Abstract
Urban agriculture, a dynamic multifunctional phenomenon, affects the spatial diversification of urban land use, its valorization and its governance. Literature acknowledges its contribution to the development of sustainable cities. The dimension and extent of this contribution depends significantly on the particular form and function of urban agriculture. However, the complexity of interests and dimensions is insufficiently covered by theory. This paper proposes a typology for urban agriculture, supporting both theory building and practical decision processes. We reviewed and mapped the diversity of the types of agriculture found along three beneficial dimensions (self-supply, socio-cultural, commercial) for product distribution scale and actors. We distinguish between ideal types, subtypes and mixed types. Our intention is to include a dynamic perspective in the typology of urban agricultural land use because transition processes between types are observable due to the existence of complex motivations and influences. In a pilot study of 52 urban agriculture initiatives in Germany, we tested the validity of the typology and discussed it with stakeholders, proving novelty and relevance for profiling discussions.
Highlights
In order to do so, we develop a typology of UA including a dynamic dimension, which is not part of existing typologies
Based on a review of the growing field of publications on UA, which exhibits a large complexity of new emerging forms, actors, motivations and interests, we identified the lack of a typology of UA, which is related to the system borders of this phenomenon
This paper presents the typology development following a structured approach, aimed at contributing to better understanding of and theory building on UA, as well as to its application contexts of decision support
Summary
House gardens, balconies and increasingly, community gardens and start-up entrepreneurs such as new entrants into commercial farming These initiatives make use of currently unused spaces, combining multiple objectives in new ways and developing new concepts and techniques” [4]. These adoptions lead in some cases to new forms of food production that can be highly independent of agro-economic site conditions like soil fertility and climate conditions. Techniques such as mobile seedbeds, the substitution of nutrients in aquaculture and the substitution of sunlight
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