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Urban Agriculture - Science topic

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Despite the high yields and reduced water usage, why it uncompetitive against traditional farming?
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1. High cos installation and technology
2. Limited technology and facilities
3. High energy demand and residual wast related environmental problems
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How can the valuable insights gained from these measurements be strategically applied to not only improve the sustainability of our environment but also elevate the effectiveness of urban agriculture practices?
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hi mr iam study in climate change effect urban morghology
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To measure sustainability and food security, what parameters need to be included while surveying urban agriculture? or is it possible to assess the data regarding the food security of a specific metropolitan area and its sustainability by a survey? If yes, what kind of data and models must be incorporated?
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you may include the other realted of parameters that have a main purpose for the urban agriculture in different measures .
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Green roofs are becoming increasingly popular among researchers, engineers and related construction stakeholders to mitigate food crisis, Urban heat island effect, rainfall scarcity and enhancement of thermal comfort in urban ecosystems. Substrate is the most important component of a green roof. Our research team has carried out an extended systematic review regarding all the types of green roof research in the past 50 years and published a research article in Frontiers in Built Environment:
In your perspective, apart from the fields mentioned in our research article (link given above),
What are the scopes available within green roof substrates-related research for future studies? Are there any justifications for the choice?
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I hope that you would find interesting regarding our newly published research article. Please have a read and provide your recommendations:
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Hi,
I am working on real-time monitoring of plant moisture content and adjusting (optimizing) the irrigation in hydroponic farms with the help of spectroscopy in order to avoid water stress.
For the reference moisture content of plant/leaf, is there any standard method that I could follow? If yes, what is the number or name of the method?
I looked into the literature and I ended up with two methods that were mostly used by the other but I couldn't find the motivation for choosing one over the other.
1) Collecting leaves, and oven drying for several hours (different papers suggested different hours but mostly 48-72h), at 105-degree celsius (while some papers used lower temperature)
Mc = ((Wc - Wd)/Wc )*100
where Mc indicates the percentage of moisture, while Wc and Wd represent the initial weight and the final constant weight of leaves, respectively.
2) Collecting leaves, and hydrating them to get turgid weight. Oven dry at 80-degree C for 24h
RWC (%) = [(W-DW) / (TW-DW)] x 100,
Where W is fresh weight, TW is turgid weight and DW is the dry weight.
Thank you in advance for your help.
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Moisture meter tests: This uses a specialized device called a moisture meter to determine the (%MC ) percentage moisture content of the material.
The pin meters use electrical resistance to measure the presence of water.
The less resistance there is to the electrical current, the more moisture there is in the plant matter.
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How can the biodiversity of urban green space ecosystems, including urban parks and gardens, be protected and developed?
In the context of ongoing climate change, the ongoing process of global warming, environmental pollution, the health of people living in the city, urban parks and other green spaces have a very important role. Studies show that urban green areas also play an important role in the number of bees and other pollinating insects, in reducing the extinction of these insects that are important for agricultural crop production. Many bees and other pollinating insects die in agricultural fields where too many pesticides and other crop protection chemicals are used. Urban parks, urban gardens and other green areas play an important role in protecting the status of bee populations. Besides, green areas, urban parks significantly reduce the air temperature in summer during hot weather. This makes the air quality better, the temperature lower during hot weather, the air more humid and cleaner. Urban parks and gardens therefore play a key role in terms of shaping the biodiversity level of natural ecosystems of green areas in cities, in conurbations and also in large metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, in some cities, the trend of so-called concreting instead of afforestation still prevails. This has continued to be the case over the last decade or so in the country in which I operate. It is only recently that the local authorities of some cities have started to pay attention to these issues. In order to reduce the scale of the summer drought in cities, they began to reduce the scale and frequency of lawn mowing and in city parks. Flower meadows have finally been created instead of mowing lawns. Bird nesting boxes and insect houses began to be erected in city parks. In some cities, areas of concrete pavements that were too large began to be dismantled and green belts increased, etc. Finally, after many years of appeals to city authorities by ecologists, naturalists, biologists, but also citizens of many other professional specialisations, environmentally and climate-conscious city dwellers, something has started to happen in terms of protecting the biodiversity of natural ecosystems in urban green areas and also increasing green areas in cities and urban metropolises. Rainwater catchment systems are being set up in urban housing estates. Rainwater and/or water from sewage treatment plants is used to water urban lawns, flower meadows, urban parks and other green areas in cities. There is a return of moa to the establishment of home gardens, with residents creating flower gardens but also vegetable and fruit gardens. Nowadays, rising food prices and the developing energy and food crisis can reinforce these positive trends. In addition, more and more environmentally and climate-conscious city dwellers are cycling instead of using combustion cars. There are more and more positive developments. But these are only the beginnings of the above mentioned positive, pro-environmental and pro-climate changes.
In view of the above I address the following questions to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:
What else can be done in this regard?
What other pro-environmental and/or pro-climate measures can be implemented in cities?
How can the biodiversity of urban green space ecosystems, including urban parks and gardens, be protected and developed?
What do you think?
What do you think about this topic?
Please reply,
I invite you all to discuss,
Thank you very much,
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
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Having managed biodiversity of Dublin city, I would say a few things:
- biodiversity should be managed across various land uses within a city, not just parks, to ensure that citizens take responsibility for protecting biodiversity, not just the job of the Parks Department.
- parks and green spaces should be planned to maintain and promote connectivity as much as possible for a wide variety of species, but this can also be challenging in terms of controlling invasive species
- different parks can be managed with greater emphasis on native plant species in more sensitive areas (taking into account above issue on spread of non-native species in vital habitats)
- ensuring minimal disturbance of some areas for wildlife, especially mammals.
Finally I suggest that you look at the Dublin City Biodiversity Action Plan and that each city should try to make a plan with all of the stakeholders and the public - and then give it some resources to be implemented! Biodiversity should be invested in just like the rest of the city's infrastructure.
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I have been able to load my data in Rstudio and checked the structure to make sure that the variable is there, which it is. However, when I plot the RDA it is not plotting my last environmental variable, I have 5 environmental variables, the first two are population density and human footprint index, the next three are all the habitat setting explanatory variables - Urban, Agricultural and Wild, the variables are all being plotted and account for apart from "Wild". What could be the possible reasons for this?
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Hi Oliver,
I am currently having the same issue. How were you able to work around it?
Thanks!
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Dears,
Given their clever nature, do you think goats are good fits for urban livestock agriculture.
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I think so and in practice we have goats in urban towns where the community keep them through feeding on some leftovers of vegetables and others plants in the market days. However since community also plant trees and other through urban agricultural activities and might not happy with the goats cleaver behavior of eating some threes and vegetables. we need to strike a balance here.
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From sculpting the Himalayas and shaping the planes to cultivating civilisation water has been the most essential resource for building civilisations. Rainwater was harvested in India using lakes, wells, bands, step-wells etc. The question is what is the role of water in shaping a city. With the emphasis on paths and connecting roads acting as rainwater channels feeding the groundwater recharge and storage bodies. It further dives into why planned cities like Harappa did not survive the test of time, whereas organically developed cities did. The question hopes to critically analyse the reasons for severe water shortages in planned and semi-planned cities like Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi. hoping to provide some guidelines for eco-friendly development at various levels of planning and design. New methods inspired by traditional techniques for efficient rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge e.g building and using step-wells for water storage instead of overhead tanks. The focus is on developing guidelines for proper rainwater management systems for cities and urban areas. by adopting groundwater recharge techniques that could integrate with the present urban fabric.
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Sudhanshu Rastogi it is up to you to justify your research direction within the current science--this is part of exercise of doing science. For drought, just published a few hours ago https://360info.org/lessons-to-stop-drought-becoming-disaster and papers https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2018.11.004 and https://doi.org/10.1080/20477724.2021.1981716
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In 2050, our global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion, with 68% of us living in urban cities. In order to feed this massive population, we will need to increase our agricultural output by 70% over current levels. Just to put this number into perspective, we will need to grow more food in the next 35 to 40 years than the previous 10,000 years combined.
The agricultural industry is called upon to innovate and play an increasingly vital role to feed the world in the future.
Your thoughts and views are invited, in light of the role to be played by vertical farming/ indoor urban farming.
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Visit also the following useful RG link:
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I'm interested in compiling information regarding ideas/mechanis/projects at national/regional/local level of different countries regarding the protection of ancient/veteran/habitat trees by paying/compensating for ecosystem services provision to land owners.
I'm interested in promoting this kind of conservation in Portugal but I'm lacking examples from other regions.
Thank you all in advance for the help.
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I am doing research on Urban Agriculture, and I would like to know which theory that I can base in order to examine Urban Agriculture.
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I think it is diversification of agriculture based on choice of food of urban peoples. This is highly depends on socio-economic strata of urban peoples. Rooftop cultivation, terrace garfening hydroponics, pot culture etc. are few techniques that common for urban peoples. Regards
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Does anyone know how a "system of urban" agriculture works ? And how it can be modeled using systems dynamics, UML language or any other ontological method ?
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Most definitions of urban and rural areas are based on measurements of population density and land use, but different branches and agencies of the United States government use slightly different thresholds and scales to delineate between urban and rural areas .
Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas.[1] Urban agriculture is also the term used for animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, urban beekeeping, and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well. Peri-urban agriculture may have different characteristics .
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Urban agriculture: Need shade loving plants, shallow rooted plants, structure on roof, etc
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See the Special Issue of my journal the Moravian Geographical Reports:
Good luck with your research, Bryn.
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How can we measure the role of urban agriculture in urban resilience?
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sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition
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Dear Friends
Is there a simple method for evaluating ecoSystem servcices of Urban Tree and any research on linking Ecosystem Services to Urban Corridor Management?
Best Regards
Olivier
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Hi Oliver,
I would suggest reading ( ) and the references therein, as this is a very good review of ecosystem services provided by urban hedges that likely has a lot of crossover with trees in urban environments.
Best wishes,
Ethan
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I am undertaking a research into urban agriculture as it affects livelihood in a metropolitan Mega city. I am interested in the changing pattern of urban agriculture over the years in the metropolitan city. I intend to use satellite images in carrying out the study. What Remote Sensing and GIS methods are appropriate for this type of study?
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Hi
You follow this paper get more information about your requirement
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I've spent days looking for it but it seems like the actual study does not exist? What is this number based on?
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Actually, the standard was never reportd in the frame of WHO official docments. During the preparation of FAO Guidelines on urban and periurban forestry, we tried to find out the text referring to the cited standard but it was impossible. SO, the interpretation is like this. In 1968, Italy published the standards for urban development and 9 m2 was the figure for green spaces in new construction areas. Meanwhile, Italy team was quite active in WHO and there is a unoffical report from Italy to WHO board where is used the 9m2 standard. Then the success story of 9m2 began. In the last documents of WHO on public/green open spaces, they are strongly reccommended in the policies and planning actions of the cities but it is always reported an appropriate dimensional standard with the conditions of the cities where they need to be implemented. And I guess it is quite right like that: cannot compare Antofagasta in the Atacama desert to Bangui, in the equatorial forest.
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Currently discussions are going on regarding how COVID-19 related public health intervention will affect people’s livelihood, especially in developing countries where poverty is widespread and people live hand to mouth. The discussion largely relate to the question, how can we sustain food supply in the face of the pandemic? In most cases agricultural production is done in rular areas, and there is a belief that public health interventions restricting movement i.e. lockdowns might affect food supply in urban areas. In a youth group I volunteer part time, it has been thought that urban agriculture where each household owns a compost backyard garden might not only be a solution to agricultural supply chains, but also providing onsite waste disposal option while limiting human movement thereby reducing possibility of further spread of COVID-19. But while that this might appear to be a double fold solution, a question also rise on how this can affect rural economy. Should we encourage urban communities to start producing their own food or we should not allow condition of poverty among members of rular communities to get worsened? Is urban agriculture a good practice to build resilient communities to pandemics like COVID-19?
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Food security is the best way to prevent coronavirus
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As part of developing master plan, Urban agriculture landuse has to be introduced.
What are the criterias for the selection of suitable land from existing vacant land for community based urban farming?
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Permaculture is the field of study you may want to consider. Check out also: Toby Hemenway (2015). The Permaculture City. Regenerative design for urban, Suburban and Town resilience. Chelsey Green. White River Junction, VT. Pp. 269.
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I am looking at a specific namelist.input tailored for urban areas.
Thanks.
p.s. WRF version 4.0
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Thanks a lot Ravindra!
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The coastal sediments nearer to urban, agricultural, and industrial areas are subjected to organic and inorganic contamination. How this type of contamination can be assessed with an FTIR Spectra? Please send me some publications and methods to determine the FTIR Spectra of sediments.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC5257190
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My soil is contaminated with trace elements, organic compounds.It has a high concentration of CaCO3 with silty sandy as texture.
In order to adapt local environment,I am looking for examples that could grow in such conditions, especially towards the calcium carbonate.
The C/N is included between 10 to 23 and and It can reach 43 in one depth.
If You can advise me with references or articles.
Thank you for your help.
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If there exists a risk of flooding by being in proximity to a river then what can be better than rice varieties?! Water caltrops (Trapa spp.) and Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocaris dulcis) might be other very economically viable options.
Regards,
Dr. Abhishek Mukherjee
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Desalination of salty groundwater and seawater could unlock the vast water resource and provide a sustainable source of water to water-stressed regions of the world. Desalination processes have been categorized into three main areas: i) thermal or phase change processes, ii) filtration-membrane processes and iii) intensified processes which involve integration of various processes (Gude et al., 2010). However, these methods are costly.
Objectives our project are as follows:
1: To introduce an economic and viable system to the desalinated ground-waters in order to support urban and agricultural prosperity and protecting the environment.
2: To set up the introduced system in the desired region.
I am so glad that anyone gives me useful advice and experience.
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Excellent and Impressive article best wishes
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When an urbanfarming strategy is introduced to an open land it may affect the neighbouring activities, mainly residential.
What are the parameters to be studied to find out the impact?Mainly ecologically and psychologically?
Can this develop a new culture of farming in urban dwellers, and later they practise farming inside their house?
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Dear C.fils .
Its like an impact assessment study.
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Hello, i'm very interested in the development of business model in urban agriculture, are you still working on the subject ? Best regards. Nicolas Ancion
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Nicolas, this is very good topic, Urban agriculture business models is very useful for development of urban entrepreneurship pleas refer this you tube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi3hNsTcda8
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the importance of urban agriculture is to achieve food security for the urban population as well as to improve the city's environment
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Dear Dr Haider,
I expect the urban agriculture will be the most important factors in distribution the land use in the city in future.
regards
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The pattern of illumination is generally referred to as the duration of illumination or the periodicity of lighting. But it contains much more complicated combinations of illumination modes.
For example, instead of 12h on and 12h off in the 24h period, it can be set to 1h on and off, 1min on and off, 1s on and off, 1ms on and off, 1ns on and off, etc. alternatively for 24h and plant responses among different illumination modes can be compared. As a scientific research, such change of illumination modes may lead to some valuable findings.
Furthermore, for the color combination of red:blue 7:3, instead of using a mix of 70% red and 30% blue at the same time, one can illuminate plants using red light for 70% of the time and blue light for 30% of the time, or using red light for 70% of the intensity all the time and blue light for 30% of the time at full intensity, etc.
There could be many other possible combinations and this would cause some unexpected responses from plants and lead to some interesting findings.
I am interested if anyone could share any similar studies or references on the topic mentioned above, with experiments and results.
Thank you!
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https://www.cropsreview.com/photoperiodism.html please read this article on photoperiodism
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I am currently looking for a Journal that is used more by practitioners to publish work on Urban Agriculture and Agriculture Technology methods discoveries.
Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
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I am looking for a research gap to start my B.Sc. thesis on the topic of Vertical Farming, Controlled Environment Agriculture, Urban Agriculture. Any ideas/suggestions?
Thank YOU
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Speaking from production point of view, these topics are burning issues in the above mentioned field:
1. Seed breeding for indoor farming.
2. Impact of indoor farming on the post harvest life of crops.
3. Cost reduction methods and their implications for vertical farming.
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New materials are revolutionizing sectors as diverse as construction and communications. Advanced manufacturing technologies have altered long-standing patterns of productivity and employment. Improved air and sea transportation has greatly accelerated the worldwide flow of people and goods.
All this has both created and mandated greater interdependence among firms and nations. The rapid rate of innovation and the dynamics of technology flows mean that comparative advantage is short-lived. To maximize returns, arrangements such as transnational mergers and shared production agreements are sought to bring together partners with complementary interests and strengths. This permits both developed and developing countries to harness technology more efficiently, with the expectation of creating higher standards of living for all involved. Our results indicate that global distribution diminishes the chance of completing tasks on time and degrades subsystem design quality. can architectural innovation destroys the usefulness of a firm's firm's architectural knowledge but preserves the usefulness of its knowledge about the product's components?
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A simple answer to your question, but not always, will be it depends of the architectural innovation. In addition to that the role of the firm and its orientation will be another factor that should be taken into the account.
You may have a look on these references.
- Henderson, Rebecca M., and Kim B. Clark. "Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms." Administrative science quarterly (1990): 9-30.
- Stieglitz, Nils, and Klaus Heine. "Innovations and the role of complementarities in a strategic theory of the firm." Strategic management journal 28, no. 1 (2007): 1-15.
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Ideally, the tool would capture the spectrum with cameras/sensors on a Raspberry Pi running Linux, and use the Intel Open CV with the Discrete Fourier Transform to analyze the data. I need to measure what frequencies of light are incident on the plant canopy in urban agriculture systems. The quantum flux meter (photo attached) works well, and is cost effective within the PAR bandwidth from 400 nm to 700 nm yet does not parse out the amplitude per individual wavelength nor extend into UV-B and far red bands from 285 nm to 760 nm.
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That is some wavelength range! The short wavelength type APDs (Avalanche photodiode) from Hamamatsu have a very wide range (200 - 1000 nm). Thought the guys who put the PARduino did a good job and you may find it useful - please find open access paper attached.
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I need to gather information about the practice of urban farming such as hydroponic farming and vertical farming in tropical countries that could be applied to the Philippines. Precisely, information about the type of vegetables and crops that could be cultivated and the significant systems and facilities needed to create an urban farm. Thank you.
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you may wish to contact Prof.Mlozi from Sokoine university of Agriculture with email mlozi@sua.ac.tz
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Most land (38.6%) modified by humans for agriculture (pasture + croplands) is about 19.4 million square miles. Another 14.9% (about 7.7 million square miles) is land that is modified for other uses (logging, mines, planted forests, erosion, urban areas). If the urban areas constitute about the 3% of these 7.5 mill. square miles then 58.275 Ha is the land occupied by urban areas in the world. How could I estimate the number of hectares that are used in urban agriculture in the world? Would FAO have this information? Where?
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Hi Massimo and Kenneth,
Thank you for answering/commenting my question. The 58.275Ha are inclusive of roads, buildings, parking lots, shopping malls and similar infrastructure. From my score here above I would like to figure out the actual number of Ha. that are cultivated within urban areas. Thanks!
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Hey everyone, in my thesis one of my goals is to address the current knowledge on solitary bees (group of species). So i made a multiple choice survey covering the basic information about this subject. Which is the best way to analyze data ?
Questions example:
1. What are solitary bees?
A) Bees that do not form Beehive
B) Bees that have separate themselves from the Beehive
C) Bees responsible for collecting food
D) Non-fertile bees
Kind Regards,
Miguel
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Solitary bees are those species which are not eusocial.
That says they have 3 traits together: 1- division of labot /caste system involving sterile individuals that assist those that reproduce. 2- cooperation among colony member in tending the youngs. 3- overlap of generations capable of contributing to colony functioning. This is a basic definition from Gullan & Cranston "The insects - an outline of entomology, all the editions. So your responses (A,B,C and D) are not relevant and not true. Their is a problem with A: what do you call a Bee hive? if it is the "house of the bees" do you call "hive" the hole in the soil or in wood that a solitary bee does to lay her eggs and put food for the future youngs?
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Food production out-puts from cities can be significant and since urbanization is on the rise worldwide I would like to learn more specifically what is/are the impact/s of growing food in cities.
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Urban agriculture may have significant impact on prices of food in the urban area especially in Developing countries as competition will drive down the price. Most food product come from the rural areas, this might mean a fall in rural income. Bust vast opportunities exist for urban agriculture
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Dear experts,
I am going to prepare a research proposal about planting design or about urban agriculture .
Do you have any suggestion or guidance for me?
Best regards,
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Also there is the book:
Frank Lohrberg, Lilli Licka, Lionella Scazzosi, Axel Timpke (eds.):
Urban Agriculture Europe.
Berlin 2016, jovis.
Prof. Dr. Frank Lohrberg is an expert in urban agriculture.
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I am supposed to analyse the Land use/Land cover of some particular area, taking into consideration the various  atmospheric  and land surface conditions- satellite image of which month is best suitable?
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yes otherwise cloud will cover your area and will not get good output(cloud less than 10 %)
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I am interested in evaluating the pollution of an industrial area in my city, making use of mosses. Which method is the most recommended?
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Dear David, the idea of studying pollution status of industrial areas is very good. Infact, mosses have been noted to be the best biological organism to monitor atmospheric pollutants, especially from industries and emissions. 
The idea can be grouped into two: the use of mosses can be applied as either passive biomonitoring or active biomonitoring. Passive biomonitoring is when you adopt the indigenous or native moss species in the study area to biomonitor pollutants whereas the active utilizes mosses from non polluted or isolated areas and being transported to the area of study and left for certain period of time to bioaccumulate pollutant.
In most cases, active biomonitoring is preferred because it gives idea of depositing rate, period which are important in the study. David, I hope this brief intro to the use of mosses for biomonitoring will assist you in getting a foot hold in this area of your study. Regards Clement
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I appreciate if anyone Can Suggest / Provide me with a resource that I can use to get a list of C3 & C4 plants in Egypt?
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C3 and C4 plants is physiological item founded every where not only in Egypt. C4 crops like sorghum and corn. However, C3 plant like wheat and barley. 
Try to get any reference book in physiology, you will find what are you looking for !! Good luck 
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Urban Centers lately have been going green and have been trying to make parks a bigger part of their architecture and in line with that are trees that bring different organisms with them that can affect the overall biodiversity of a city.
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Thank you Firoz!!
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Cause of Slums rapidly increases day by day.
Empects of Slums on urban areas.?
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Slum formation and growth can be attributed to the inadequacies of planning, urban development and governance. Much of the time, planning has no provisions for urban poor with respect to residential and economic activity space. The rural urban migrant or the urban poor (including all the artisans that actively construct the city) that are excluded in land use provisions will naturally create and negotiate own space, adapt it in a manner that it exists as a contradiction of the planned and developed urban sector. Governance becomes a factor in situations where land use provisions are made and the state fails to subsidize the development knowing that the poor can not adequately pay the cost of development.
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The pyrolysis of urban forest and green waste to produce biochar is based on system used in Stockholm, and the utilisation of biochar is key to how the project can be further intergrated into urban ecosystem allowing urban horticulture to beocme a component of improved urban ecosystem that is also community orientated where a cafe/food outlet derives 80% of produce form local growers...the biochar is used to reduce/prevent PAH, VOC & heavy metals entering food chain so the role of green walls, roofs and conversion of brownfield & deralic land to alotments becomes viable.
Is this sort of project feesable and has any one worked on the development of not for profit community horticultural projects of this nature.
Thank-you
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I do not know about locking up of organic pollutants using biochar, but the literature on the analogous process for heavy metals is contestable because many studies fail to discriminate between the effect of sorption and increased pH caused by biochar amendments.  Thisis important as one effect is likelt to have a much longer life than the other.  
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Urban greening (the provision of additional trees and green open space within a city) is widely acknowledged to provide benefits, such as increased mental and physical health, reduction of heat island effect, increasing house prices and protecting biodiversity.
The water sector (water utilities and catchment authorities) are generally expected to provide water supply, sewerage and drainage services to urban areas. In some cities it is now popular to provide wetlands and biofilters sometimes referred to as "green infrastructure", "sustainable urban drainage systems", or "water sensitive urban design".
However aside from these stormwater management systems, what else should water utilities be doing to support urban greening and cooling? 
Do they have a role in coordination and implementation of tree planting? Should policies be put in place to increase irrigation during heat wave events? Do they have authority to influence new developments?
I am interested in everyone's thoughts and also any examples of water authorities becoming involved in greening and cooling, thank you.
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Hi Casey,
while the urban forest plan for Melbourne is great in terms of species and targeting areas to mitigate UHI effect - the horticultural landscape informing how to accomodate stormawater management to best support these trees particularly roadside is lacking; intermittent guttering is an improvement though
I would like to see more innovative modifications to microtopography and strategic species specific plantings  - particularly aggregate plantings of species mixes.
would be interested in further discussion
pjaspencer@alumni.unimelb,edu.au
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Do you know if the effect of these designs were later analysed on the users of the spaces?
I would like to evaluate existing urban green areas (e.g. schoolyards, playgrounds, botanical gardens, etc) to see if and how they are contributing to the goals of environmental education. It would be useful to see designes that were already done in this spirit. Thank you!
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I know some example in Germany, they did implement some projects like putting solar planel on roofs top, greening, small garden. This all include students so that they get education on environmental issues......you can search on City Frankfurt....
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I want to calculate the reduction in runoff and pollutants in urban areas by incorporating trees as one of Green Infrastructure practice.
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Thank you all for your valuable suggestions. I will try to do the same.
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Cellular automata are commonly used for predicting growth patterns of urban settlements and are therefore very useful for urban planning. Still how to apply the results to Cellular Automata predictions in urban design scale?
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Maybe you can have a look at Reinhard Koenigs works: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=Etb2-HEAAAAJ
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What is the role of green land in cities and rural areas? the role of botanical gardens and sanctuaries?
What is the role of forest extension officers and land restorators?
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Botanical gardens act as a way of conserving some of the useful and endangered plant species. In so doing the land cover controls soil erosion in addition to conserving some of the highly valued but threatened species
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I'm interested in identifying the most relevant literature (academic or otherwise) on the topic of smart urban farms (indoor or vertical farms).
Of particular interest are papers that focus on (i) technologies and how its evolving (LEDs etc) (ii) business model (RoI etc) for scale up (iii) case studies ...
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While smart cities have so far mostly focused on building more efficient and sustainable infrastructures, including in terms of energy usage and means of transportation, urban farming is yet to be fully integrated in the urban ecosystem.   In pair with meeting our growing food needs comes reducing our impact on the environment, and smart urban farming might just be the way to do so.
Enclosed attachment can be useful for pursuing your research intent.
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My greenhouse experiment will be concluding soon and I'll be ready to harvest my plant tissues to test for lead, cadmium, and arsenic. I've found a couple different papers giving a vague overview of how they prepared and tested their samples and one that has a pretty decent description of their method, but I wanted to see if any researchers here had a well established protocol (for the whole process from drying out the harvest tissue to digestion. Once it's digested and in the standard solution, the procedure for the ICP-MS should be the same as for anything else.)
Thank you so much! This is my first research project, so I really want to do it well.
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I guess my post is outdated and I hope you had a good experiment. There are some established procedures that  commercial analytical companies would use: just nitric digest, aqua regia on non ashed material or ashed material, but as long as you use appropriate reference material you can asses the quality of the results. This book might be of interest http://www.plantstress.com/methods/Handbook_of_Reference_Methods_for_Plant_Analysis%201998.pdf  
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I am just starting a research about building-related urban agriculture, and in particular farming practices taking place against/on/within the building envelope (rooftop and facades). Is there any literature about architectural and spatial integration of the farming rooms into building or, even better, about buildings' architectural requirements for a proper integration ?
Thank you in advance!
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First indications from the occupant surveys of  people in tall buildings but the case for views on Nature and health are proven since about the early 80s. The Bosca Verticale in Milan is featured a lot but is there any survey of occupants health and well-being for example?
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Dear All,
I have read about the two software programmes developed by the MIT: UMI and ARCHSIM. Have anyone ever used them?
I am looking for a simulation software to model urban agriculture integrated onto buildings'skin (rooftop farms, facade farms, greenhouses) and test its impact on urban microclimate (I work a t a district scale!). I would like to understand if one of these programmes suits the purpose...
Which opportunity do these programmes give me to detail building elements and cover building surfaces with vegetation and shading divices? Is it true that components can be freely modeled in Rhino and materials can be assigned (also vegetation)?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Best regards
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I have used Envimet for microclimate calculation. If you are interested in this software I can give you some more info.
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Dear All,
I would like to make use of the microclimate simulation software ENVI-MET, to test the influence that buildig-related Urban Agriculture operations(such as rooftop/ facade farms or rooftop/facade-based greenhouses) have on the urban microclimate, if they are adopted at an urban scale. I have never used the software before, but I know it works pretty well for modelling and simulating vegetation, and in particular green roofs and green facades. 
Albeit vertical greening has some similarity to rooftop or facade farms, I guess there would be some basical differences in modelling them, as well as in the outcomes. 
Do you know if the software has been ever used for such a purpose?  How do you suggest to model such systems? Can they be approximated somehow?
I have tried to contact the software's developers on info@envi-met.com but the emails are pushed always back...Do you know any othere contacts?
Any suggestions on where to find an ENVI-MET manual and tutorials?
Thank you in advance!
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Dear Lotfollah, Silvia's point is rather beyond the building scale. I think if you are looking at building scale, Envi-Met would not be your best bet. There are plenty of other applications both paid and open source that can help you simulate buildings with some parameters pertaining to outside (as well as inside or the envelope) of the building. Depending on what you are interested in (CFD, Energy Simulation, Indoor Comfort, CO2 Emission, GHG and or non-GHG impacts) you may find different applications some of which are stronger for some aspects while the others are more broadly used for the others. Best, P.
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Anyone knows any references or projects about types of green and hybrid roofs in meditteranean countries (Portugal would be the best option)? Their applications, potentials for energy saving and other externalities, their costs, efficiency etc.?
Also which plants are best suited for green roofs in such meditteranean areas? How easily can such green roofs be managed, and what is their strong as well as weak aspects?
Thanks, Lea
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Dear Lea (and Valerio)
just to add to references and for specific question, please feel free to contact dr. Sergio Andri, a green roof engineer who collaborate with our research team about this highly stimulating topic, and have a look to the papers on his RG profile here after linked .
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Cities collecting and composting organic household waste for urban agriculture reduce the need for industrial fertilizer. Thus the use of compost cuts out the impacts from industrial fertilizers and the production of these fertilizers.
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Thank you for all of your valuable responses which confirm my own understanding of the importance and gains from recovering organic waste. Of course, it is not enough to just recover the organic part of household waste. You are right that wastes produced by humans need to be tackled (reduced or recycled). My research is primarily on resource recovery in developing countries. Unfortunately in many countries in the global south most of the organic household waste is still landfilled. However, change is coming. It is becoming very expensive for governments to maintain landfills and there is more interest in different forms of waste recovery. Here, collecting organic waste for compost or energy production creates many jobs, which is yet another concern in these economies.
My overall concerns are embedded in global environmental concerns. Reducing human interferences in the global phosphor and nitrogen cycle are key challenges. So it is correct to say that organic household waste recovery makes a small contribution to that reduction.
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I would like to investigate how urban agriculture can contribute to stromwater management and organic waste management at a urban level, but focusing on building-related practices, such as (rooftop farms or facade farms). 
Are there relevant examples of cities that integrate building-related agriculture (rooftop farms/facade farms) into green-infrustructures planning? Could I use a casy study method to identify design strategies, implementation criteria and planning instruments? Or should I extend the research to urban land-based practices? 
Thank you in advance!
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Dear Silvia: With respect to storm water everything is possible. It depends of the catchment areas and of the volumes of water that can be effectively collected. Harvesting of rain water can help (as pointed by Subba Rao). However, at first glance, it may seem a little romantic. The question is the percentage of permeable surfaces that can be effectively achieved. I suppose that the traditional idea of urbanism with many green spaces private and public, and with low areas of impermeable surfaces (garden cities) can be perhaps much more effective. Remember that all volumes of pluvial water in excess not retained in basins, natural or artificial flows superficially (see for example any book or chapter of urban hydrology or urban drainage).
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It might be consist of making car free street, cultural event, clearance the obstacle on sidewalk, building color control, building high control, taking electrical wire to the underground...)
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My doctorate studies historical cityscapes that have been rejuvenated. http://www.jondrane.net/research.html
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Urban Agriculture (UA) can be implemented in various ways. For instance rooftop-based, land based, or in a closed controlled environment. Furthermore different cultivation methods are available (e.g. hydroponics, soilless- or soil-based agriculture). In addition, it can also be distinguished between community based concepts, private lots, or profit-orientated approaches, etc.
Aside from that UA can have a beneficial effect on urban infrastructures (storm water management, utilizing waste water and biomass, heat reduction, etc.).
My research focusses on the assessment of sustainable and resilient aspects of UA mainly from an ecological point of view. I would be grateful, if somebody could give me some recommendations how I can assess these values in order to provide a selection matrix as a tool for urban planners to incorporate UA in different urban structure types. Any recommendation is welcome ;)
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Hi. I think that within a decision matrix the decision variable should be energy gain with UA. This variable should be expressed as kW.hr-1 gained, Mega Joules, or kilocalories. The ratio between energy used by traditional agriculture per unit of area versus energy used by UA should be a good indicator of the goodness of the practice in urban areas. In this computations water plays a main role. Other way to view that is trying to answer the question: how many calories are invested for producing one calorie of some product? If the energy produced is higher than that invested then we may consider a good sustainable option.
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I am researching methods or policies that could help to introduce urban agriculture (only produce) as a (legitimate) land-use within CBD or downtowns. refering specifically to American downtowns. It could be in the form of vertical garden- indoor or outdoor, roof top and might also include using hydropnics/aeroponic technology to grow produce.
Having said that, each downtown district (especially ones having residential apartments) would have a minimum of some percentage of agriculture zone allocated within its boundary and would be accessible to public.
I would like to explore options on similar lines for different city types.
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Dear Shruti,
I  am an economist and not an architect, but in one of my article I analyzed this important problem: Horizontal and Vertical Agriculture in Rural and Urban Areas: Scenarios, Contradictions and Impacts.
After studying problems of globalized agriculture in rural areas, called horizontal agriculture, it attempts to highlight the role of the same type of agriculture in urban areas. Urban agriculture, which works also in peri-urban areas, in the towns is a real alternative to conventional agriculture at least for horticultural, small fruits and animals breeding such as poultry. The paper aims also to identify the challenges and opportunities of both urban horizontal and vertical agriculture in order to outline three future scenarios: Scenario I - conventional horizontal agriculture of commodities in rural area and urban vertical agriculture in urban areas (agro-technocratic model); Scenario II - Organic horizontal farming and urban horizontal agriculture (traditional agriculture model); Scenario III - coexistence of scenarios I and II in the landscape and cultural mosaic(predominance of one model or merge between the two models). The aim is to verify the alternative hypotheses of the dominance of one of the two basic scenarios against the convergence towards the third scenario, characterized by larger attention to population welfare and environmental protection.
Unfortunately the article is in only in Italian Language but with the supporto of Google translate one can read it.
Nice regards
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These waters contains lot of pethogens bacteria's and other poisonous heavy metals too. Use of these waters in Peri urban areas for growing vegetables and other crops enhance the chances of entering these pethogens in human food chain. What is your experience in this field please share.
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Majority of the farmers in the developing world prefer wastewater water irrigation as it is a rich source of nutrients while municipal authorities consider this practice as a viable option for disposal. However, untreated/raw industrial effluent being discharged by factories, which ultimately gets mixed with the urban sewage, may contain excessive amounts of heavy metals/metalloids like cadmium, chromium, nickel, manganese, zinc, lead, etc. These metals/metalloids in soil, if present in excessive quantities to permissible levels, may enter the food chain thus becoming toxic to plants and human beings. Despite the great importance of peri-urban informal agriculture as food source for the urban community and as income generation means for the poor dwellers, it is subject to numerous constraints and is causing high health risks. It is, therefore, treatment of sewage should be made mandatory prior to its use in agriculture. Under unavoidable circumstances, wastewater should be diluted with freshwater. But still, it should be got tested from some nearby soil/water/food testing laboratory, especially for its heavy metal contents. To avoid metal entry in to food chain, untreated waste water should preferably be used to irrigate non-vegetable crops such as cotton, ornamental plants, green belts, urban forest plantations, etc. However, a gap of 1-2 years should be given after every 3-4 years of sewage application to allow the soil to come back to the equilibrium. Untreated wastewater irrigation should be avoided to vegetable crops especially leafy vegetables as well as those ones which are consumed raw/uncooked as a salad like cucumber, tomato, carrot, radish etc. Only those vegetable crops should be irrigated that bear above-ground edible parts and are cooked before consumption.
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We are having a workshop in Auckland in 2 weeks to consider urban pressures on the horizon.  The challenge is to think of new ideas, or issues poorly studied, rather than the usual problems or exacerbators of the usual problems. Your ideas would be welcome.
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Dear Margaret
I think "urban ecosystem" must be given special attention because it is an artificial ecosystem. Indeed, the human concentration in cities and expanding urbanization generate a new ecosystem that is superimposed and interferes with the natural ecosystem: the urban ecosystem. An ecosystem is exposed to constant changes that can compromise its coherence and resilience. So it is always in unstable equilibrium, that is, in a situation of dynamic crisis. This is the case of the urban ecosystem that needs an increasingly wide area to meet its needs and compensate for impacts, and is characterized by a growing ecological footprint. One of the goals of sustainable development is to identify or reduce this footprint. It seems to me that the major challenges in the urban ecosystem are represented by the major hazards: floods, earthquakes, and also risks of industrial units explosions to toxic pollutants population.
Best regard
FADEL
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Currently underutilized but valuable urban public space, is the nature strip/verge a viable option for food production?
What are the barriers? What are the benefits?
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Use of nature strips for urban agriculture is an interesting approach how to transform these single-purpose empty spaces into multifunctional urban open spaces. However, nature strips along some roads may be quite impacted by diverse environmental stresses, i.e. air, soil and groundwater pollution (from gasses, oil, de-icing salt etc.) which might impact the food safety. Moreover, safety of users might be an issue as well (depending on the traffic). Therefore, the assessment of this urban design option is very relative, site-specific and hard to generalize. As a landscape planner and architect, I prefer to use these sites for sustainable green stormwater management or tree and perennial plantings.
Cheers from Vienna,
Attila
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I'm particularly interested in heavy metals, and discussions and examples of how water quality monitoring during peak flows can capture information about 1) pollutants that are not present in peak flows, and /or found at lower concentrations in low flows and base flows, (and hence not measured during weekly / monthly grab samples); 2) measure peak flows with regard to seasonal effects, esp. spring and fall 'first flush' from road, urban and agricultural runoff. I have a number of papers on first flush, but am specifically looking for references about effective water quality sampling.
Thanks!!
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I note the need for work on metals, and the following maybe useful on this:
Neal, Colin; Reynolds, Brian; Kirchner, James W.; Rowland, Phil; Norris, Dave; Sleep, Darren; Lawlor, Alan; Woods, Clive; Thacker, Sarah; Guyatt, Hayley; Vincent, Colin; Lehto, Kathryn; Grant, Simon; Williams, Jeremy; Neal, Margaret; Wickham, Heather; Harman, Sarah; Armstrong, Linda. 2013 High-frequency precipitation and stream water quality time series from Plynlimon, Wales: an openly accessible data resource spanning the periodic table. Hydrological Processes, 27 (17). 2531-2539. 10.1002/hyp.9814
Neal, Colin; Reynolds, Brian; Rowland, Philip; Norris, David; Kirchner, James W.; Neal, Margaret; Sleep, Darren; Lawlor, Alan; Woods, Clive; Thacker, Sarah; Guyatt, Hayley; Vincent, Colin; Hockenhull, Kathryn; Wickham, Heather; Harman, Sarah; Armstrong, Linda. 2012 High-frequency water quality time series in precipitation and streamflow: from fragmentary signals to scientific challenge. Science of the Total Environment, 434. 3-12. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.10.072
Kirchner JW and Neal C. 2013. Universal fractal scaling in stream chemistry and its implications for solute transport and water quality trend detection
PNAS 2013 110: 12213-12218.
Halliday SJ, Wade AJ, Skeffington RA, Neal C, Reynolds B, Rowland P, Neal M, Norris D. 2012. New inferences from long term trends, seasonality and shifts in phase and amplitude observed in upland hydrochemistry: Plynlimon, Wales. Science of the Total Environment. 434: 186-200. doi 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.10.052. (includes Al and Fe)
Other work on continuous, sub-daily sampling includes:
Wade AJ, Palmer-Felgate EJ, Halliday SJ, Skeffington RA, Loewenthal M, Jarvie HP, Bowes MJ, Greenway GM, Haswell SJ, Bell IM, Joly E, Fallatah A, Neal C, Williams RJ, Gozzard E, Newman JR, 2012, Hydrochemical processes in lowland rivers: insights from in situ, high-resolution monitoring, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4323-4342, doi:10.5194/hess-16-4323-2012.
Jordan, P., Arnscheidt, J., McGrogan, H., and McCormick, S.: High-resolution phosphorus transfers at the catchment scale: the hidden importance of non-storm transfers, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sc., 9, 685-691, doi:10.5194/hess-9-685-2005, 2005.
Jordan, P., Arnscheidt, A., McGrogan, H., and McCormick, S.: Characterising phosphorus transfers in rural catchments using a continuous bank-side analyser, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sc., 11, 372-381, doi:10.5194/hess-11-372-2007, 2007.
Jordan, P., and Cassidy, R.: Technical note: Assessing a 24/7 solution for monitoring water quality loads in small river catchments, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sc., 15, 3093-3100, doi:10.5194/hess-15-3093-2011, 2011.
Rozemeijer, J. C., Van der Velde, Y., Van Geer, F., De Rooij G. H., Torfs P. J. J. F. and Broers, H. P. Improving load estimates for NO3 and P in surface waters by characterising the concentration response to rainfall events. Environ.. Sci. Technol., 44, 6305-6312.
Halliday SJ, Skeffington RA, Bowes MJ, Gozzard E, Newman JR, Loewenthal M, Palmer-Felgate EJ, Jarvie HP, Wade AJ. 2014. The Water Quality of the River Enborne, UK: Observations from High-Frequency Monitoring in a Rural, Lowland River System. Water 6, 150-180
Halliday SJ, Skeffington RA, Wade AJ, Neal C, Reynolds B, Norris D and Kirchner JW. 2013. Upland streamwater nitrate dynamics across decadal to sub-daily timescales: a case study of Plynlimon, Wales. Biogeosciences 10: 8013-8038
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Hi, I want to make one or more density maps (GIS) on urban agriculture in Rome, I have 4000 polygons differentiated by types (community garden, residential garden etc.) and uses (horticulture, vineyards, olive groves etc.). I thought firstly to kernel density to represent the area density, anyone have other ideas?
Regards
Giuseppe
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Hi Giuseppe,
Maybe I misinterpret but this kind of technique can be used for polygons such as yours. I'm assuming you have (simple case) a shape. When you overlap a regular grid over it each of those cells may be a) completely filled with the polygon (100%) , b) completely outside a polygon (0%) or c) something in between. I'm putting a illustration of the concept to make sure we are talking about the same thing. So you start with the grid and shape, since you know the area of each cell you just calculate the occupied area for each one, and finally you have a colored density map(check image).
The other hypothesis I'm considering is if you have polygons but not of the exact areas of agriculture but just general shapes throughout the city with far less resolution. Is this the case?
I'm not very familiar with kernel density but I believe it's a kind of smoother. I would advise against since that would generate non-null densities in areas where no agriculture exists (unless you're attempting to build a probability based map).
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In many developing countries, rapid urbanization and population growth generate lots of waste including biomass. How can we wisely use those biomass in urban agriculture? I am going to do a research to find a triple win solution among city dwellers, urban farmers, and urban ecosystem services. Any input of knowledge is highly appreciated.
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In many cities all around the world biomass was used very often as an energy source. For example, solid urban residues are use to generate biogas and electric energy (South Africa, Brasil). In Spain, was developed electric generators that burns tree pruning.
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I hope to use the imaging to assess the health of urban trees.
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Thanks Patrick - that is an approach I had not considered. I was thinking more of aerial photography? But I would also need to do some site survey work; in which case this is useful advice. Many thanks for taking the time to respond. 
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What are the basic features for an agricultural scheme to be called as Urban Agriculture?
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Very interesting question.  I have observed a lot of urban agriculture in California, and the only true consistency I would say is that they are located in urban areas.  Some are dirt farmers, some are raised beds on rooftops, some are hydroponics.  Some are private, some are public, some are community run and some are organizationally run. Some grow vegetables, some grow fish, some grown products for value added. Some are focused on production, some on engagement, some on education. Some sell their products some give them away.  I have seen virtually every form of agriculture conceivable be classified as urban agriculture, with the ONLY clear, consistent commonality being that they are located in urban areas.  There are some common themes certainly as others have noted, but none of them are exclusive to, or purely inclusive of, urban agriculture.
One thing I am not sure of that might be worth looking into is that, I think, none of these operations were on lands zoned for agriculture.  That would be an interesting definition of urban agriculture...agriculture practiced on lands zoned residential, commercial, or public rather than zoned for agriculture.
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I am planning to write my thesis on urban agriculture, and look at analyzing which type of urban agriculture technique is best suited to the city of Melbourne, a low density, sprawling city. Whether in this context, the use of vacant blocks of land and public gardens etc is a more viable method than building integrated agriculture, such as rooftop gardens and edible vertical gardens.
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Gemma, I'm not the best with Research Gate and only just stumbled across your question. There's been some recent activity in this field that I should share with you. Admittedly, it's just a passing interest of mine. Give me a call (0435655973) if you wish; it will be more efficient. Andrew (andrewjh@unimelb.edu.au)
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I am looking for best practices about how the neighborhood could be involved with (public) university campus facilities such as using the green areas as community garden or urban farming. I started a community garden in Politecnico di Milano campus two years ago as a result of a research project involving the design students and the community in a co-design process and then in co-managing and I am wondering if there are any other projects like this in other international universities.
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TU Darmstadt has re developed a communal garden in its city centre campus, which was opened recently. It is situated in the trenches round the castle ("Schlossgraben"). Its been developed with an interdisciplinary team of students (including biology and history) and with fundraising from many actors involved.  
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I am working on a project to identify the best suited trees for sustainable urban green cover. Some of the criteria for tree selection are - tree height, good foliage spread, less leaf fall...etc.
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In my opinion, you need to observe the climate and the space size that you have to plant trees and observe where you want shading for solar radiation control. The size of vegetation depends of avaible space. For example, it is recommended to plant tall trees in parks and wide avenues. If you want to develop a landscape design to improve thermal comfort, you need trees that promote adequated shade in different seasons, and promote the wind ventilation. It is important observe trees features as phenology, trunk struckture, crown form and leaves. In my research, trees with plagiotropic trunk, eliptic crown and small leaves as Tipuana Tipu and Casealpinea pluviosa can give well being in different season in the tropics. This trees can promote shade in a big land area.
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My personal interest in this follows an increase in publicity and advocation of "sustainable urban gardening", i.e. using discarded materials such as old tires to create subsistence container gardens in traditionally impoverished high-population density areas or those recovering from natural disasters. While the ability to grow enough nourishing food to sustain life is certainly superior to malnourishment and starvation, I worry about the potential for chronic health risks resulting from increased oral exposure to whatever the decomposition products of tires may be (i.e. PAHs, butadiene, phthalates, metals?). And where food is more easy to obtain, I'm concerned that the potential health risks may begin to outweigh the marginal health benefits. Thoughts? Exposure is not my field of expertise, but I'm curious: has anyone looked for the presence of tire decomposition products in vegetables grown in/near tires? Thank you for your time!
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For a review on aromatic amines (actually undergoing peer review) I have included a result from a German report for the Umweltbundesamt (equivalent to EPA): "Tire wear particles could be a significant source of the human carcinogen ortho-toluidine since extracts from shredded used tires contained on average 58.2 mg/kg (range 0.07-130) of ortho-toluidine." The full text of the report (in German!) can be downloaded: http://kinderumweltgesundheit.de/index2/pdf/dokumente/50076_1.pdf
Ortho-toluidine is blamed for increased bladder cancer incidence in a rubber manufacturing plant in New York State: for review see Carréon, T, Hein, MJ, Hanley, KW, Viet, SM, Ruder, AM: Bladder cancer incidence among workers exposed to o-toluidine, aniline and nitrobenzene at a rubber chemical manufacturing plant. Occup Environ Med 71, 175-182 (2014)
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Different prototype of community gardens can produce new shared territorials that could be public , semi-public or even private in each neighborhood.
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There are two community garden projects in Christchurch, New Zealand, that may be of interest to you to explore this idea: http://www.gardencity.org.nz/agropolis, and the private/public garden across the street that is part of the C1 Espress Cafe. https://www.facebook.com/C1espresso .
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Siltation of drains and lakes has become a problem. Both waste disposal and soil erosion are responsible for siltation. There are different methods for preventing soil erosion like vegetative methods.
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Yes, but revegetation should also consider the use of native species, because in many cities invasive plants are causing a lot of damage to native plants or they could demand more water drying the soil.
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Food supply is fundamental to city life. Urban farm can offer us another form of greenery site apart from some fresh vegetable we need daily. Meanwhile we can do excises by managing our mini farm like our flower garden. It's a promising project for our future urban life.
However, more technical problems and land densification strategy need to be considered.
How do you think the way to develop this idea?
On the basic of exist city center, what is the proper way to develop the architecture for urban farm?
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I agree with Diego, the common way nowadays is using residual spaces. As a future goal, I think that a good urban plan shall consider the environment under holistic considerations, for example developing the green spaces (roofs, green walls, interstitial voids between buildings, terraces, etc...) as possible farms. Roofs are probably the most interesting places to this end, because of their extreme potential in reducing heat island effect, other important goal to achieve using the green.
I think also that users of cities can be the first vector to sustain the importance of this issue in the local government agenda. Under the pressure of citizens, new proposal or regualtions will be probably developed.
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Urban agriculture in this context refers to farming activities by urban households on small pieces of land allocated to them by urban municipalities temporarily for growing grain crops.
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I am acording with you, but it is important considers the urban conditions where the agricultural system have other or complementary activities from the terciary sector.