Sina microblog sentiment in Beijing city parks as measure of demand for urban green space during the COVID-19

• Published in: Urban forestry & urban greening 2021-03, Vol.58, p.126913, Article 126913
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jiyou, Xu, Chengyang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; green space; sentiment; Sina microblog; Urban
• ISSN: 1618-8667; 1610-8167
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126913

Urban green space is an important element of well-being. It is still, however, lacking of research on green space demand analyzing based on social platform data. This research uses social platform data to evaluate people's demand for urban green space under the background of the global COVID-19 pneumonia. Using the micro-blog database of geographical markers and keywords, this research quantified the sentiment expressed inside and outside the parks by means of manual interpretation of characters, pictures and expressions. It addresses the following problems: dose COVID-19 pneumonia reduced people’s demand for green space? Our results showed that despite the restriction of epidemic situation, people still have a great demand for external green space. Older people have less negative sentiment, while younger people (under 18 years) have more negative sentiment. There were significant differences in emotional scores between inside and outside the park. During the period of pneumonia in COVID-19, tourists in Beijing Park generated more positive microblogs inside the park. Landscape and plants are the main elements of people's expression of positive emotions. The emotional scores inside and outside the park are negatively correlated with the new confirmed cases, existing confirmed cases and new deaths.