  More than half of the human population lives in cities meaning that most
people predominantly experience nature in urban greenspace. Nature exposure is
an important contributor to social, mental and physical health. As the world
faces a pandemic which threatens the physical and mental health of billions of
people, it is crucial to understand that all have the possibility to access
nature exposure to alleviate some of these challenges. Here, for the first
time, we integrate data from Facebook, Twitter, and Google Search users to show
that people looked for greenspace during COVID-19 mobility restrictions but may
not have always managed to reach it. People spent more time in areas with
greenspace when they could and that depended on the level of multiple
deprivation in the neighbourhood where the greenspace was embedded.
Importantly, while people sought greenspace throughout the first 20 months of
the pandemic, this preference intensified through the waves of lockdown. Living
in an affluent area conferred a greenspace advantage in London and Paris but we
find that in Berlin more deprived neighbourhoods sought greenspace more,
including outside their neighbourhood. This highlights the need to understand
how greenspace access and deprivation interact to create more sustainable
communities.
