Green space accessibility helps buffer declined mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Accumulating evidence has highlighted a negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic on public mental health. By using data from 2 million mobile phone users within London over the period of January 2019–December 2020, as well as the multi-wave data from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), we examined green space accessibility as a potential remedy for such an effect. We found that, after the COVID-19 outbreak and during lockdowns, individuals who live close to the green spaces (i.e., within 800 meters from the nearest green space) were more likely to pay visits to those spaces, and these individuals also experienced a much less mental distress than those who live farther away from green spaces. Our findings provide suggestive evidence that accessibility to green spaces is important to the population’s mental health, especially when their mobility is restricted. Enhancing green space accessibility for more residential neighbourhoods should thus be important to city planners and policymakers as they help citizens become more resilient to a similar future pandemic.