Influences on the Implementation of Community Urban Agriculture: Insights from Agricultural Professionals

Abstract

Limited studies have investigated the relative influence of both external and internal factors in the implementation of community-based urban agriculture (UA) (ICUA). Furthermore, little research exists explaining how different mechanisms might influence urban residents’ decision to participate in UA. Our research tested the direct effect of several predictors on ICUA using structural equational modelling. In addition, we tested the mediation effect between the predictors and the ICUA that may exist as well. Results are based on data from 200 agricultural professionals in the Zanjan province in northwest Iran. We found that “personal characteristics”, “UA positive and negative consequences”, “sociocultural”, and “economic” factors affect ICUA. Among all factors, “personal characteristics” had the strongest direct effect on ICUA. The indirect model incorporating “attitude” provided support for the mediation model. We found “personal characteristics”, “UA positive and negative consequences”, and “sociocultural” influenced ICUA indirectly through “attitude.” Among all factors, “sociocultural” had the strongest indirect effect on ICUA. This information is of use to policy-makers and program planners in identifying points of policy interventions and mechanisms for promoting UA.

Constructal Macroscale Thermodynamic Model of Spherical Urban Greenhouse Form with Double Thermal Envelope within Heat Currents

“…It is true that GI is currently emerging by becoming an interesting tool for cost-effective urban sustainability [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and for this reason it is seen in the framework of the present paper as a main point of this case study in terms of innovative architectural programmatic regeneration and applied thermal engineering investigation. Additionally, as it results from Taylor Lovell's research [20] it is argued that the contemporary Occidental world employs urban agriculture as a new boundary for land use planning, architectural, and landscape design in order to follow "a sustainable urban development and transformation of the cityscape supporting community farms, allotment gardens, rooftop gardening, edible landscaping, urban forests, and other productive features of the urban environment" [20].…”

“…Nevertheless, the thermodynamic potential of indoor urban agriculture is not explicitly studied. Besides, in recent years as a response to the immediate need of urban renovation in order to face the multifaceted climate crisis, green infrastructure (GI) in the form of urban agriculture has been increasingly recognized by all the actors that participate in the creation and regeneration of the urban fabric (stakeholders, municipalities, politicians, architects, engineers) as an essential concept targeting the livability of cities [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Taylor Lovell [20] also states in her paper that urban agriculture has "historically been an important element of cities in many developing countries; nevertheless recent concerns about economic and food security have resulted in a growing movement to produce food in cities of developed countries including the United States".…”

“…As long as the contemporary dead-end on this complex subject-cited by many researchers [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]-persists, the need of developing novel and original methodologies in order to overcome this lack of innovative ideas increases. The ad hoc segregation of different disciplines that study the same problem from distinct points of view actually happens due to the lack of the adoption of a unifying principle that demystifies our comprehension of the evolution of the universe.…”

“…As a consequence, a variety of economic-environmental multifaceted reforms are applied in an international level so as to "experiment with urban and peri-urban economic bases which make the city the center of transition towards a 'low carbon' economy" [1]. Since the early 1970s, the first petrol crisis of 1973, architecture-and the building sector in general-became a target of environmental reform [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. This reform resulted in segregating disciplines and creating antagonist relations.…”

“…The main idea of the present paper is to support the need of refurbishing the urban context through the integration of urban agriculture elements within the thermodynamic architectural design while developing a scientific methodology that assists the artistic dimension of the architecture that consists of creating forms to accompany life. Past research clearly showed that urban agriculture projects reside on a global strategy for greening cities to regulate urban temperature and to improve microclimates, while having a thermodynamic potential increase food production and waste recycling [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”