Urban Agriculture Case Studies
Urban Agriculture of the Future: An overview of sustainability aspects of food production in and on buildings
Kathrin Specht & Rosemarie Siebert, Agriculture and Human Values Journal
Innovative forms of green urban architectureaim to combine food, production, and design to producefood on a larger scale in and on buildings in urban areas. Itincludes rooftop gardens, rooftop greenhouses, indoorfarms, and other building-related forms (defined as‘‘ZFarming’’). This study uses the framework of sustain-ability to understand the role of ZFarming in future urbanfood production and to review the major benefits andlimitations.
Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Cities
Tjeerd Deelstra and Herbert Girardet, Thematic Paper
The authors introduce the concept of the urban ecological footprint to illustrate how cities, through their vast consumption of resources and waste generation, extend their influence far beyond their physical boundaries. They argue that traditional urban models, which rely heavily on importing resources from distant areas and externalizing waste, are unsustainable in the long term. Urban agriculture is proposed as a viable solution to mitigate these challenges. By integrating food production within city landscapes, urban agriculture can reduce the ecological footprint of cities, promote local food security, recycle urban waste into productive resources, and enhance the overall sustainability of urban environments.
Promoting Urban Agriculture and Its Opportunities and Challenges—A Global Review
Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona, MDPI Sustainbility Journal
The review study mainly examined the contribution of academic literature on urban agriculture under four dimensions: the socio-economic context of the country, type of agriculture model, opportunities, and challenges. The results revealed the focus of academic literature on urban agriculture to show favoritism toward developed countries’ community gardens. Moreover, the leading academic focus on this discipline identifies multifunctionality.
Sustainable Urban Agriculture in Developing Countries: A review
Hubert De Bon, Agronomy for Sustainable Development Journal
The population living in cities is continuously increasing worldwide. In developing countries, this phenomenon is exacerbated by poverty, leading to tremendous problems of employment, immigration from the rural areas, transportation, food supply and environment protection. Simultaneously with the growth of cities, a new type of agriculture has emerged; namely, urban agriculture. Here, the main functions of urban agriculture are described: its social roles, the economic functions as part of its multi-functionality, the constraints, and the risks for human consumption and the living environment.