Balancing urban agriculture with sustaining ecosystem services

Abstract

AbstractUrban agricultural systems are a prominent social–ecological system in cities and towns across the world. The multifunctional nature of urban agriculture engenders many benefits to urban residents, from food provision to social cohesion. In addition, many environmental services such as climate regulation and habitat for urban wildlife are supported by these agroecosystems. Both local to landscape management factors including plant diversity and ground cover management influence the provision of ecosystem services. Yet, the management decisions may create trade-offs between and among ecosystem services with the increase in one service potentially reducing the ability of the system to provide another service at a desired level. While there are some services that practitioners may not care to lose as much, for other services, the maintenance of a service will be important, based on the goals of the system. Thus, balancing and sustaining ecosystem services must be carefully considered in ecosystem management decisions. Here, we review ecosystem services (ES) within urban agriculture (UA) with a focus on residential, community, and market garden systems, and how local to landscape management influence ES provision. In addition, we evaluate trade-offs between and across services, for example, between provisioning services (food production) versus other environmental services (regulating, supporting). Finally, we highlight future research directions on ecosystem services and the trade-offs for sustainable urban food production, biodiversity, and natural resource conservation.