Urban agriculture as a keystone contribution towards securing sustainable and healthy development for cities in the future

Abstract Research and practice during the last 20 years has shown that urban agriculture can contribute to minimising the effects of climate change by, at the same time, improving quality of life in urban areas. In order to do so most effectively, land use and spatial planning are crucial so as to obtain and maintain a supportive green infrastructure and to secure citizens' healthy living conditions. As people today trend more towards living in green and sustainable city centres that can offer fresh and locally produced food, cities become again places for growing food. The scope of urban agriculture thereby is to establish food production sites within the city's sphere; for example, through building-integrated agriculture including concepts such as aquaponics, indoor agriculture, vertical farming, rooftop production, edible walls, as well as through urban farms, edible landscapes, school gardens and community gardens. Embedded in changing urban food systems, the contribution of urban agriculture to creating sustainable and climate-friendly cities is pivotal as it has the capacity to integrate other resource streams such as water, waste and energy. This article describes some of the current aspects of the circular city debate where urban agriculture is pushing forward the development of material and resource cycling in cities.

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Towards sustainable urban food systems: Analyzing contextual and intrapsychic drivers of growing food in small-scale urban agriculture

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0243949 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (12) ◽

pp. e0243949

Author(s):

Mohammed Hussen Alemu ◽

Carola Grebitus

Keyword(s):

Urban Agriculture ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Food Systems ◽

Latent Class ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Community Gardens ◽

Small Scale ◽

Community Gardening ◽

Positive Health ◽

Factors Affecting

Small-scale urban agriculture is associated with positive health and environmental outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that drive people to grow foods in urban areas mainly drawing on qualitative data. This research investigates quantitatively what determines consumer preferences for growing foods in community gardens, informing efforts to upscale urban agriculture. We conducted choice experiments in North America and performed latent class analysis of contextual and intrapsychic factors affecting consumers’ preferences for growing foods in cities. Results show that providing tools and guidance are the most important contextual factors affecting community garden participation. The preferences of proponents of growing foods are explained by their high subjective knowledge about growing foods and reasons tied to the benefits of participating in community gardening. Opponents of growing foods at community gardens are characterized by low knowledge. The findings can be used to design policies that promote sustainable food systems in urban areas.

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Dynamic evaluation of small urban green areas at local level using GEOBIA

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10374 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ana-Maria Popa ◽

Diana Andreea Onose ◽

Ionut Cosmin Sandric ◽

Simona Raluca Gradinaru ◽

Athanasios Alexandru Gavrilidis

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Local Level ◽

Consumption Pattern ◽

Urbanization Process ◽

Dynamic Evaluation ◽

Urban Green ◽

Urban Green Areas ◽

Green Areas

<p>Urban green infrastructure has various benefits known as ecosystem services such as regulating, cultural, provisioning and supporting services. Among the provided benefits there are decrease of air temperature, increasing humidity and mitigating urban heat island as regulating services; human-nature relations as cultural services; improving air quality, carbon sequestration as provisioning services and photosynthesis, nutrient and water cycling as supporting services. The high intensity of the urbanization process across the last decades coupled with weak legislative frameworks resulted both in large areas affected by urban sprawl and densification of the existing urban fabric. Both phenomenon generated loss in open spaces, especially green areas. In the context of the sustainable urbanization promoted by HABITAT Agenda, the knowledge related with the distribution, size and quality of urban green areas represents a priority. The study aim is to identify small urban green areas at local level at different time moments for a dynamic evaluation. We focused on small urban green areas since they are scarcely analysed even if their importance for the urban quality of life Is continuously increasing given the urbanization process. We used satellite imagery acquired by Planet Satellite Constellations, with a spatial resolution of 3.7 m and daily coverage, for extracting green areas. The images were processed using Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) techniques implemented in Esri ArcGIS Pro. The spatial analysis we performed generated information about distribution, surfaces, quality (based on NDVI) and dynamic of small urban green areas. The results are connected with the local level development of the urban areas we analysed, but also with the population consumption pattern for leisure services, housing, transport or other public utilities. The analysis can represent a complementary method for extracting green areas at urban level and can support the data collection for calculating urban sustainability indicators.</p>

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Exploring urban agriculture as a component of multifunctional green infrastructure: Application of figure-ground plans as a spatial analysis tool

Moravian Geographical Reports ◽

10.1515/mgr-2017-0018 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 208-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Attila Tóth ◽

Axel Timpe

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Spatial Analysis ◽

Urban Agriculture ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Arable Land ◽

Fruit Trees ◽

Analysis Tool ◽

Open Spaces ◽

Metropolitan Regions

Abstract Using ‘Urban Atlas’ as a data source, the authors present and critically discuss in this paper the application of figure-ground plans in combination with complex land-use maps as a tool for spatial analysis of urban agriculture in European cities and their multifunctional green infrastructure. The selected cities and metropolitan areas (including Dublin, Ruhr Metropolis, Geneva and Sofia) represent different regions in Europe from the Northwest to the Southeast. Urban fabric, agriculture and non-agricultural open spaces have been analysed and compared as the main land-use components. Agricultural open spaces include arable land with annual crops and permanent crops, such as vineyards, fruit trees and olive groves; pastures; as well as complex and mixed cultivation patterns. The results reveal the scale and land-use diversity of metropolitan regions and different spatial patterns of urban agriculture at the regional level and in central urban areas.

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TOWARDS GREEN RESILIENT CITIES IN EASTERN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis ◽

10.37043/jura.2020.12.1.4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alexandru BĂNICĂ ◽

Marinela ISTRATE ◽

Ionel MUNTELE

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Local Economy ◽

Eastern European ◽

Statistical Relationship ◽

Environment Agency ◽

And Performance ◽

Green Cities

Investing in green facilities is a process of urban renewal that can transform cities by enhancing the quality of life, strengthening the local economy and reducing environmental impact. Nevertheless, greener cities are not a guarantee for improved adaptive capacity when facing current local or global challenges. In this context, we have taken into account a series of sample cities from Central and Eastern European Union. Using the green cities typology proposed by the European Environment Agency, the present approach studies the statistical relationship between indicators of green infrastructure and different proxies for the resilience capacity and performance. The results distinguish between different types of green cities, indicating which are more resilient and, respectively, which are less resilient. The statistical relationship between the indicators shows that green infrastructures are developed in new urban areas, while the natural areas diminish the flood risk and air pollution and make cities more attractive; however, in older and higher density cities, the green is sacrificed for other uses that are considered more profitable. The conclusions highlight the contradictory characteristics in the territorial distributions of cities in relation to their green infrastructure and resilience features. The present assessment contributes to promoting an integrated vision that could be used in urban planning and in more coherent strategies for sustainable cities.

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SEEDING THE CITY: HISTORY AND CURRENT AFFAIRS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE

Ambiente & sociedade ◽

10.1590/1809-4422asoc20180075r1vu2020l1ao ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

Author(s):

CARINA JÚLIA PENSA CORRÊA ◽

KELLY CRISTINA TONELLO ◽

ERNEST NNADI ◽

ALEXANDRA GUIDELLI ROSA

Keyword(s):

Urban Agriculture ◽

Community Gardens ◽

Well Being ◽

Main Theme ◽

Current Affairs ◽

City History ◽

Pollution Impacts ◽

The City ◽

Very High

Abstract Urban agriculture has its history tied to the development of civilizations. Aiming to identify the benefits generated by the practice and its motivations, a literature review and later analysis of articles describing current experiences, management characteristics and organization aspects was carried out. In countries with a very high HDI, community gardens and the well-being of the population are prominent themes. Countries with high HDI focus on soil contamination and mitigation of pollution impacts, as countries with an average HDI has as main theme the sustainability of the practice. Finally, low HDI countries discuss their importance for food security. Regardless of the objectives that motivate urban agriculture and research in the area, is evidenced its contribution to the environmental, social and economic quality of cities.

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The Usage and Perception of Pedestrian and Cycling Streets on Residents’ Well-being in Kalamaria, Greece

Land ◽

10.3390/land7030100 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 100 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Thomas Panagopoulos ◽

Stilianos Tampakis ◽

Paraskevi Karanikola ◽

Aikaterini Karipidou-Kanari ◽

Apostolos Kantartzis

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Social Space ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Well Being ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Planning Framework ◽

Satisfaction Rates ◽

Health And Well Being

Pedestrian zones are public spaces intended for the continued and safe mobility of pedestrians and people with disabilities, and they provide multiple benefits to urban areas. They counterbalance the densely built-up areas, decrease atmospheric pollution, increase available green or social space, increase walking and cycling rates, and facilitate active play for children. Done properly, pedestrianization may also increase local business sales. Greece boasts open public spaces and the pedestrianization of common roads. The economic crisis that Greece has been experiencing since 2008 has led people to give up their vehicles and use the pedestrian streets more frequently. The purpose of this paper was to investigate residents’ perceptions and satisfaction rates concerning the pedestrian streets of Kalamaria, Greece, and evaluate their importance for residents’ well-being. Following a random sampling method, 400 residents were interviewed. A two-step cluster analysis was conducted. The survey showed that the urban residents visited pedestrian zones in Kalamaria at least once a week, and the visits lasted 46–60 min. The improvement of urban landscape aesthetics and people’s health and well-being were evaluated as important functions of pedestrian zones. The results also indicate that residents were not satisfied with their quality of life and the existing green infrastructures of the pedestrian streets, even though they have a positive disposition toward the construction or transformation of pedestrian streets. The residents expressed their unwillingness to pay more public taxes for the construction and maintenance of pedestrian and cycling streets. The safety and convenience of the mobility of residents were the most important advantages of the pedestrian streets. Meanwhile, overspill parking and difficulties with finding parking spaces were the main disadvantages for the residents. Local authorities can use the results of the present survey to manage the city’s green infrastructure and use this information in the urban planning framework.

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Evaluating urban agriculture program effectiveness using CIPP model: a review

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202130603007 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 306 ◽

pp. 03007

Author(s):

Munifah Siti Amira Yusuf ◽

Norsida Man ◽

Nur Bahiah Mohamed Haris ◽

Ismi Arif Ismail ◽

Amar Maruf

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Urban Agriculture ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Program Effectiveness ◽

Evaluation Model ◽

Community Gardens ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Related Services ◽

Slow Development ◽

Food Security And Nutrition

The art of planting, preparing, and distributing food around urban areas is known as urban agriculture, farming, or gardening. Individuals and organizations generally work in urban agriculture for general purposes: 1) enhancing their own health and economic circumstances; 2) improving their communities’ access to nutritious food; 3) enhancing their community wellbeing; and 4) developing a community and ecosystem. The Urban Agriculture Program (UAP) has been set up by the Department of Agriculture (DOA) Malaysia since 2014 to facilitate and transfer information regarding urban farming practices to the community. However, the program was less effective and had a low success rate due to the local community's minimal participation, slow development, and sustainability of the agriculture community gardens. This article primarily examines the UAP implementation based on the four components of the CIPP Evaluation Model: Context, Input, Process, and Product. The UAP is a sustainable development tool that can provide food or related services within or on the edges of urban areas. Malaysia addresses food security by providing urban dwellers with adequate nutritious, safe, acceptable, and cost-effective food. Therefore, the study is relevant as achieving food security and nutrition that has been set in the urban agriculture program outcome by 2025.

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Rethinking urban areas: an example of an integrated blue-green approach

Water Science & Technology Water Supply ◽

10.2166/ws.2013.140 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1534-1542 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

E. Rozos ◽

C. Makropoulos ◽

Č. Maksimović

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Green Roofs ◽

Urban Ecosystem ◽

Water Supply Systems ◽

Urban Water ◽

Green Approach ◽

Green Areas

The provision of high quality urban water services, the assets of which are often conceptualised as ‘blue infrastructure’, is essential for public health and quality of life in the cities. On the other hand, parks, recreation grounds, gardens, green roofs and in general ‘green infrastructure’, provide a range of (urban) ecosystem services (including quality of life and aesthetics) and could also be thought of as inter alia contributors to the mitigation of floods, droughts, noise, air pollution and urban heat island (UHI) effects, improvement of biodiversity, amenity values and human health. Currently, these ‘blue’ and ‘green’ assets/infrastructure are planned to operate as two separate systems despite the obvious interactions between them (for example, low runoff coefficient of green areas resulting in reduction of stormwater flows, and irrigation of green areas by potable water in increasing pressure on water supply systems). This study explores the prospects of a more integrated ‘blue-green’ approach – tested at the scale of a household. Specifically, UWOT (the Urban Water Optioneering Tool) was extended and used to assess the potential benefits of a scheme that employed locally treated greywater along with harvested rainwater for irrigating a green roof. The results of the simulations indicated that the blue-green approach combined the benefits of both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ technologies/services and at the same time minimised the disadvantages of each when installed separately.

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i-Sustainability Plus Theory as an Innovative Path towards Sustainable World Founded on Blue-Green Ubiquitous Cities (Case Studies: Denmark and South Korea)

Inventions ◽

10.3390/inventions5020014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 14 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hamid Doost Mohammadian ◽

Fatemeh Rezaie

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Innovation Management ◽

Human Life ◽

Urban Life ◽

Modern World ◽

Technology Infrastructure ◽

The World

Nowadays, the new concept of urban living is required as a path to struggle with urbanization challenges in order to maintain the world and make cities better settings for living through creating high quality of life and liveability. To achieve such areas, developing sustainability, urban planning based on Information Technology, Information Communication Technology infrastructure, and innovative management play important roles. So, authors try to find out new concepts of urban life concerned with these indicators through sustainability, innovation, ubiquitous, and smartness to create a sustainable and modern world through smart cities. Based on authors’ researches, Blue-Green infrastructure based on environmentally friendly, green strategies, sustainable water management, and ubiquitous services focusing on digitalization and high technologies are required to make a modern world. Fundamentally, innovation management in technology, business and marketing has important roles in designing such areas by keeping up with growing demands and low resources of energies. In this research, i-Sustainability Plus is introduced as a theory to create Blue-Green Ubiquitous cities as modern sustainable and liveable urban areas. Such areas could make the world a better place for living through sustainable development and improving quality of human life.

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Importance, Utilization and Health of Urban Forests: A Review

Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca ◽

10.15835/nbha47111316 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 10-16

Author(s):

Alexandra D. SOLOMOU ◽

Eleni T. TOPALIDOU ◽

Rafaelia GERMANI ◽

Apostolia ARGIRI ◽

George KARETSOS

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Literature Review ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Urban Forest ◽

Urban Forests ◽

Visual Image ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Academic Resources

Urbanization and development of cities are rapidly increasing across the world and urban forests constitute important tools that maintain the basic environmental and ecological functions of cities on which plant, animal and human existence depend. This paper presents a literature review on importance, utilization and health of urban forests that are important in providing ecosystem services for the sustainability of cities. Analysis of the literature from the main academic resources databases indicates that urban forest is a dynamic system which includes trees, shrubs, green space, soil and water that supports them. Urban forests provide many functions, services and benefits which are needed for the sustainable development of urban areas. In addition, health and appearance of trees’ composition are the most important factors in determining a city’s visual image and quality of life. Thus, urban forests are an important component of an ecosystem in any community development. Furthermore, management of urban forests can increase their potentials and therefore their functions, services and benefits. Green infrastructure and ecosystem services are the most efficient tools that cities can utilise to remain healthy, robust and liveable. Hence, the planners, architects, engineers, foresters, agriculturists and all those involved in decision making should be utilized the present literature review and incorporate the concept of urban forest in their plans and programs so as to achieve the sustainability of cities.

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