Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

https://territorirurali.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/periurbano_zasada.pdf

Multifunctional peri-urban agriculture—A review of societal demands and the provision of goods and services by farming

Food security is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the Global North, especially in urban areas. Because such areas do not always have good access to nutritionally adequate food, the question of how to supply them is an urgent priority in order to maintain a healthy population. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as sources of local fresh food, could play an important role. Whereas some scholars do not differentiate between peri-urban and urban agriculture, seeing them as a single entity, our hypothesis is that they are distinct, and that this has important consequences for food security and other issues. This has knock-on effects for food system planning and has not yet been appropriately analysed. The objectives of this study are to provide a systematic understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North, showing their similarities and differences, and to analyse their impact on urban food security. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification and comparison of their spatial, ecological and socio-economic characteristics. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact on food security in relation to the four levels of the food system: food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The results show that urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North indeed differ in most of their characteristics and consequently also in their ability to meet the food needs of urban inhabitants. While urban agriculture still meets food needs mainly at the household level, peri-urban agriculture can provide larger quantities and has broader distribution pathways, giving it a separate status in terms of food security. Nevertheless, both possess (unused) potential, making them valuable for urban food planning, and both face similar threats regarding urbanisation pressures, necessitating adequate planning measures.

/pdf/contributing-to-food-security-in-urban-areas-differences-43ff13e64x.pdf

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

Professional urban agriculture and its characteristic business models in Metropolis Ruhr, Germany


 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.

/pdf/urban-agriculture-as-a-keystone-contribution-towards-a5d30zkgz3.pdf

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

Urban Agriculture Europe

The aquaponic principle is the coupling of animal aquaculture (e.g. fish) with plant production (e.g. vegetables) for saving resources. At present, various definitions of aquaponics exist, some bearing the risk of misinterpretation by dismissing the original meaning or being contradictory. In addition, there is no standard terminology for the aspects of coupling between the aquaponic subsystems. In this study, we addressed both issues. (1) We developed new or revised definitions that are summarised by: Aquaponic farming comprises aquaponics (which couples tank-based animal aquaculture with hydroponics) and trans-aquaponics, which extends aquaponics to tankless aquaculture as well as non-hydroponics plant cultivation methods. Within our conceptual system, the term aquaponics corresponds to the definitions of FAO and EU. (2) A system analysis approach was utilised to explore different aquaponic setups aiming to better describe the way aquaponic subsystems are connected. We introduced the new terms ‘coupling type’ and ‘coupling degree’, where the former qualitatively characterises the water-mediated connections of aquaponic subsystems. A system with on-demand nutrient water supply for the independent operating plant cultivation is an ‘on-demand coupled system’ and we propose to deprecate the counterintuitive term ‘decoupled system’ for this coupling type. The coupling degree comprises a set of parameters to quantitatively determine the coupling's efficiency of internal streams, for example, water and nutrients. This new framework forms a basis for improved communication, provides a uniform metric for comparing aquaponic facilities, and offers criteria for facility optimisation. In future system descriptions, it will simplify evaluation of the coupling's contribution to sustainability of aquaponics.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/raq.12596

The aquaponic principle—It is all about coupling

From Urban Food gardening to Urban Farming

. A circular city builds upon the principles of circular economy, which key
concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover lead to a coupling of
resources: products and by-products of one production process become the
input of another one, often in local vicinity. However, sources, types and
available quantities of underutilised resources in cities are currently not
well documented. Therefore, there is a missing link in the information flow
of the circular city between potential users and site-specific data. To
close this gap, this study introduces the concept of a site resource
inventory in conjunction with a new information model that can manage the
data needed for advancing the circular city. A core taxonomy of terms is
established as the foundation for the information model: the circular
economy is defined as a network of circular economy entities which are
regarded as black boxes and connected by their material and energy inputs
and outputs. This study proposes a site resource inventory, which is a
collection of infrastructural and building-specific parameters that assess
the suitability of urban sites for a specific circular economy entity. An
information model is developed to manage the data that allows the entities
to effectively organise the allocation and use of resources within the
circular city and its material and energy flows. The application of this
information model was demonstrated by comparing the demand and availability
of required alternative resources (e.g. greywater) at a hypothetical site
comprising a commercial aquaponic facility (synergistic coupling of fish and
vegetables production) and a residential building. For the implementation of
the information model a proposal is made which uses the publicly available
geodata infrastructure of OpenStreetMap and adopts its tag system to
operationalise the integration of circular economy data by introducing new
tags. A site resource inventory has the potential to bring together
information needs and it is thus intended to support companies when making
their business location decisions or to support local authorities in the
planning process.

/pdf/site-resource-inventories-a-missing-link-in-the-circular-5c45vmbdmz.pdf

Frank Lohrberg

Papers

Urban Agriculture Europe

The aquaponic principle—It is all about coupling

From Urban Food gardening to Urban Farming

Site Resource Inventories – a Missing Link in the Circular City's Information Flow

Urbane Agrikultur - Neue Formen der Primärproduktion in der Stadt.