Building back better through urban blue and green space? A critical review of post-pandemic urban planning and climate governance

The implications of COVID-19 for urban planning and governance are wide ranging and have triggered a rethinking of how policies related to housing, transportation, sustainability, climate change and governance might be redeveloped to be better suited for post-pandemic cities. Over the past five years, both academic and popular accounts have highlighted commonalities between adaptations that cities are making to become more resilient to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19, while also addressing sustainable development and climate change indicators and goals. Much of this literature has suggested that a shift towards greater implementation of urban blue and green space – along with other interventions, such as encouraging compact city design, reducing sprawl and encouraging active transit modes – can contribute to healthier and socio-environmentally friendly cities, while also reducing carbon emissions and achieving urban climate goals. However, this article argues that there have been significant barriers faced in doing so that have hampered their effectiveness and implementation. These include the entrenched ideologies favouring ‘grey’ over ‘green’ infrastructure; political-economic and financial constraints; reactive forms of urban and climate governance; and what we call the temporal politics of urban climate governance vis-à-vis infectious disease responses. We suggest how these barriers can be potentially overcome through more engaged forms of grassroots planning and governance in cities which can implement more rapid and place-specific responses. Our review is largely based on scholarship that has emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fields of urban and environmental studies.