Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture

The Edible Urban Landscape

An Assessment Method for Retro-Fitting Urban Agriculture Into An Inner London Test Site

Mikey Tomkins
mikeytomkins@gmail.com
MSc Architecture: Advanced Environment and Energy Studies.
July 2006
University of East London,
School of Computing and Technology,
Longbridge Road, Dagenham, RM8 2AS.
Telephone: +44 20 8223 3215

On this web page, we have placed the Absract, and the Table of Contents from the paper. The complete paper (3.3MB PDF) can be downloaded here: Wabiduku Peri-Urban Agricultural (Wapa) Project

Abstract

The Edible Urban Landscape: An Assessment Method for Retro-Fitting Urban Agriculture Into An Inner London Test Site

This thesis explores the practice called urban agriculture (UA), which attempts to cut down on urban food and non-food imports, by growing crops and products on land in and around cities. The practice is wide spread and ultimately necessary in many of the expanding cities of the developing nations, to ensure food security.

However, the prescriptive nature of UK planning laws leaves little, if any room, for self-organised UA practices to evolve, hindered further by the fragmented and undocumented nature of urban green space planning.

This thesis has developed a method, based around Geographical Information Systems (GIS), for retro fitting, measuring and evaluating, a vegetable growing, UA system, which could be integrated into green urban space. The results of the method should be in a format which makes them quantifiable for both architects and planners, so that UA food systems can be considered as a form of renewable energy, along side wind or solar.

This method will be tested in three central London locations. The results were evaluated, relative to their yields per square metre, how they would feed the surrounding population and the CO2 emissions saved on reduced food miles and by eliminating the need to maintain some grasser areas.

The results show that the central London test areas, together with its surrounding environs, are rich in traditional, as well as undocumented open space and that the conversion of 26% of this space to UA practices, could provide 27% of the daily vegetable requirements over a 259 growing period. The method established a ratio of yield of vegetables, per square meter per person, which would be suitable for architects and planners to incorporate into urban planning.

The impact on CO2 from food miles and ground maintenance equipment, was quantifiable but not conclusive, therefore a more comprehensive system of measuring emissions needs to be adopted for further work.

Contents

Acknowledgements:
Contents
List of Tables, figures and illustrations
List of acronyms

Chapter 1

Introduction
1.0. Trafalgar Square
2.0. Landscape
3.0. The Urban Ecosystem 12
4.0. The UA Landscape ....12
5.0. UA in the UK ..13
6.0. Primary Data Collection .............13
7.0. Results and Analysis .13
8.0. Conclusion .....13

Chapter 2

Definitions Of Landscape 15
2.0. Introduction ....15
2.1. The Rural and the Urban ...........15
2.2. First Public Park .........16
2.3. The Leisured Landscape ...........17
2.4. The Green Belt ..........18
2.5. Totality of Planning ....19
2.6. Lawns and Energy Use ..............21
2.7. Defining Urban Landscape ........24
2.8. Summary .......24

Chapter 3

Urban Landscape As Ecosystem ..26
3.0. Introduction ....26
3.1. Urban Growth 26
3.2. Modern Cities and Ecosystems ..27
3.3. The Wild Ecosystem ..28
3.4. An Urban Ecosystem .29
3.5. Food, Cities and Climate Change 30
3.6. Formal Food Delivery Systems ..30
3.7. The Environmental Footprint ......31
3.8. LondonŐs Environmental Footprint 32
3.9. Food Transport as a Key Element 32
3.10. Food Miles ...34
3.11 Summary ......35

Chapter 4

UA Landscapes ...37
4.0. Introduction ....37
4.1. UA: Definitions ...........37
4.2. UA: Practices .38
4.3. UA: Distinctions .........38
4.4. Example of UA Worldwide .........39
4.4.1 UA in Kenya and Tanzania .............39
4.4.2 UA in China as an Example of Reducing Food Miles ....40
4.4.3 Havana, Cuba: Advanced UA .........40
4.5. Efficiency of Agricultural Systems Appropriate to the Urban Scale .............42
4.6. Example Micro-Agricultural Systems, Suitable for UA ..42
4.6.1 Marais Paris .42
4.6.2. The UK Allotment ........43
4.6.3 War: The Paradigm Shift 45
4.7 Summary ........47

Chapter 5

UA For The UK ....49
5.0. Introduction ....49
5.1 Integrated UA: The Garden City as Example .49
5.2 UK, UA and Planning: a Literature Review .....49
5.3. Guinness Trust ..........50
5.4. Land: the Base Energy Source of UA ...........51
5.5. Planning for Green Space ..........51
5.6. UA Assessment Methods ...........54
5.7. Geographical Information Systems 54
5.8. Summary .......56

Chapter 6

Primary Data Collection .58
6.0. Introduction ....58
6.1. Measuring Input/Output Data .....58
6.2. Methodology and Research Design ..............58
6.3 Method Đ The Elephant and Castle, London ..60
6.3.1 Stage 1 Digital Map Creation ..........62
6.3.2 Stage 2: Qualitative and Quantitative Data Collection ...63
6.3.3 Stage 3 Division of Infrastructure Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data.63
6.3.4 Stage 4 Separation Food Growing Areas .......64
6.3.5 Stage 5 Assessing Yields and Food Miles .....66
6.3.6 Stage 6 Results, Analysis and Conclusion .....68
6.4. Summary .......69

Chapter 7

Results And Analysis .....70
7.0. Introduction ....70
7.1. Area, Results and Analysis ........70
7.2. The Potential UA Component ....72
7.3. Potential Yields ..........73
7.4. Yields Relative to Density ..........73
7.5. Planning for Urban Green Space .74
7.6. Yields Relative to Food Miles and CO2 .........74
7.7. Yields Relative to Current Ground Maintenance and CO2 ...........76
7.8. Analysis of Metro-Agricultural System ...........78
7.9. Elephant, Burgess and Some Guinness .......78
7.10. Range of Results Relative to Wider Picture 79
7.11. Analysis of Method ..80
7.12. Summary .....80

Chapter 8

Conclusion ..........82
8.0. Introduction ....82
8.1. Green Space and Urban Planning 82
8.2. Yields, Density and the Energy Question ......83
8.3. CO2 Emissions ...........84
8.4. Methodology and Research Design ..............84
8.5. Summary .......85

Chapter 9

Limitations And Further Work .......86
9.0. Introduction ....86
9.1. Limitations and Further Work .....86
9.1.0. Yields ..........86
9.1.1. Foods Miles and Food Access Mappping ......86
9.1.2. Existing trees ..............86
9.1.3. The feed back loop .....87
9.1.4 Animals and fruit ..........87
9.1.5. Method .......87

Appendix

Appendix 1: Ransomes Commander 3520 .............89
Appendix 2: NSALG .............91
Appendix 3: Eating Oil, Jones, 2002 ........92
Appendix 4: Ford Focus ........93
Appendix 5. London Ecology Unit ............94
Appendix 6: Email correspondence with NSALG ....96
References and Bibliography ........97

List of Tables, figures and illustrations

Table 1: Emissions from Grass-Cutting. Commander 3520 ..........22
Table 2: Estimated Consumption/Emissions per Patio Heater per Year .......22
Table 3: Emission Factors For Non-Road Modes (g/tkm) ..............34
Table 4: Extent of UA in Havana, Cuba, 1997 .40
Table 5: Cuba, a Summary of Production Mode, Producers and Average Yields........41
Table 6: Energy Balance for Average 19thC Parisian Marais .........43
Table 7: Allotments England and Wales .........44
Table 8: UA in London with an Expected Yield of 10.7 tonnes per ha ..........54
Table 9: Potential Land Set Aside the UA as Percentage .............65
Table 10: Produce, Food Miles and CO2 Emissions .......68
Table 11: Average Vegetable Consumption UK .............68
Table 12:Yields as a Product of Area ..............73
Table 13: Average Vegetable Consumption ....73
Table 14: Food miles, yields and CO2 .............75
Table 15: CO2 saved by UA, as a direct replacement for imported food .......76
Table 16: Estimated Emissions, Ransomes, Commander 3520 ....76
Table 17: The Three Test Sites Compared .....78

Illustration

Illustration 1: The Fens, England .15
Illustration 2: Derby Arboretum, the First Public Park .....17
Illustration 3: Landscape Transformed - Before and After Loudon 17
Illustration 4: Green Belt Exhibition 1939 ........18
Illustration 5 The Green Belt: Left - England, Right - London ........19
Illustration 6: Moor House, City of London, the Artificial and the Ornamental..............19
Illustration 7: Golden Square, London. The Ornamental Architectural Urban Landscape
Illustration 8: Keep Off The Grass, Canary Wharf, London ...........21
Illustration 9: The Commander 3520, Burgess Park. April 2006 ....21
Illustration 10: How Green is your Grass? Energy Used in Turf Production .23
Illustration 11: The Growth of London, 16th Century to 19th Century .............27
Illustration 12: The Natural Ecosystem ............28
Illustration 13: The Urban and Rural Ecosystem ............29
Illustration 14: Linear Metabolism (left) and Circular Metabolism (right) .......29
Illustration 15: The Urban Ecosystem .............30
Illustration 16: Distinctions of UA .39
Illustration 17: Urban Agriculture stall, off Maximo Gomez Monte. Havana Cuba. March 2006
Illustration 18: Before and After, Allotments in Greenwich Park, World War 2.............45
Illustration 19 Suburban Development as a Replacement for Farmland .......46
Illustration 20: The Urban Food Grower and Urban Leisure Garden, Grosvenor Terrace, London, SE5 ...........47
Illustration 21: Guinness Trust Estate UA - March to June, 2005 ..50
Illustration 22: George, One of Three Gardeners who Grows Food in the UA plots.....51
Illustration 23: Planning for Density and Food .52
Illustration 24: Three Examples of Continuous Green Urban Landscapes ...53
Illustration 25: Christopher Saxton, A Cadastral Map England and Wales, 1579, to Show Ownership ..55
Illustration 26: GIS and a Canadian suburb ....56
Illustration 27: Overview of Methodology ........59
Illustration 28: Research Design ..60
Illustration 29: The Elephant and Castle Roundabout ....61
Illustration 30: The Three UA Areas Outlined on a Map of South London ....61
Illustration 31: The seven stages of UA mapping method .............62
Illustration 32: Satellite Image Juxtaposed with OS Raster Map ...62
Illustration 33: OS Data Combined with Photography from Site Visits, Manor Place, SE17 ........63
Illustration 34: Example of Combining Raster Maps with Colour-Coded Vectors.........64
Illustration 35: UA Plots Inserted into Elephant and Castle (close up of large area)....65
Illustration 36: Elephant and Castle Test Area and Environs .........66
Illustration 37: Food Access Maps .67
Illustration 38: Dog free areas, ShepardŐs Bush, London ..............71
Illustration 39: Sheep as Lawnmower, Hook Van Holland .............77

Charts

Chart 1: Percentage of Council and Private estates Used for Food Production, 1942.46
Chart 2: GIS Data for Green Spaces and the Elephant Test Site ..72
Chart 3: Breakdown of Potential UA Space from 35.53 ha Total ...72
Chart 4: Public UA Area (5.72ha), Banded by Size ........74
Chart 5: Comparison of the Three Areas ........79

Graphs

Graph 1: London Population 1801 - 2016 .......26
Graph 2: World Population, 1950 - 2030 .........27
Graph 3: Energy Input for Whole Chicken .......31
Graph 4: Total World Biologically Productive Land, 12.6 billion hectares .....31
Graph 5: Ecological Footprint of Londoners ....32
Graph 6: UK Food Transport Mode Compared With Associated Emissions (2002).....33
Graph 7: Air Imports by Food Type and Source / Destination .......34
Graph 8: Total Production and Yields of Organop—nico 1994 to 1999 ..........41
Graph 9: Urban food production. Paris 1844 to 1889 .....43
Graph 10: Breakdown of UA as a Component of Total Area .........71





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