Urban Agricultural Activities Research Articles

MEWUJUDKAN INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM PERKOTAAN DENGAN POC TURI SEBAGAI PENGINTEGRASI DI CIPINANG MELAYU JAKARTA TIMUR

An integrated Farming System (IFS) is an environmentally friendly agriculture that combines agricultural, fishery, livestock, and other activities with the concept of zero waste. IFS is very suitable to be applied to urban agriculture, because, with the IFS concept, you will get a friendly business environment, and efficient, does not require a large area of land, provides ecological benefits, and can prosper the manager. Residents of RW 01 Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta already have various urban agricultural cultivation activities on the land under the Becakayu Toll Road, including vegetable cultivation with a hydroponic system, catfish and tilapia cultivation, chicken farming, pigeons, horticulture cultivation and seasonal food crops, including: are turi plants as barrier plants (fences), as well as vegetable horticulture cultivation. However, these activities are still partial, unintegrated, and unproductive in infertile landfills. Problems with partners are identified as follows: (1). Not yet understood integrated agriculture (IFS); (2). The existence of local resources of turi and other plants that have not been utilized, either as fertilizer, feed supplements, and compost; (3). There has been no attempt to turn his business into a business that produces commercial products; and (4). There is no rejuvenation/preservation of local resources of turi plants and others. The result of the PKM is that participants understand the concept of integrated agriculture by compiling an IFS map for urban agriculture RW 01, Cipinang Melayu Village which is used as a guide in modeling integrated agriculture by utilizing local Turi resources (Sesbania grandiflora, L.) as an integrator. Utilization of local turi plant resources, both as liquid organic fertilizer and as feed supplements, as well as compost has significantly increased plant productivity by increasing the yield of mustard plants by 100 percent.

Trend Analysis of Balcony Vegetable Gardens in Korea, Before and After COVID-19 Pandemic Using Big Data

Background and objective: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been staying at home more and "balcony vegetable gardens," a form of urban agriculture, have been mentioned more frequently. As a result of the Korea Housing Survey in 2020, the percentage of households living in apartments among general households in Korea was 51.1%, but there is insufficient research to understand public perception and trends of the balcony vegetable gardens. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the trends of balcony vegetable gardens over the last 4 years including before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and to provide basic data for effective application to related policies and research.Methods: A total of 5,011 posts that mentioned balcony vegetable gardens were collected from Naver blogs and cafes from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. To tokenize nouns, Okt morphological analysis of KoNLPy was used, and keywords were derived using TfidfVectorizer of Scikit-learn library. Following that, LDA topic modeling was performed by setting the hyper parameters as α= 0.1, β = 0.01 and iterations = 1,000. The above analysis was conducted using Python 3.9.5.Results: Before the outbreak of COVID-19, balcony vegetable gardening began to receive attention and vitalized as a form of participation in urban agriculture, but after the outbreak, they are established as an activity for healing, emotional support, environmental campaign, and healthy hobby. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, people clearly seemed to seek a more sustainable lifestyle through balcony vegetable garden activities. This shows the values and expected outcomes the public has toward urban agriculture.Conclusion: Balcony gardening activities heal the public, and this healing effect could be a key to the revitalization and development of urban agriculture. These findings can help establish policies and set the directions for urban agriculture that reflect the values and expected outcomes the public has toward urban agricultural activities.

Urban Farming: Program Pemanfaatan Lingkungan Untuk Pengembangan Pertanian Perkotaan di Kota Semarang

Urban population growth accompanied by the phenomenon of urbanization is a global issue. This raises challenges and problems in various aspects, including the decline in environmental quality due to reduced agricultural land/green spaces that are changing functions and the need for adequate food availability. As has been implemented in various cities in the world, urban farming activities were then developed as a promising solution to supply sustainable quality agricultural products. Following up on this, this study aims to develop urban agriculture (urban farming) in the city of Semarang to increase community productivity and co-benefits. The analysis carried out includes a qualitative descriptive analysis supported by secondary and primary data. There are 2 (two) indicators of the results and discussion of this research, namely (a) the development of urban agriculture (urban farming) in the city of Semarang, and (b) the benefits of urban agriculture (urban farming) in the city of Semarang. The potential for urban agriculture in the city of Semarang is very diverse, including various types of vegetables, cassava, sugar cane, durian, and mushrooms. In addition, various other benefits of urban agriculture, namely environmental, economic, social, health, education and tourism benefits are added values ​​that are very important to encourage the development of this activity in a more massive and structured manner. Policy instruments through appropriate top-down and bottom-up approaches are essential.

Random Forest and Logistic Regression algorithms for prediction of groundwater contamination using ammonia concentration

The present study aims to develop an efficient predictive model for groundwater contamination using Multivariate Logistic Regression (MLR) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms. Contamination by ammonia is recorded by many authors at Sohag Governorate, Egypt and is attributed to urban growth, agricultural, and industrial activities. Thirty-two groundwater samples representing the Quaternary aquifer are collected and analyzed for major cations (Ca, Mg, and Na), ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, and heavy metals. Lead, magnesium, iron, and zinc variables are used to test the model with ammonia which is used as an index to the groundwater contamination. Spatial distribution maps and statistical analyses show a strong correlation of ammonia with lead and magnesium variables whereas iron and zinc show less correlation. For Random Forest (RF) model, the data is divided into 70% training and 30% testing subsets. The performance of the model is evaluated using the classification reports, and the confusion matrix. Results show (1) high performance of RF model to groundwater contamination with an accuracy of 93% and (2) the MLR accuracy increased from 70 to 83% when “SOLVER” and “C” parameters are modified. The study helps to identify the contaminated zones at the study area and proved the usefulness of the machine learning models for prediction of the groundwater contamination using the ammonia concentration.

Case Study: analysis of flood adaptation measures through the simulation of an event in the Matina Limón river, Costa Rica

The proximity of urban and extensive agricultural areas to the rivers of the Atlantic watershed in Costa Rica contrasts with its unstable morphology. Additionally, changes on the rain regime have increased the frequency of natural disasters affecting regularly the nearby populations and the economy of the country. Detailed studies demonstrating the impact of rivers in urban areas and high agricultural activity are necessary to establish adequate flood mitigation and control measures. The present study shows a case study of the impact of a 25-year flood event on the flood plain of the Matina River in Costa Rica, by means of a bi-dimensional hydraulic modelling with the aim to contribute to the adequate management of land use and the establishment of protection measures in the study vregion. A digital elevation model, of the topography of the study area, obtained with a LIDAR device, and the estimation of the instantaneous peak flow was obtained with the statistical Weibull distribution for a return period of 25 years, allowed to provide satisfactory information for the flood analysis of complex combinations for surface drainage management. Two scenarios for flood management were analyzed: 1) increasing the dike height, and 2) early opening of an additional mouth at the river outlet during the flood events. The study demonstrated that none of the options were technically feasible and that decision makers should explore other flood mitigation alternatives.

How Can Macro-Scale Land-Use Policies Be Integrated with Local-Scale Urban Growth? Exploring Trade-Offs for Sustainable Urbanization in Xi’an, China

Rapid urbanization results in farmland loss, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity decrease, and greenhouse gas emissions. Land-use policies and planning as administrative means are used to guide sustainable urban development and to balance the location of urban expansion and agricultural activities. To better understand the future implications of a variety of land-use policies, we used a FUTURES model scenario analysis to analyze the potential future patterns of urban areas and the loss and fragmentation of farmland and natural resources at the local level for Xi’an. We tested representative indicators of sustainable urbanization according to Plan 2014–2020. We found that scenarios representing the integration of several policies showed both synergetic spatial patterns and conflicting outcomes. The simulated land-use patterns of urban growth resulting from the combination of policies, were the most likely to support progress toward a livable compact city and natural resources’ conservation. These findings underscore the importance of simulation modeling and scenario analyses to quantify and visualize the results from policies and planning to support sustainable urbanization. Specifically, they show the value in simulation modeling for integrating information across scales, i.e., combining macro-level land-use policies with local-level spatial heterogeneity in socio-ecological settings, for identifying actionable planning solutions. Hence, these research results provide scientific support for land-use policy revision and implementation in Xi’an, as well as a reference point for other urbanizing cities in China.

Strategic planning to integrate urban agriculture in Palestinian urban development under conditions of political instability

Today, urban agriculture, an element of sustainable urban development, is not a new idea in an urban planning context. However, not all urban planners and policymakers consider urban agriculture in their cities. Palestinian cities are subject to conditions of political instability that negatively impact urban food security. This study proposes a new strategic model to integrate urban agriculture into a Palestinian urban development framework based on an evaluation of the current status of urban agriculture in the Palestinian urban planning system. This study argues that urban agriculture is absent in urban development processes in Palestinian cities and claims presence of a clear gap between urban planning policies and urban agriculture in Palestine. Lack of knowledge and will among Palestinian urban planners and policymakers have led to the emergence of negative attitudes toward urban agricultural activities in the Palestinian urban planning system. This study proposes a strategic model to enhance knowledge and awareness about urban agricultural issues among Palestinian urban planners and policymakers to foster positive attitudes toward the combination of urban agriculture and the urban planning process in harmony with the Palestinian urban methods, laws, and strategic urban development plans for support of the urban agricultural while making Palestinian cities more sustainable, especially under conditions of political instability. Also, integration urban agriculture as a green area into the Palestinian urban environment would support urban ecosystem services to become more resilient and increase the multifunctional use of urban green spaces such as enhancement of urban food security, social and cultural interaction, and improvement of air quality and life in the Palestinian cities.

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR HYDROPONIC VEGETABLE SEED SELECTION USING EXPONENTIAL COMPARISON METHOD

The issue of food security is not only the task of farmers, therefore starting to participate in growing vegetables at home through hydroponic techniques can be a solution. Hydroponics is one solution for urban farming or farming activities independently in urban areas in Indonesia. In order to get an abundant harvest on limited land, it requires quality seeds. Good vegetable seeds hold the key to determining a good harvest too. So, you should not carelessly buy vegetable seeds to grow vegetables hydroponically. But the problem is, with so many vegetable seed products for hydroponics on the market, it makes someone confused to choose the right product that suits their needs. The main purpose of this research is to develop a decision support system for selecting hydroponic vegetable seeds with a website-based Exponential Comparison Method to facilitate decision makers in determining the right seeds and according to their needs. The Exponential Comparison method can perform a priority order of decision alternatives on existing criteria and can distinguish the value of each alternative in contrast. The decision support system developed produces calculations using the valid Exponential Comparison Method because the results are in accordance with manual calculations. In addition, based on the black-box testing technique, it shows that the system built has been running well.

Climate change and its impact on urban agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: A literature review

Abstract Recent surveys have shown that the global urban population is increasing at an accelerated rate. As a result, the associated increased demand for food items has pushed up the overall cost of living for urban dwellers. To mitigate this increased cost of living urban dwellers increasingly find solace in agricultural activities. This surge in urban agricultural activities comes at a time characterized by long term shifts in temperatures, rainfall patterns and general weather conditions. While many researchers have presented evidence of increased urban agricultural activities, there remains a paucity of integrated literature that summarizes climate change issues on urban agriculture. This research reviewed literature on the influence of climate change on urban agricultural operations in sub-Saharan African cities. A narrative review approach was employed to summarize and synthesize findings and make recommendations for future research. The review employed the key terms ‘urban farming’, ‘urban agriculture’, ‘climate change’, ‘peri-urban agriculture’, and ‘urban agricultural production’ to search relevant literature indexed in databases: Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Academic Search (EBSCO). The choice of these keywords was informed by the authors’ specialist understanding of urban agriculture and climate change. There is consensus among the reviewed literature that climate change affects urban agriculture from production to processing, storage, and distribution. This study also established that the extent and magnitude of climate change impacts differ from one region to another. Therefore, adaptation and mitigation strategies ought to be context specific and not universally applicable. This is important because Africa is a climatologically diverse continent so that the impact of climate change faced by one sub-Saharan African city may be different from that for other cities in other regions. A framework that simplifies the effects of climate change on urban agriculture-dependent households in sub-Saharan Africa was produced. More specifically, this framework is recommended to those urban farmers and policymakers that are involved in mitigating the consequences of climate change as well as achieving food and nutritional security. The authors also recommend this framework for unpacking the knowledge of the influence of climate change on urban agriculture as well as exposing directions for future research. This work adds to the growing body of knowledge in the domain of climate change on urban agriculture-dependent households.

Feasibility study of prescribed burning for crop residues based on urban air quality assessment.

Open field burning of crop residue has been intentionally prohibited due to the undesired air pollution in urban regions. To better balance the urban environment and agricultural activity, this paper conducted a feasibility study of prescribed burning for crop residues based on air quality assessment in urban regions. Firstly, emission inventories were established using the top-down approach based on designed sub-regional fire as prescribed burning. Subsequently, the air qualities in urban regions were simulated by the coupled Weather Research and Forecasting Model-Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (WRF-CMAQ) covering different sensitivity experiments. Finally, PM2.5 is selected as the main indicator of air quality, and the feasibility was assessed by controlling the factors influencing the diffusion of pollutants from prescribed burning, including burning ratio, meteorological factors (wind speed and direction), distance from burning area and burning duration. It is revealed that prescribed burning would achieve highly efficient disposal of crop residues under the premise of ensuring the air quality in urban regions by controlling the factors. Results in the study can be further exploited for designing burning scheme for crop residue, which is expected to promote a sustainable development of agriculture and urban environment.

Analysis of Factors Affecting Community Participation Expectations on Sustainability Urban Farming in Jakarta City

To meet the nutritional needs of the people of Jakarta, urban agriculture is one of the food supply solutions. This study analyzes community expectations for participation in sustainable urban agriculture in Jakarta. The latest developments of this study provide results on the impact of economic, health and environmental variables on people's expectations for the sustainability of urban agriculture in Jakarta. The novelty of this study is that it considers the theme of the study, namely the inhabitants of the city of Jakarta, engaged in urban agriculture, a total of 112 respondents. The results of this study indicate that economic, health and environmental variables, simultaneously or in part, positively influence the expectations of community involvement in the sustainability of urban agricultural activities in the city of Jakarta. Based on these findings, it can be said that the expectation of community engagement in sustainable urban agriculture in Jakarta translates into greater productivity, knowledge, skills, awareness and understanding of the existence of clear regulations. The corrected R-square value is 0.704 based on the results of the coefficients that determine the impact of economic, health and environmental factors on community participation expectations in the sustainability of urban agriculture in Jakarta. In other words, 70.4% of community participation expectations in urban agriculture depend on economic factors, while health and other environmental factors depend on other factors. Expectations for community involvement in sustainable urban agriculture are already high and Jakarta's food security can be ensured later.

USAHA PERTANIAN ORGANIK BERBASIS CSA (COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE) (STUDI KASUS DI “SENI TANI”, KOTA BANDUNG, INDONESIA)

Organic vegetables that are mostly consumed by the community in the midst of the rapid development of the organic farming sector, can generally be obtained by purchasing vegetables that have been harvested so that the interaction between consumers and farmers is very limited. However, a concept called CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that connects farmers with consumers directly and invites consumers to be involved with the production process. Seni Tani is one of the few organic farming businesses that apply the CSA concept in Indonesia. This study aims to explain the type of business and the application of CSA in Seni Tani as an example of the application of CSA in Indonesia which has not been widely carried out. The research design is a qualitative research design with a case study approach. This study uses data collection techniques in the form of observation, in-depth interviews and literature study. The results are indicate that Seni Tani applies regenerative organic agriculture. The plants are organic products and fullfil the principles of health, ecology, justice and protection by imitating natural patterns without adding synthetic chemical inputs. Seni Tani implements social entrepreneurship with a socially responsible enterprise type of business and carries out urban farming activities. CSATani Sauyunan at Seni Tani has fulfilled the CSA concept. CSA Tani Sauyunan fulfills four principles namely partnership, locality, solidarity, and producer-consumer relations. CSA Tani Sauyunan is a small scale CSA that operates informally and can be categorized into the Multi-Farm CSA, Subscription CSA and Mixed-Vegetable CSA types.

Determinants of Urban Farming Intention among Graduates: A Conceptual Paper

Urban farming activities are important because they supply food resources to urban communities, greening urban areas as well as the desire to achieve community sustainability n the city. Increasing concerns over food security, unemployment, growing urbanization and limited space availability has generated interest towards urban farming. Urban farming is fast catching in Malaysia with many young people taking it up to grow their own vegetables in their backyards. Considering the potential of urban farming as a promising career path among youth, this study aims to examine factors influencing graduates intentions to engage in urban farming from the lens of theory of planned behaviour (TPB). To date, very few empirical studies have been conducted on graduates intention to engage in urban farming, particularly. The future study hopefully can contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the importance urban farming in a country, in addition to being able to further expand studies in aspects of urban farming in Malaysia. This study can also contribute in terms of recommendations to the improvement of internal policies urban planning, i.e. taking into account agriculture as an activity that needs to be preserved and continued in city.

Potensi dan Strategi Pengembangan Usaha Tani Perkotaan dalam Meningkatkan Akses Pangan yang Berkelanjutan di Kecamatan Gunung Putri, Kabupaten Bogor

As a densely populated industrial area in Bogor Regency, an urban farming program has been initiated in Gunung Putri District. The right strategy to develop and implement urban farming needs to be known so that this program is successful and sustain in Bogor Regency. This study aims to (1) identify aspects of preparation for urban farming development in Gunung Putri District, Bogor Regency; (2) analyze people's perceptions of its development; (3) and formulate its development strategy through qualitative descriptive methods, Likert scale, and SWOT analysis. Based on technical, social, institutional, commercial, financial, and environmental aspects, urban farming activities in this location are potential to be developed to support food adequacy and contribute to household income. The society has an excellent perception of the benefits. However, the community also saw obstacles, including the availability of respondents' time, usable land, capital, and supportive institutions. Most respondents also perceived that the currently limited information related to marketing has the potential to hinder the successful implementation of the urban farming. Nevertheless, the community's desire to participate is quite high, and they will participate if the program is implemented. The highest strength factor in developing urban farming businesses in Gunung Putri District is the public knowledge about cultivation techniques, while the most significant weakness is the marketing of its products. An enormous opportunity is to establish networking with various parties, and the biggest threat is the trend of urban life that does not focus on the agricultural sector.
 
 Keywords: aspects of feasibility, community perception, urban farming, SWOT analysis

Assessment of Socio-Economic Values of Agricultural Experience Services in School Garden Education

Background and objective This study intends to assess the socio-economic monetary value of school garden education services by converting them into market values using assessment indicators for school gardens, which are spaces for students to engage in various experiences and urban agricultural activities. Methods We identified the characteristics and current status of urban school gardens through literature review, collected opinions from a total of two rounds of expert advice, determined willingness to pay (WTP) and the importance of detailed values based on the parent survey, estimated the monetary value of each detailed value using the contingent valuation method (CVM) of WTP, and estimated three economic values. Results The total amount of educational, health, welfare, and environmental values provided by school garden education for participating students was estimated to range from a minimum of 193.1 billion won to a maximum of 978.4 billion won. The total amount of economic value provided to farm households, related industries and the economically active population was estimated to be 476.1 billion won. The job creation effect was the highest at 266.2 billion won, followed by the industrial ripple effect (157.3 billion won) and the farm household income increase effect (52.6 billion won). The evolution of school gardens is expected to reduce problems in urban areas such as environmental issues, promote community spirit through agriculture, and produce industrial ripple effects such as an increase in farm household income and job creation, raising the need to maintain multiple functions of school gardens. The total socio-economic value of school garden education seemed to range from 669.2 billion won to 1.4545 trillion won based on the operating fund, government budget, and value-added tax (VAT) of 2020. Conclusion The results of this study can be used as basic data to assess the overall value of agricultural experience services in school garden education.

Efficacy of Agricultural Extensions and Environmental Conservation Awareness on the Sustainability of Urban Agricultural Practice: Case of Daraja Mbili and Lemala Wards in Arusha City, Tanzania

Urban agricultural activities can have a minimum or a substantial contribution to the livelihoods of people. They can either conserve or pollute the environment and degrade the land. The information about ensuring agricultural productivity with less effect on the environment is dynamic and the causes of dynamisms are not clear. The study was conducted to examine the cause of dynamisms in relation to changing institutional frameworks and political regimes. The study used qualitative research design and a case study strategy and 60 respondents were interviewed. We did content analysis to analyse qualitative data. The findings revealed that agricultural extension services and trainings, as well as environmental conservation awareness about good agricultural practice were provided to farmers and non-farmers, although the success was not promising. The uncoordinated agricultural activities were rhetorically managed and sometimes managed in uncoordinated ways. In tune with provision of agricultural extension services and awareness of conserving the environment to farmers, the mere conservation of the environment was not successful, unless it had a possibility of increasing agricultural productivity and helping farmers to get their livelihood needs.

Recent challenges and new possibilities with urban agriculture in Victoria, British Columbia

Increasing urbanization generates new challenges for cities, including housing shortages, environmental degradation, public health concerns, and food security issues, just to mention a few. High levels of food insecurity can motivate planners to increase their support for community gardening forms of urban agriculture. The COVID‐19 pandemic has amplified many pressures of urban living. In this paper, we focus on challenges around urban agriculture activities, in particular, exploring regulatory approaches and limitations when it comes to growing food in cities. This study uses qualitative research methods to explore the main barriers to urban agriculture as perceived by community‐based groups in Victoria, British Columbia. Data collection included 18 semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews, and two community mapping workshops with local residents, government officials, and non‐governmental groups. Data analysis generated initial codes and themes that revealed “urban agriculture zones” and “garden‐style” apartment housing as important avenues for urban agriculture projects. These findings are relevant in Victoria, where more than half of the population lives in apartments. A food action plan is a regulatory mechanism that can boost food production when aligned with the official community plan. Any progress towards far‐reaching changes, however, requires an efficient urban agriculture development process, including creating site inventories, increasing stakeholder participation, reducing waitlists, and tackling high land prices.

Assessment of the Potential of Coordinating Two Interacting Monitoring Networks within the Lerma-Santiago Hydrologic System in Mexico

Water quality monitoring networks in the global south often display inefficiencies because monitoring strategies are frequently designed based on subjective professional judgments to define the temporal and spatial attributes of the networks, leading to poor cost–benefit relationships. The Lerma-Santiago Hydrological System (LSHS) in Mexico currently experiences severe environmental degradation caused by uncontrolled pollutant emissions from urban centers, agricultural, livestock, and industrial activities settled in the basin. While both the national and state authorities monitor this hydrological system, there has never been an effort to assess the monitoring efficiency of these two networks. The aim of the present study was to assess through multivariate statistical analyses the potential for coordination between these two interacting networks. For this purpose, two independent large water quality datasets with temporal and spatial attributes measured by two different authorities (the federal and the state) were used to identify those sites where coordination should be rationalized and those parameters that should continue to be monitored. The case study herein presented highlights the duplication in efforts to monitor surface water quality in the Lerma-Santiago hydrologic system, which implies a lack of coordination between the authorities and shows that water quality monitoring networks have not been reassessed since they were first implemented. Furthermore, using the case study of the Lerma-Santiago in Mexico, we expanded on various deficiencies, such as the use of different sampling frequencies and analytical methods by the authorities and inefficient communication among federal and state authorities. This study has revealed a large potential for coordinating two water quality monitoring networks (WQMN) in the Lerma-Santiago Hydrological System and a methodological approach that may be used to assess this potential. Coordination strategies for WQMNs can lead to significant cost reductions, extended network reach, and higher overall data quality in developing countries with limited financial resources and technical capabilities.

The Socio-Cultural Benefits of Urban Agriculture: A Review of the Literature

Despite extensive literature on the socio-cultural services of urban open spaces, the role of food-producing spaces has not received sufficient attention. This hampers advocacy for preserving and growing urban agricultural activities, often dismissed on justifications that their contributions to overall food supply are negligible. To understand how the social benefits of urban agriculture have been measured, we conducted a systematic review of 272 peer-reviewed publications, which drew on insights from urban agriculture sites in 57 different countries. Through content analysis, we investigated socio-cultural benefits in four spheres: engaged and cohesive communities, health and well-being, economic opportunities, and education. The analysis revealed growth in research on the social impacts of gardens and farms, with most studies measuring the effects on community cohesion and engagement, followed by increased availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables associated with reduced food insecurity and better health. Fewer studies assessed the impact of urban farming on educational and economic outcomes. Quantifying the multiple ways in which urban agriculture provides benefits to people will empower planners and the private sector to justify future investments. These findings are also informative for research theorizing cities as socio-ecological systems and broader efforts to measure the benefits of urban agriculture, in its many forms.

Short−Term Assessment of Heavy Metals in Surface Water from Xiaohe River Irrigation Area, China: Levels, Sources and Distribution

The aims of this study were to determine the pollution characteristics of heavy metals and their potential harm to human health in the surface water of agricultural irrigation areas, China, over a short term. In this study, Cu, Zn, Pb, Hg, Ni, Cr, Cd, and As in surface water of the Xiaohe River irrigation area were detected and analyzed. The results showed that the concentrations of Pb, Hg, Ni, Cr, Cd, and As exceeded the national environmental quality standard for surface water in varying degrees. The concentrations of heavy metals in surface water in October were significantly lower than that in November and December due to the impact of extreme precipitation events. Point source pollution (industrial sewage, etc.) was the main factor affecting the spatial distribution of heavy metals. The main source of heavy metals in October was domestic sewage. Domestic sewage and industrial sewage were the main sources of heavy metals in November. The sources of heavy metals in surface water in December were relatively diverse, and industrial sewage was the main source. The temporal variation of heavy metal pollution sources changed significantly. Industrial sewage was the main pollution source of heavy metals in surface water in the study area. The impact of urban domestic sewage and agricultural activities cannot be ignored. The health risk of heavy metals in surface water mainly depends on Cr, Cd, and As. Policy recommendations were also proposed for better control of heavy metal pollution in the surface water of river ecosystems involving agricultural irrigation areas.