Biotic systems as a critical urban infrastructure during crisis: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic

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ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the way urban resilience and wellbeing are viewed. The duration of the pandemic is currently unknown, but it could potentially be less challenging to address than future crises driven by climate change. This commentary uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to determine how cities might provide a good quality of life during times of crisis. It explores how cities could be changed to maintain comfort and wellbeing during hard times, through the integration of biotic systems – i.e. green infrastructure that can be smelled, touched, and heard – at varying scales throughout cities.

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© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• green Infrastructure
• urban design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Andrew Jenkins

Dr. Andrew Jenkins is a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast with a passion for urban agriculture, sustainable architecture, urban health and wellbeing and circular economies. He was the lead technical designer of an innovative multi-level building-integrated aquaponic urban farm in the UK and his current research focuses on urban green infrastructures and the co-creation of future zero-carbon communities. He searches for holistic solutions to the growing number of challenges that face cities as a result of climate change, inefficient resource use, linear economies and growing populations. Typically, this manifests as carefully considered human-centric design solutions.