Análise comparativa do impacto da pandemia do COVID-19 na valoração de parques urbanos na cidade do Recife

Abstract

Urban parks are green areas to promote multiple Ecosystem Services (ES), contributing to the improvement of the physical and mental well-being of the inhabitants. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, many citizens were deprived of using these spaces. With this, in order to identify the impact caused by these restrictions on the perception of visitors, several scientific studies began to be developed, but in Recife this had not been investigated yet. Therefore, this work had as main objective to verify, in a comparative way between two periods (2018-2019 and 2020-2022), the COVID-19 pandemic impact in three urban parks in the city of Recife, inserted in different social contexts. Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and the Bivariate Probit statistical model with dichotomous questions, it was possible to calculate two estimates for each period in order to investigate the willingness to pay (WTP) of users about ES provided by these parks. The results showed that there was no significant variation in ES perception between the periods. As for the visitation frequency, majority decrease was observed, however, 10% of the sample stated that the frequency of visitation increased after the period of social isolation. Before the pandemic, 73% of respondents said they were “willing to pay” some amount for the conservation of the ES provided by the parks, while in the post-isolation sample, 58% said they accepted. It was observed that the format application of the questionnaires can influence the samples, since the online questionnaires have the bias of getting people with higher income and education. Therefore, it became evident that the face to-face method of application, as used before the pandemic period, makes it possible to reach park users from different social stratification, making the samples more equitable.