Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The urbanisation in the world today is at its highest pace so far in history. More than half of the
world’s population is already living in cities. In the developing countries the cities and mega
regions are expected to grow in the coming decades (United Nations, 2014). With the growing
metabolism of these mega regions in terms of food consumption, waste handling and
infrastructure solutions, the pressure grows on urban planners and politicians to adapt and
design the cities for the growing needs of its inhabitants (FAO, 2006). Instead of strictly
separating the agriculture and the city, a more desired path today is to incorporate some of the
cities food production within the city and its peri urban proximity. Small-scale ecological
agriculture or agroecology has shown to be one model that fits this criteria of urban agriculture,
in favour of large scale monoculture agriculture that is less compatible in an urbanized context.
This approach has shown to have many benefits mostly due to its multifunctional nature
(Gliessman, 2006). Urban vegetation and agriculture can be used for cleaning storm water,
handling heat island effects, serve as local meeting places and parks, add to the aesthetics of
neighbourhoods, produce food locally with no transportation needs and many more. The
positive effects of the urban agriculture approach for the city and its inhabitants have shown to
be found in many areas: economic, social as well as environmental. Especially for the urban
poor urban agriculture has proven to be beneficial. A challenge for UAs implementation as
green infrastructure for cities is to prove its long-term benefits in favour of other land uses that
have more market focused uses such as heavy industry.