The underutilized role of community gardens in improving cities’ adaptation to climate change: a review

Abstract

Green infrastructure is a salient approach to address climate change adaptation in cities. However, some green infrastructure like community gardens are rarely incorporated in resilience and adaptation plans. In this paper, we argue that community gardens should be a prioritized element of green infrastructure to improve adaptation to climate change. Community gardens can reduce urban heat islands, provide various ecosystem services, and increase storm water retention. From a socioeconomic perspective, these gardens also build trust, facilitate participation, improve responses to natural disasters and food security -all vital components of effective adaptation and resilience to climate change. Yet, our qualitative analysis of 18 policy documents for Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City, U.S.A, found that green infrastructure to improve climate change adaptation prioritizes rain gardens, bioswales, and green roofs, but seldom acknowledge the role of community gardens. Furthermore, community gardens historically emerged in these cities to respond to stressors like economic, social, and political instability. Therefore, policies that address climate change should explicitly incorporate community gardens. Keywords: adaptive capacity; climate change adaptation; green infrastructure; urban greening. p. 242. The underutilized role of community gardens in improving cities' adaptation to climate change: A review

Comparing community garden typologies of Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City (USA) to understand potential implications for socio-ecological services

“…These distinct historical features and contemporary typologies also support the need for expansion of large-scale thinking about community gardening to other cities. This project bolsters our knowledge of how the city-wide distribution and the land-use composition in and around community gardens can contribute to ecosystem services and urban resilience across an entire urban landscape (Clarke et al 2019). Using socio-environmental methods to untangle these complexities can provide city planners and community garden stakeholders with much-needed empirical, large-scale evidence to create community garden plans and policies that help foster healthy urban environments for people and nature.…”

“…These patterns suggest that community gardens in Baltimore have the biophysical capacity to contribute to food equity, which builds on the needs and priorities of the city (Corrigan 2011;Liskey 2017). To understand how cities can better manage ecosystem services, we should strategically position community gardens in broader urban sustainability and resilience contexts (Clarke et al 2019. Particular attention should be paid to how community gardens are situated in a broader greenspace context throughout cities, as ecosystem services and habitat provisioning are augmented by being closely intertwined with other green spaces (Minor et al 2018).…”

“…Urban community gardens are a type of green space that provide a full suite of these provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services (Lovell and Taylor 2013;Lin et al 2015;Clarke et al 2019). Due to their multifunctionality (Lovell 2010), community gardens have become more popular and prominent in a number of US cities (Lawson 2005).…”

The Roles of Urban Agriculture for Climate Change Adaption in The Case of Debre Markos Town and Surrounding Districts East Gojjam Zone Amhara Region Ethiopia

“…Future urbanization trajectories pose both challenges and opportunities for addressing climate change impacts. While climate variability and environmental change impacts are well-documented in rural areas, literature is increasingly pointing to impacts in cities and their hinterland regions [3]. There are concerns about climate change impacts reinforcing poverty, exacerbating food insecurity and increasing vulnerability of urban populations [3,15,16].…”

“…While climate variability and environmental change impacts are well-documented in rural areas, literature is increasingly pointing to impacts in cities and their hinterland regions [3]. There are concerns about climate change impacts reinforcing poverty, exacerbating food insecurity and increasing vulnerability of urban populations [3,15,16]. Since urbanization exacerbates these vulnerabilities, there is growing evidence that urban and peri urban agriculture and forestry (UPAF) can play a role in poverty alleviation and potentially reduce vulnerability to climate change [17,18].…”