SWOT

Sustainable Cities

Prospects

SWOT

Interdev "Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture" intends to explicitly address strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints to urban agriculture and integrated urban development in its analysis of cases. More in particular, it will endeavour to examine to what extent often-heard criticisms are well founded:

More interest for UA might fuel rural-urban migration. Evidence exists that most migrants to larger cities come from smaller cities.

Public support to UA could reduce public investments in rural agriculture. It would appear that UA needs intersectoral co-ordination of current financial flows much more than major new funding.

UA hampers urban development. We hope to demonstrate that different UA systems do combine with a range of non-agricultural land uses.

UA threatens public health: contamination risks are caused by crop and husbandry inputs, products and by-products. These risks must be addressed. We argue they arise from practices carries out at wrong places or in the wrong way. Especially risks of zoonoses are under-researched.

Possible negative environmental impacts: visual untidiness, soil erosion, destruction of vegetation, depletion of water bodies, and pollution of resources. Palliating the lack of supportive services capable plays an important role in overcoming such negatives.

Sustainable Cities

Large cities, not villages and towns, will become our main habitat. The challenge is whether cities can transform themselves into self-regulating, sustainable systems, as continuing to draw upon ever rarer and ever further distant natural resources is not an option. There can be no sustainable world without sustainable cities. Promotion of UA to reduce the 'ecological footprint' of cities is a serious option, thus combining environmental goals into an overall urban policy.

Addressing this issue started in Rio with Agenda 21 and continued at the 1996 UN City Summit in Istanbul. Nowadays, the city's impact stretches far beyond its physical boundaries. With the increasing number of mouths to feed, and the increasing cost of transportation, urban agriculture has an important role to play in contributing to future social, economical and environmental sustainability of cities. Waste management plays a crucial role in this. Modern cities are characterised by a linear metabolism, as opposed to a circular system that has functioned fore centuries. UA can play an important role in reducing the amount of waste, re-using what can be re-used, and recycling the remainder (Deelstra & Girardet 2000). UA can make a crucial contribution to optimal water management in cities as green surfaces allow water to drain through the soil.


Prospects

In spite of opposition by some city authorities, often having to do with a negative impact of UA for the image of the modern city, UA is alive and kicking in many countries. Now, policies are needed that focus on encouraging the productivity of open urban spaces, integrating the various components necessary to make urban agriculture healthy and sustainable and comparing best practices where necessary. Also, new marketing initiatives, such as community-supported agriculture, will be needed to enhance the impact of UA.

In an analysis of factors restricting further development of UA and sustainable city development, van den Berg & De Zeeuw: (1998) identified a number of factors that we propose to specifically address in our analysis of cases:
Restrictive urban policy, laws and regulations;
Uncertainty about property rights;
Lack of supportive services;
Unfeasible implementation of environmental technologies;
Lack of organisation and representation of urban farmers.