Post-pandemic public spaces: A case study of public parks in Kerala, India

COVID-19, the greatest pandemic since the turn of the century, presents several issues for urban planners — the most significant issue of which is finding appropriate measures for creating pandemic-friendly and resilient public parks. The study described in this paper aimed to propose strategies and guidelines to improve the resilience of public parks for future pandemic threats. This study was conducted in four stages. The first stage was to examine the evolution and transformation of public parks during pandemics globally, for which a literature review was conducted. The second stage was to identify the factors from the published literature that influence the resilience of public parks. The influencing factors were further categorised as access and linkage, sociability, uses and activities and comfort and image. In the third stage, two case studies of public parks in the COVID-19 hardest-hit localities were chosen for analysing the resilience of parks based on identified factors. The analysis of the identified factors was undertaken through field observation, questionnaire survey, activity mapping and buffer analysis. Following an overall assessment, the fourth stage was to develop strategies and guidelines for planning public parks to make them more efficient and resilient. The guidelines and strategies developed for public parks lead to improved quality, safety and resilience to future pandemics. Through qualitative methods, including surveys, observations and interviews, this study provides valuable insights into the evolving nature of public parks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.