Oral Abstract Details

Author(s):
Andrew Adam-Bradford

Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, UK

Presentation Type:
Oral

Topic Area:
Urban forestry and urban agriculture

Abstract Text:
The main benefits from urban agriculture (UA) can be broadly grouped at two scales, firstly the micro-scale interventions leading to increased ‘food security’ and ‘income generation’ projects, and secondly the macro-scale impacts of ‘enhanced urban environments’. In regards to the micro-scale interventions aimed at food security measures, there is compelling evidence of the role UA plays either through direct consumption of fresh produce or though income generation from sales of such produce. Likewise the evidence regarding the health benefits from consuming fresh fruit and vegetables is persuasive and numerous studies have clearly demonstrated that major physical, psychological and social benefits are gained as a result of UA interventions. In fact, this body of research work is so extensive that the macro-scale impacts of ‘enhanced urban environments’ is often ignored or neglected in UA research work and likewise in generic urban planning and design, and that is despite the immense benefits such integrated strategies can bring to urban environmental management. Scaling up UA functions to reach, and then maximize, the macro-scale impacts of ‘enhanced urban environments’ requires effective integrated planning and design, which in return brings multiple advantages, such as improved urban sanitation, reduced disaster risk through better urban flood management and slope stabilization of steep hillsides, protection of fragile and vulnerable habitats including riverbanks and wetlands, and reductions in the urban heat island effect. In these cases, UA can be used as a land zoning and control tool (urban farmers being excellent land custodians once farming tenancy is secured), to counter dynamic pressures such as deforestation and settlement encroachment. The actual urban farming practices can then be designed to protect ecologically vulnerable sites from entropic processes such as rapid surface runoff, limited rainwater infiltration and soil erosion. In this paper, UA case studies from a range of cities including Accra, Ghana, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Hyderabad, India, are used to map out appropriate UA planning and design principles, to illustrate an innovative and integrated approach to urban environmental management with clear policy implications for urban adaptation and climate change strategies.