Monitoring the contribution of urban agriculture to urban sustainability: an indicator-based framework

Abstract

In an increasingly urbanized world, urban agriculture and community gardening are promoted as lever for sustainable urban development. Urban agriculture contributes to food security, provides health benefits for the population, fosters social inclusion and enhances perceived wellbeing. At the same time, from a planning perspective, urban agriculture also provides a valuable resource for urban regeneration. However, depending on prevalent farming practices urban agriculture may also have social and environmental externalities. While several of these aspects have been extensively tackled in the literature, others, in particular governance and planning aspects, are still unaddressed. Moreover, a comprehensive outline for the evaluation of urban agriculture performance from an urban sustainability perspective is still lacking. In this work we present a novel indicator-based evaluation framework for urban agriculture that captures the contribution of gardening practices to urban sustainability in a consistent, transparent and systematic way. We further illustrate the usability of our framework by testing it in Fællesgartneriet Brabrand, a community garden located in the city of Arhus, Denmark.