Urban Equity of Park Use in Peri-Urban Areas during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Published in Landscape and Urban Planning, 2025

Core contribution: This article examines park use equity during COVID-19 through a comparative urban and peri-urban framework. By combining objective accessibility and quality measures with residents' perceptions, demands, and changing visitation, it shows why peri-urban vulnerability cannot be captured by conventional park access metrics alone.

Highlights
  • Compares the urban center, west peri-urban, and south peri-urban communities to reveal equity patterns hidden by citywide averages.
  • Combines objective access and quality measures with residents' perceived access, quality concerns, planning demands, and pandemic-era park use.
  • Finds a clear mismatch in southern peri-urban areas: residents perceive access more positively than conventional spatial metrics suggest.
  • Shows that west-side communities face stronger park-quality deficits and basic amenity needs, which COVID-19 further magnified.
Graphical abstract of park use equity in urban and peri-urban areas during COVID-19
Graphical abstract