Socio-Cultural Appropriateness of the Use of Historic Persian Gardens for Modern Urban Edible Gardens

Majid Amani-Beni,Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad,Qingjuan Yang,Gaodi Xie,Alessio Russo

doi:10.3390/land11010038

Majid Amani-Beni, Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010038

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Abstract

Historic gardens have the ability to provide several ecosystem services in cities, including provisioning services (i.e., food production). The historic gardens in Iran (known as “Persian Gardens”) have never been considered as places that could be used for food production. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the Iranian historic gardens’ spatial and structural layout is suitable for modern urban food gardening. We conducted field studies in six recognized Persian gardens in four provinces of Iran via qualitative analysis according to socio-cultural guidelines drawn from a literature review. The results suggested that combining the elements of formal landscape design, non-edible decorative plants, and traditional artwork would increase the Persian gardens’ attractiveness. Regarding encouraging users to become involved in urban gardening, we found that separating productive units containing edible plants from public units using a central meeting spot populated by aesthetic plants and items may attract ordinary visitors who are interested in gardening without disturbing anyone’s activities. Furthermore, the Persian gardens’ multifunctionality, aesthetic value, and health-promoting qualities constitute a considerable historic achievement in garden design, making the gardens a suitable model for edible urban gardening. The results of this study can enhance our understanding of the Persian gardens’ spatial and structural design and provide practical implications for sustainable urban planning and landscape architecture.

Highlights

Urban agriculture as a tool to promote urban resilience and improve the health system of citizens has been well considered in the Global North [1,2,3]
This paper focuses on the Persian garden as edible green infrastructure [29,30] that is preserved as historic property in many Iranian cities
This paper addresses the following main question: What role can be designated for the Persian garden in urban agriculture development? the authors seek to answer the following question: Is the Persian garden’s spatial and structural design appropriate for accommodating urban food gardening? the prime objective of this paper is to compare and assess the appropriateness of the Persian garden’s design, structure, and heritage for the development of urban food gardening, based on criteria derived from related multidisciplinary studies

Summary

Introduction

Urban agriculture as a tool to promote urban resilience and improve the health system of citizens has been well considered in the Global North [1,2,3]. One of the most basic methods of preserving the vegetation of cities (both productive and decorative) is the laws that in the last 40 years many of them by legal authorities in Iran (such as the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Supreme Council of Architecture and urban planning) has been approved [8]. Most of these are laws that seek to preserve the use of agricultural lands and gardens and the preservation and expansion of green space in cities, do not have a strong enforcement guarantee [8]. MRUD announced the plan “Development of Urban Agriculture in Parks and Equipped Urban

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