Human Flow Dataset Reveals Changes in Citizens’ Outing Behaviors including Greenspace Visits before and during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kanazawa, Japan

Yusuke Ueno, Sadahisa Kato, Tomoka Mase, Yoji Funamoto and Keiichi Hasegawa
Additional contact information
Yusuke Ueno: Faculty of Bioresources and Environmental Sciences, Ishikawa Prefectural University, Nonoichi 921-8836, Japan
Sadahisa Kato: Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tottori University of Environmental Studies, Tottori 689-1111, Japan
Tomoka Mase: Faculty of Bioresources and Environmental Sciences, Ishikawa Prefectural University, Nonoichi 921-8836, Japan
Yoji Funamoto: Fukuyama Consultants Co., Ltd., Tokyo 101-0033, Japan
Keiichi Hasegawa: EY Strategy and Consulting Co., Ltd., Tokyo 100-0006, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 14, 1-14

Abstract: Greenspaces, including parks, provide various socio-ecological benefits such as for aesthetics, temperature remediation, biodiversity conservation, and outdoor recreation. The health benefits of urban greenspaces have received particular attention since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has triggered various movement restrictions and lifestyle changes, including regarding the frequency of people’s visits to greenspaces. Using mobile-tracking GPS data of Kanazawa citizens, we explored how citizens’ behaviors with respect to outings changed before and during Japan’s declaration of a COVID-19 state of emergency (April–May 2020). We also examined citizens’ greenspace visits in relation to their travel distance from home. We found that Kanazawa citizens avoided going out during the pandemic, with a decrease in the number, time, and distance of outings. As for the means of transportation, the percentage of outings by foot increased on both weekdays and holidays. While citizens refrained from going out, the percentage change of the percentage in large greenspace visits increased very slightly in 2020. As for greenspace visitation in 2020 compared to 2019, we found that citizens generally visited greenspaces closer to their homes, actually increasing visitation of nearby (within 1000 m) greenspaces. This study of how outing behaviors and greenspace use by Kanazawa citizens have changed underscores the value of nearby greenspaces for physical and mental health during movement restrictions under the pandemic.

Keywords: behavioral change; COVID-19 pandemic; urban greenspace; mental health; human flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8728/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8728/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8728-:d:865189

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().