Colouring the Urban Canopy Green – Integrating Urban Agriculture into Future City Infrastructure

The topic of Urban Agriculture (UA) has increased in interest globally throughout the years both through public perception and market share value, assuming many forms within the urban canopy depending on the context it is applied in. UA can assume the form of community or rooftop gardens, edible landscapes, urban forests and vertical farming systems (VFS). The many forms in which UA can be applied within current and future urban infrastructure speaks volumes to its flexibility and up-scalability; UA provides the potential of improving food security by phasing out long and inefficient food supply chains by providing a localized means of crop production, as well as a higher degree of control over crop production methods which require less water, fertilizer and pesticide usage (albeit at the cost of higher energy usage) compared to open field farming methods [1]. VFS in particular is a cutting-edge form of UA that when implemented properly might see a reduction in water and fertilizer usage of more than 90% due to its closed-system nature [2].

Interest in UA surged in the midst and wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 when global agricultural food supply chains were compromised, exposing huge vulnerabilities in the realm of food security and supply chain resilience. Despite this spike in interest, however, the adoption of new and upscaling of existing UA infrastructure has been slow due to a lack of consumer interest from the public as well as preferential land-use for more economically profitable infrastructure like housing and tourism [3]. Additionally, staple crops like wheat and potatoes are also currently economically unviable within most UA systems [1], another quashing factor within the upscaling of UA systems; viable crops such as greens and herbs grown within UA infrastructure are also associated with higher socio-economic consumption patterns, which also play a factor in constituting the relevant consumer base. These factors currently pose the biggest hurdles in the upscaling of UA systems both from a policy and urban planning perspective.

Conversely, the trade-off of upscaling UA can be reduced by many methods. Other than technological advances in the energy and mechanical sectors improving the efficiency of UA systems, [4] proposes a framework of mixed land-use where UA is intentionally integrated into urban planning projects in a multi-functional manner that is both economically and environmentally beneficial.

References

1. Specht, K., Siebert, R., Hartmann, I. _et al._ Urban agriculture of the future: an overview of sustainability aspects of food production in and on buildings. _Agric Hum Values_ **31**, 33–51 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9448-4
2. Van Delden, S.H., SharathKumar, M., Butturini, M. _et al._ Current status and future challenges in implementing and upscaling vertical farming systems. _Nat Food_ 2, 944–956 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00402-
3. Johannes Langemeyer, Cristina Madrid-Lopez, Angelica Mendoza Beltran, Gara Villalba Mendez, Urban agriculture — A necessary pathway towards urban resilience and global sustainability? Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 210, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104055.
4. Lovell ST. Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States. Sustainability. 2010; 2(8):2499-2522. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2082499