Resilience of human-nature interaction network to pandemic conditions

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) contribute to maintaining and improving human well-being. Understanding the network of interactions involved in co-producing CES is essential for maximizing well-being. In this study, we used social media data to estimate a CES network and assess human-nature interactions underpinning CES co-production. We employed a replicable bottom-up approach, using 682,000 Reddit posts to define a comprehensive repertoire of nature features and human activities, and then sampled the co-occurrence of these features and activities reported in 41.7 million tweets from 2018 to 2022. We expected to observe large changes in the CES network topology in relation to mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead the CES network was resilient. However, there was an impulse on the link between self care activities and urban greenspace. This demonstrates that urban greenspaces facilitated local CES production and, thus, provided resilience for maintaining well-being during the pandemic. This study emphasizes the importance of promoting access to nature features that provide CES within local communities.