming ‘aerosolised’ through untreated wastewater and exposed sewerages. During
an empirical study conducted by the author at two urban slums resettlement colonies
in Delhi — Holambi Kalan and Savda Ghewra in 2018 — it was observed that 35 per
cent respondents used soil or ash to wash their hands after defecation.

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

Lack of basic sanitation awareness prevails at a greater extent in these settlements and
it is unclear that how COVID-19-centric awareness campaigns will influence behavioral
change among them.

The Union government is aware about loss of income during this abysmal crisis. When
the inhabitants are struggling to get food and ration, it shouldn’t be expected from
them to buy sanitisation products.

Office of principal scientific advisor K Vijay

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In the best-case scenario, however, if scientists develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

and it is made accessible to slum residents, the risk will still persist. A study of Delhi’s
urban slums has indicated that malnutrition and inadequate sanitary conditions will
adversely impact effectiveness of a vaccine.

Can lockdown lock the virus?

Yes, within the community.

Though well-intentioned, unprecedented lockdown has upended the lives of slum

dwellers (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/economy/covid-19-up-stares-at-
mammoth-challenge-as-migrants-return-home-71256)in peri-urban communities
with equanimity as most of them are solely dependent on the food and ration supplied
by government and non-profits. This segment of population largely endures their
livelihood with operating income and don’t possess cash liquidity to sustain such
crises.

Isolating this population will majorly benefit other sections of the community by
limiting the spread within a containment zone. However, the virus may keep
multiplying within the community due to poor basic sanitary infrastructure, non-
curated strategy of testing and monitoring, marginalised healthcare facilities and
inadequate capacity building.

The reverse-migration predicament

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9/11/2020 COVID-19 and green, open spaces: What is going to be our new normal?

Carrying a feeling of deep end of affairs, stigmatisation and impecunious with source
to earn, the pandemic attained its zenith when thousands of migrants ambivalently
opted to walk towards their far-flung homes due to non-availability of transport.

A few brave ones waited until they frantically rushed to Delhi-Ghaziabad border and
Bandra railway station in Mumbai responding to various rumours — and a hope to
reach their original habitat.

In the last week of April, the Union and state governments announced back-to-home
travel guidelines for of migrant workers; Bihar alone estimated reverse movement of 28
lakh migrants.

Urban sprawling in India: Will COVID-19 trigger reverse-migration?

With a majority of migrant home states having poor public healthcare infrastructure
and limited income generation opportunities, this plethora of reverse-migration may
not only create a huge pool of suspected contagion in reverse-destination states, but
also have a conflagrated socio-economic asymmetry at both origin and destination.

The COVID-19 pandemic not only opens research paradigms for scientists and
healthcare professionals, but also an exigency for policymakers and government to
reevaluate all primary and auxiliary policies, programmes which directly or indirectly
impact life and livelihood of the population living in peri-urban areas.  

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