Ulrike Bayr
Research Scientist
Abstract
Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly recognized as a key component of sustainable cities. Commercial farmers in urban areas benefit from a large customer base, short transport distances, and access to diverse sales channels. However, high pressure on land resources makes it difficult for farmers and decision makers to find suitable areas for UA. This study ranks urban and peri-urban farmland areas based on their suitability for urban agriculture (UA) and identifies opportunities for extending the area for UA to currently unused farmland. Through collaboration with urban farmers, we identified four key themes and eleven criteria, which were weighted for two sales scenarios: on-farm and off-farm. We performed a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and assessed suitability using the technique of order preference similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) on 1 × 1 km grid cells. By overlaying the suitability maps with presumably unused farmland (PUF), we identified areas with high potential for extending UA. In the City of Bergen, 15.3 % (on-farm; off-farm=14 %) of the total farmland is both unused and highly suitable for UA, compared to only 2.8 % (on-farm; off-farm=2.4 %) in Oslo. Assessing the suitability of agricultural land for UA can support spatial planning, protect agricultural topsoil from urban expansion, and help achieve global, national, and local goals for urban farming and sustainable land use.
Authors
Christian Levers Marcel Schwieder Petra Dieker Stefan Erasmi Roberto Azofeifa Rodríguez Ulrike Bayr Ana Julieta Calvo Obando Wendy Fjellstad Satsuki Furubayashi Janne Heliölä Felix Herzog Terho Hyvönen Linda Ieviņa Pēteris Lakovskis Eliane Meier Hannu Ojanen Timo Pitkänen Walfrido Moraes TomasAbstract
This paper outlines the rationale for, and the current state of, mapping habitat diversity. It provides an overview of progress in assessing and monitoring farmland habitat biodiversity at the national level, in line with the proposed OECD Farmland Habitat Biodiversity Indicator (FHBI). The paper describes pilot studies by eight countries, summarising the approaches to mapping habitats, assessing habitat quality, and implementing the FHBI at the national level. Drawing from the experience of the FHBI pilot countries, this paper offers general guidelines for defining habitats and assigning biodiversity values of habitats for calculation of the FHBI. It provides guidance on selecting the appropriate tier level for data acquisition, processing, and reporting, and summarises strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of the current FHBI structure used in the pilot studies.
Abstract
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