Increasing City Resilience through Urban Agriculture: Challenges and Solutions in the Global North

Abstract

Cities, which now host the majority of the global population, are vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic disturbances, which are likely to increase in number and severity in the near future. Urban agriculture (UA) could help increase the resilience of cities to a range of pressures and acute shocks by improving food security and public health, building social capital, and promoting circular economies. However, comprehensive assessments of its potential are still lacking. Here, we use a systematic review of the literature on UA in the global North to identify factors that determine its success in providing resilience benefits, explore challenges that can limit this, and develop a conceptual model to highlight the ways in which it could be enhanced through research, policy, and practice. We define the success of UA in increasing city resilience as determined by five factors, which in turn depend on the amount of institutional and public support for UA, the presence of a sufficient knowledge base, communication and collaboration among different actors, and resourcefulness in finding alternative ways to use space and other resources efficiently. We close with a discussion of specific directions for research and practice based on the conceptual model developed here.

Scoping Out Elements of Sociocultural Adaptation in European Urban Agriculture

“…Understanding this complex of sociocultural adaptation (SCA) is already a repeated and general theme in the literature on UA and socio-ecological resilience (Zimmerer et al, 2021). Two recent literature review studies, namely Topal et al (2021) and Gulyas and Edmondson (2021), may suit as examples of this "new" avenue of UA research. Whereas, the first contribution represents an example of a review mapping socio-psychological perspectives on understandings and behavior of urban sustainability, the second contribution systematically reviews the literature on UA in the global north and its impact on city resilience through UA.…”

Singapore vs. the ‘Singapore of Africa’—Different Approaches to Managing Urban Agriculture

“…The use of the term, most common in media discourse [1][2][3][4][5], results from the rapid economic growth and ease of doing business as well as the introduction of modern urban policies similar to those implemented in Singapore. As urban agriculture constitutes an important element of Kigali's urban tissue, it becomes valid to compare the follower and the precursor also in this aspect of urban life, which is more frequently discussed with regard to sustainable and smart development as well as urban resilience (see, for instance, [6][7][8][9][10][11]). The examples analyzed allow an assessment of the future prospects for urban agriculture in different economies, and different sociocultural and political contexts.…”

Why Home Gardens Fail in Enhancing Food Security and Dietary Diversity

“…The increase in severity and frequency of natural disasters coupled with the recent global scale COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated fragile food systems worldwide (O'Hara and Toussaint, 2021;Ruszczyk et al, 2021). The fragility of food systems, through dependence of cities on global resources, point strongly to the fact that cities are not as resilient as they ought to be (Gulyas and Edmondson, 2021). Many new urban residents end up living in peri-urban areas (Baud, 2000) often characterized by informal settlements or "slums" (Smit et al, 2017) which are described as spatial clusters of food insecure (Hunter-Adams et al, 2019) households without access to improved water, sanitation, sufficient living area, permanent dwellings or land tenure ( UN-Habitat, 2010).…”

“…Urban agriculture can provide many benefits or ecosystem services, such as habitat for biodiversity (Lin and Egerer, 2018), mitigation of food security (Aerts et al, 2016), contribution to human nutrition (Boeing et al, 2012), alleviation of poverty (Adeyemo et al, 2017) and improvement of human wellbeing (Othman et al, 2018). Its potential role in enhancing urban resilience is also acknowledged (Gulyas and Edmondson, 2021). Historically gardens have provided resilient food and nutrition security for garden owners during times of economic crisis and food shortages (Barthel et al, 2015;Warren et al, 2015).…”

“…Warren et al (2015) found that there is substantial debate about the association between urban agriculture and food security and dietary diversity. In assessing the potential of urban agriculture for improving city resilience in the Global North, Gulyas and Edmondson (2021) proposed five factors which determine the success of urban agriculture practices namely: "its scale, the extent to which it is integrated into the urban fabric, its inclusiveness, the efficiency of food production, and human and environmental safety of practices." They go further to state that "these factors in turn depend on the amount of institutional and public support for urban agriculture, the presence of a sufficient knowledge base to guide policy and practice, communication and collaboration among different actors, and resourcefulness in finding alternative ways to use space and other resources efficiently.…”