Multi-seasonal assessment of human wellbeing, social resilience, and ecosystems in NYC during and after the Covid-19 pandemic

DESCRIPTION: Urban ecosystems provide a range of services, including cultural ecosystem services like human wellbeing and social resilience. In this project we seek to understand how people and ecosystems co-produce wellbeing and social resilience in NYC Parks, beginning during the Covid-19 socioecological disturbance and extending through four distinct seasons. We will rely on on-the ground surveys, interviews, observations, and existing datasets to assess wellbeing, social resilience, and ecosystem health. We will use these data to identify the social and natural components of parks contributing to and/or hindering the co-production of these services with respect to park users’ socio-demographic characteristics and seasonal use. Results from this study will provide preliminary data and proof-of-concept for a larger study that will assess the ecosystem components contributing to and/or hindering the co-production of individual wellbeing and social resilience on a larger, cross-sectional sample of parks and will include comparisons among parks across different cities. Results will also support data-based recommendations for supporting and/or increasing contributions of parks to individual wellbeing and social resilience during this and future urban crises.