TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 and campus users
T2 - A longitudinal and place-based study of university mobilities in Texas
AU - Song, Yang
AU - Lee, Chanam
AU - Tao, Zhihan
AU - Lee, Ryun Jung
AU - Newman, Galen
AU - Ding, Yizhen
AU - Jessica, Fernandez
AU - Sohn, Wonmin
N1 - The authors thank SafeGraph Inc. (www.safegraph.com) for providing access to Texas POI data, including Core Places, Geometry, and Patterns tables, for this research.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's daily routines, including travel behaviors, social interactions, and work-related activities. However, the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the use of campus locations in higher education such as libraries, food courts, sports facilities, and other destinations are still unknown. Focusing on three largest universities in Texas (Texas A&M university, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas Tech University), this study compares changes in campus destination visitations between pre and post COVID-19 outbreak (2019 Fall and 2021 Fall semesters, respectively) using the mobility data from SafeGraph. It also examines the potential moderation effects of walkable distance (i.e. 1 km) and greenery (i.e. NDVI value). The results presented the significant effects of COVID-19 on decreasing visitations to various campus places. The visitation decreased more significantly for people living within 1 km (defined as a walkable distance) of campus and for the food, eating, and drinking places and the sports, recreation, and sightseeing places. This finding suggests that those living near campus (mostly students) decreased their reliance on campus destinations, especially for eating/drinking and recreation purposes. The level of greeneries at/around campus destinations did not moderate campus visitations after COVID-19. Policy implications on campus health and urban planning were discussed.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's daily routines, including travel behaviors, social interactions, and work-related activities. However, the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the use of campus locations in higher education such as libraries, food courts, sports facilities, and other destinations are still unknown. Focusing on three largest universities in Texas (Texas A&M university, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas Tech University), this study compares changes in campus destination visitations between pre and post COVID-19 outbreak (2019 Fall and 2021 Fall semesters, respectively) using the mobility data from SafeGraph. It also examines the potential moderation effects of walkable distance (i.e. 1 km) and greenery (i.e. NDVI value). The results presented the significant effects of COVID-19 on decreasing visitations to various campus places. The visitation decreased more significantly for people living within 1 km (defined as a walkable distance) of campus and for the food, eating, and drinking places and the sports, recreation, and sightseeing places. This finding suggests that those living near campus (mostly students) decreased their reliance on campus destinations, especially for eating/drinking and recreation purposes. The level of greeneries at/around campus destinations did not moderate campus visitations after COVID-19. Policy implications on campus health and urban planning were discussed.
KW - Big data
KW - Campus health
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - Higher education
KW - Place mobility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161283426&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85161283426&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2023.104656
DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2023.104656
M3 - Article
C2 - 37287765
AN - SCOPUS:85161283426
SN - 2210-6707
VL - 96
JO - Sustainable Cities and Society
JF - Sustainable Cities and Society
M1 - 104656
ER -