NetZeroCities

By 2050, the majority of people (67 %) will live in urban areas [1], one of the reasons why urban agriculture and gardening is becoming a topic of growing interest. In addition to providing fresh food to urban areas, community and rooftop gardens provide environmental, social and health benefits, as well as opportunities for economic development. Urban agriculture does not only address climate issues by supporting CO2 storage in urban areas, but it also addresses environmental issues created by food transport and logistics by allowing food to be grown closer to home, thus supporting food security in the long run. Urban agriculture can be implemented in cities in various ways such as vertical farming, community gardens, private orchards, and terrace/rooftop gardens. This factsheet focuses on 3 main types of urban agriculture: community gardens, allotment gardens and floating gardens.

Community Garden, ProGIreg. Source: https://progireg.eu/nature-based-solutions/community-based-urban-farms-and-gardens/.

Community gardens can be considered as part of urban land gardened collectively by a group of people. Community gardens utilize either individual or shared plots on private or public land to produce fruit, vegetables, and/or plants [2]. In some cases, cities could take the opportunity to turn unused urban land into productive community gardens and assign them through open calls or through public private partnerships with local association. Community gardens can have a positive impact on locals, contributing to improved mental and physical health through exposure to nature and healthy sources of food and a sense of belonging to a community.

Floating garden, Liverpool, United Kingdom. URBAN GreenUP. Source: https://www.urbangreenup.eu/cities/front-runners/liverpool.kl#lg=1&slide=11.

Allotment gardens consist of separate parcels of land assigned to individuals or households for personal use [2].

Floating gardens are floating green ecological units integrated in a water environment, which can provide habitats for various aquatic and terrestrial species. Floating gardens can take many forms including pontoons, floating platforms and barges (URBAN GreenUP). Floating gardens may provide habitat for varied marine/terrestrial species, opportunities for urban agriculture and climate change mitigation.

Telheiras allotment garden, Lisbon, Portugal. NATURVATION. Source: https://una.city/nbs/lisboa/telheiras-allotment-garden

MATURITY:

While community gardens and allotment gardens are widely distributed around urban areas in the EU and beyond, it is crucial to reflect on how to properly plan and design these kinds of solutions, tailoring them to various contexts. Specific expertise is needed in understanding the community to be activated, target groups most in need, and appropriate places to set them up.

Concerning floating gardens, while some established models or applications have already been introduced to the market and have been implemented around urban areas, floating gardens materials, implantation techniques and management options are still to be further explored.

Co-benefits vary depending on the type of project implemented. Generally, the more inclusively a specific solution is planned and developed (via participatory processes such as co-development and co-creation involving local communities), the more co-benefits are generated.

Aesthetics, Mental wellbeing/quality of life, and Social equality and justice, Social cohesion: Community gardens contribute to developing a sense of place in citizens, also deepening their connections to nature, finding stress release and recreating a strong relation with the way food is produced. For instance, in Barcelona, stress release, social cohesion and integration have been considered by users among the most valued ecosystem services provided by urban gardens. Also, in the same case study, most of the beneficiaries were older, low-middle income, and migrant people, thus demonstrating that if properly distributed, designed and assigned, community gardens can support social equity and justice in cities, offering benefits to all, including the more vulnerable groups of citizens [5].

Sustainable and resilient food systems, Boost local business, Proximity economy: Urban gardening contributes to producing local food. It also has potential to boost organic production, for example, by introducing criteria of organic production in the definition of the terms of conditions to allocate spaces. According to a study to evaluate the potential of urban rooftop gardening in Bologna, it was estimated that it could provide more than 12,000 t year−1 vegetables to Bologna, satisfying 77 % of the inhabitants’ requirements and supporting food security in the future [6]. At the same time, boosting local production and proximity economy could contribute to the creation of a resilient urban environment and facilitate a city’s recovery when faced with a sudden crisis.

Enhanced citizen participation, connectivity, and community life: As co-managed spaces, community gardens can support citizens’ participation and community life, also establishing inter-generational relations and supporting the meeting of diverse communities. This may result in mixed governance models, including bottom-up processes that boost the social benefits of gardening such as development of social capital, neighbourhood participation and community sharing [7].

Physical health, Healthier and more attractive lifestyles: Community gardens can help in supporting a more active and healthy lifestyle, attracting people to spend more time in the green, and also involving physical activity in the food production. Specifically, community gardens may be one form of green space capable of increasing physical activity for demographic groups not typically catered for by standardized park design, such as older people [8].

Species increase, Biodiversity conservation, Pollinators increase: Community and allotment gardens can enhance species diversity in vegetable gardens and could, if properly planned, also provide significant opportunities for pollinators increase in urban areas as researchers acknowledged in a study of 360 sites in four UK cities [9].

Urban form and layout:

For community and allotment gardens, there should be sufficient land within urban areas. As in the ProGIreg project, post-industrial, abandoned and vacant land could be considered a great resource for community-based urban farms and gardens, after proper control of land and water quality. Floating gardens require blue infrastructure in the city (river, lakes, canals).

Policy and regulatory/legal framework:

At EU level, within the overall framework of the EU Green Deal:

The European Biodiversity strategies: cities with a population more than 20,000 are called upon ‘to develop Urban Greening Plans, including measures to create biodiverse and green urban forests, parks and gardens; urban farms; green roofs and walls; tree-lined streets; urban meadows; and urban hedges. To facilitate this work, the Commission set up an EU Urban Greening Platform with cities and mayors in 2021 under the ‘Green City Accord’ [14].
The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact is a city-driven initiative developed to support food production in urban areas [15].

At local level, cities may refer to diverse strategies and laws:

Urban agriculture regulations and codes, including in relation to production and sale of products.
Floating gardens are still quite a new concept and no specific policies for their promotion were found.

Funding and financing:

The financial governance of community gardens could assume various forms, for example, renting allotment places or assigning them to local association and civil society groups.

The criteria set to allocate spaces can greatly contribute to making a more inclusive and sustainable use of the space (e.g., using criteria for organic production, for specific groups to be involved, residence in a specific geographic region, payment of dues). Criteria could also include the possibility of selling products thus creating sustainable local businesses. According to an analysis of more than 100 case studies of urban agriculture enterprises, urban farmers are the prototype of professional entrepreneurs, adapting their business to market demands and seeing proximity to the city more as an opportunity than a threat (Urban Agriculture Europe project, COST Action, reported in [10] [12]).

Project governance and implementation modalities:

In the context of urban densification and lack of open spaces in central urban areas, new forms of small-scale urban gardening practices have emerged. These practices respond to urban pressures and open new modes of green space governance, presenting alternative and multifunctional ways to manage and revitalise cities. Many forms of bottom up and top down collaboration exist and, as detailed in the context of urban gardening practices in Geneva [11], there are several emerging forms of collaboration, partnerships, and governance patterns that involve public and private sectors and increase participation by civil society actors. An interesting case is the project SeedCity grows! In which ETH Zurich planned to create a closed-loop system of local vegetable gardens with composted waste from the campus, maintained by a volunteer association of students and staff. It also aimed to establish a vegetable delivery scheme with organic producers in the region [4].

Technical/infrastructure:

When defining the place for a new community, floating or allotment gardens, soil composition and nutrient values of the soil should be analysed to understand production potential and ensure safety. Also for sustainability of the project, proper consideration should be given to water source for irrigation, including to water saving and reuse, whenever possible.

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