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A study by the Catalan Water Research Institute (ICRA-CERCA) assesses the benefits of filling cities with urban gardens. The research, published in Elsevier’s ScienceDirect , was carried out by ICRA-CERCA researchers, Josep Pueyo-Ros, Quim Comas and Lluís Corominas , in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana.
The study is applied to the city of Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona), since the city is part of the Edible Cities Network project[Xarxa de ciutats comestibles] , where the research carried out is also framed. However, the authors assure that it can be extrapolated, at least, to the rest of medium-sized cities in the Catalan geography and in the northern Mediterranean.
The research project has simulated 11 scenarios in different spaces of the city that are progressively filled with urban gardens: private gardens, undeveloped plots and flat roofs.
Likewise, the percentage of community and commercial gardens in each scenario has varied.
In the most optimistic scenario, for the case of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, urban gardens could generate up to 3,500 jobs and 50% of the fresh food consumed in the city. Complementing in this way all the production that already takes place in the Agricultural Park of the same city.
But the benefits don’t stop there. The researchers also calculated that urban agriculture would significantly reduce the risk of flooding, improve soil infiltration, water retention and encourage the installation of rainwater harvesting systems for irrigation. ‘these same gardens.
Other estimated benefits would be the reduction of the urban heat island, better access to quality green spaces in the case of community gardens or the improvement of air quality thanks to the fixation of polluting particles such as carbon dioxide nitrogen
The researchers conclude that the benefits of urban agriculture depend a lot on the type of garden, as well as its location within the urban plot. Josep Pueyo-Ros , main author of the study, believes that “to maximize the potential benefits of urban agriculture, cities need to find new forms of strategic planning that allow them to combine the comprehensive vision of the city proper to urban planning with the fragmented nature of urban gardens”.
The study has no direct implications for cities as it is a simulation of fictitious scenarios. However, the authors are convinced that it can help to convince councils and regional governments of the role that urban agriculture can play in the ecological transition so necessary in our cities.
