Informing the design of urban green and blue spaces through an understanding of Europeans' usage and preferences

In light of global climate change and the biodiversity crisis, making cities more resilient through an adjusted design of urban green and blue spaces is crucial. Nature-based solutions help address these challenges while providing opportunities for nature experiences, and providing cultural ecosystem services that support public health. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated stressors highlighted the interrelated socio-ecological services provided by nature-based solutions like urban green and blue spaces. This pan-European study therefore aimed to enhance the socio-ecological understanding of green and blue spaces to support their design and management. Using an online survey, green and blue space preferences, usage, and pandemic-related changes in greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were examined. Greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were associated with respondents' (N = 584 from 15 countries) geographical location, dominant type of neighbourhood greenspace and greenspace availability during the pandemic, but not greenspace perceptions or sociodemographic background. Greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were generally high;however, Southern Europeans reported lower greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies both before and during the pandemic than Northern Europeans. Many Southern Europeans also reported having few neighbourhood greenspaces and low greenspace availability during the pandemic. The most common outdoor recreational activity among respondents before the pandemic was walking or running with the most frequently stated purpose of time spent outdoors being restorative in nature (i.e. relaxing or calming down). Most Europeans had positive perceptions of green and blue spaces with preferences for structurally diverse and natural or unmanaged green elements. This highlights the importance of accessible green and blue spaces both in everyday life and during times of crisis. Stakeholders, their preferences, and regional and cultural differences should be included in the co-design of urban green and blue spaces to maximize their potential for both people and nature. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

MIGRATION EFFECT ON THE COMPETITIVE GROWTH IN GERMANY AND THE UK

The article considers the impact of migration processes on the GDP per capita. Numerous studies examine the reasons for changes in the vector of migration policy and indicate various factors of migration influx rate. However, the most recent observations indicate an almost stagnant migration flow being affected by the COVID-19. As a result of the ongoing impacts, the requirements for the quality of human capital will be changed completely, and the volume of GDP will be decreased. As examples of two countries, Germany and Great Britain, having different migration policy approaches, authors analyze the importance of migration flows. Based on this fact, the authors suggest that migration processes can be one of the statistically significant factors affecting GDP per capita. It also can be used in the building of mathematical forecasting models. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) method is used to test the hypothesis. The linear regression is used to build models and show how factor influences the linear approximation. As a result, the hypothesis of the impact of the migration flows on GDP per capita was confirmed with the econometric models' support and their indicated explanatory abilities. Inflation and unemployment rates were considered as complement factors. The results of the models allow predicting migration policy based on migration quotas. (C) 2021 Published by European Publisher.