The urban stormwater farm

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Liebman ◽  
O. J. Jonasson ◽  
R. N. Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Food Miles ◽  
Impervious Areas

Currently more than 3 billion people live in urban areas. The urban population is predicted to increase by a further 3 billion by 2,050. Rising oil prices, unreliable rainfall and natural disasters have all contributed to a rise in global food prices. Food security is becoming an increasingly important issue for many nations. There is also a growing awareness of both ‘food miles’ and ‘virtual water’. Food miles and virtual water are concepts that describe the amount of embodied energy and water that is inherent in the food and other goods we consume. Growing urban agglomerations have been widely shown to consume vast quantities of energy and water whilst emitting harmful quantities of wastewater and stormwater runoff through the creation of massive impervious areas. In this paper it is proposed that there is an efficient way of simultaneously addressing the problems of food security, carbon emissions and stormwater pollution. Through a case study we demonstrate how it is possible to harvest and store stormwater from densely populated urban areas and use it to produce food at relatively low costs. This reduces food miles (carbon emissions) and virtual water consumption and serves to highlight the need for more sustainable land-use planning.

scholarly journals The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security in Rural and Urban Settlements in Benin: Do Allotment Gardens Soften the Blow?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7313
Author(s):  
Mawuna Donald Houessou ◽  
Annemijn Cassee ◽  
Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Allotment Gardens ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Rural Producers ◽  
Cordon Sanitaire

A Rapid Food Security Appraisal among 240 rural and urban dwellers in southern Benin was conducted, using univariate and bivariate analyses, to evaluate the effects of the imposed COVID-19 ‘cordon sanitaire’ on food consumption patterns. As this is one of the first empirical studies on the COVID-19 food security nexus, we found that the raging pandemic has affected the food security pillars (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability) in both rural and urban areas, within and outside the cordon sanitaire. The steepest decline was observed among respondents who live inside the cordon sanitaire, where rural producers and urban inhabitants without access to allotment gardens were hit hard. Increased food prices, disruptions in food logistics, and inability to work due to movement restrictions were most frequently indicated as reasons for the decline. Access to allotment gardens effectively supported households in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food crisis.

scholarly journals GIS and land cover-based assessment of ecosystem services in the North Karelia Biosphere Reserve, Finland

2019 ◽  
Vol 197 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Poikolainen ◽  
Guilherme Pinto ◽  
Petteri Vihervaara ◽  
Benjamin Burkhard ◽  
Franzeska Wolff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Biosphere Reserves ◽  
The North ◽  
Promising Tool

Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services are key principles behind the establishment of “Biosphere Reserves”. Mapping of ecosystem services is one of the activities that is expected to increase the knowledge of sustainable land use planning. The Biosphere Reserves, established by the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, aims to find the balance between nature conservation, use of natural resources, recreation and other culture-related activities. For this purpose, the ecosystem services approach is a promising tool for examining the relationships between people and nature in practice. This study applies the ecosystem services approach and examines which ecosystem services are perceived to be relevant in the North Karelia Biosphere Reserve in Eastern Finland. The results of a matrix method, with expert-based approach, showed that particularly old-growth forests and undrained open and forested mires have a broader potential to provide different ecosystem services. Water and urban areas are considered important for cultural services. However, these areas cover only a relatively small area altogether. The results of the ecosystem services assessment were compared to areas of high biodiversity, as defined by local biodiversity experts. The areas with high capacity for ecosystem services provision (from now on “high ecosystem services areas”) were found in areas with high biodiversity. In most cases, these areas are already under protection. The results also showed that ambiguity is an issue with the use of the ecosystem services concept in both stakeholder and expert evaluations.

scholarly journals GREEN OPEN SPACE IN LARGE SCALE HOUSING ESTATES: A PLACE FOR CHALLENGE

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Treija ◽  
Ugis Bratuškins ◽  
Edgars Bondars
Keyword(s):  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Spatial Composition ◽  
New Construction ◽  
Ownership Reform ◽  
Housing Estates

The renewal of urban areas by developing green open spaces increases the overall quality of life and helps to reduce social exclusion. Urban green open space can help to constitute a framework where urban society and culture can develop, and to increase identity and a sense of community. It can be used to provide a ground for education and raise an awareness of the way ecosystems function and how urban functions can be integrated into the natural system. Despite the known socio-economic benefits resulting from it, considerations regarding sustainable land use planning often occupy a secondary role when designing city quarters. There exist many pressures – essentially market-related and driven by short-term thinking – for unsustainable development. Housing ownership reform, carrying out denationalization and privatization, along with a core capital for many inhabitants has also created a range of problems – one of them: as a result of denationalisation of land properties, when the land in large-scale residential districts was returned to the previous owners and then provided as the minimum required land to the privatised buildings, the original spatial composition of districts was completely destroyed, creating a legal basis for new construction in large-scale residential districts.

IMPACTS OF URBAN LAND USE ON CRIME PATTERNS THROUGH GIS APPLICATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Nazri Muhamad Ludin ◽  
Norsiah Abd. Aziz ◽  
Nooraini Hj Yusoff ◽  
Wan Juliyana Wan Abd Razak
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Drug Abuse ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Land Use Patterns

Land use planning plays a crucial role in creating a balance between the needs of society, physical development and the ecosystem. However, most often poor planning and displacement of land uses particularly in urban areas contribute to social ills such as drug abuse and criminal activities. This research explains the spatial relationship of drug abuse and other criminal activities on urban land use planning and their implications on the society at large. Spatial statistics was used to show patterns, trends and spatial relationships of crimes and land use planning. Data on crime incidents were obtained from the Royal Malaysia Police Department whilst cases of drug abuse were collected from the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK). Analysis of the data together with digital land use maps produced by Arnpang Jaya Municipal Council, showed the distribution of crime incidents and drug abuse in the area. Findings of the study also indicated that, there was a strong relationship between petty crimes, drng abuse and land use patterns. These criminal activities tend to concentrate in residential and commercial areas of the study area.

Resource Endowments in Emerging Market Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 097491012110043
Author(s):  
Liu Qingjie
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Fossil Energy ◽  
Consumption Structure ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Emerging Market Countries ◽  
Consumption Reduction ◽  
Per Capita

This article examines the emerging market countries on their national strategic resources—farmland, fresh water, and fossil energy—which are analyzed from the perspectives of distribution, status of development, and existing issues. The study draws the following conclusions: Emerging market countries have abundant farmland resources yet inadequate per capita resources; because of extensive operation on farmland, grain yield is low, which threatens food security; emerging market countries are saliently short in water resources per capita and face imbalances and low productivity over water use, and their agriculture practices are water-intensive; emerging market countries are growing as global centers for production, consumption, and trade of fossil energy, with a long, coal-dominated consumption structure that has a growing momentum, which subjects them to a greater pressure to reduce carbon emissions; and emerging market countries are inefficient in the use of energy, though they have huge potential for energy conservation and consumption reduction.

scholarly journals Agro-economic and socio-environmental assessments of food and virtual water trades of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Karandish ◽  
Hamideh Nouri ◽  
Marcela Brugnach
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Water Crisis ◽  
Food Trade ◽  
Water Limitations

AbstractEnding hunger and ensuring food security are among targets of 2030’s SDGs. While food trade and the embedded (virtual) water (VW) may improve food availability and accessibility for more people all year round, the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trade needs to be revisited. In this research, we assess the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trades under two food security scenarios for Iran, a country suffering from an escalating water crisis. These scenarios are (1) Individual Crop Food Security (ICFS), which restricts calorie fulfillment from individual crops and (2) Crop Category Food Security (CCFS), which promotes “eating local” by suggesting food substitution within the crop category. To this end, we simulate the water footprint and VW trades of 27 major crops, within 8 crop categories, in 30 provinces of Iran (2005–2015). We investigate the impacts of these two scenarios on (a) provincial food security (FSp) and exports; (b) sustainable and efficient blue water consumption, and (c) blue VW export. We then test the correlation between agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators and provincial food security. Our results show that most provinces were threatened by unsustainable and inefficient blue water consumption for crop production, particularly in the summertime. This water mismanagement results in 14.41 and 8.45 billion m3 y−1 unsustainable and inefficient blue VW exports under ICFS. “Eating local” improves the FSp value by up to 210% which lessens the unsustainable and inefficient blue VW export from hotspots. As illustrated in the graphical abstract, the FSp value strongly correlates with different agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators, but in different ways. Our findings promote “eating local” besides improving agro-economic and socio-environmental conditions to take transformative steps toward eradicating food insecurity not only in Iran but also in other countries facing water limitations.

scholarly journals Geophysical surveys integrated with rainfall data analysis for the study of soil piping phenomena occurred in a densely urbanized area in eastern Sicily

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziano Patti ◽  
Sabrina Grassi ◽  
Gabriele Morreale ◽  
Mauro Corrao ◽  
Sebastiano Imposa
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rainfall Data ◽  
Soil Subsidence ◽  
Hydrogeological Characteristics ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Soil Piping ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Surface Collapse

AbstractThe occurrence of strong and abrupt rainfall, together with a wrong land use planning and an uncontrolled urban development, can constitute a risk for infrastructure and population. The water flow in the subsoil, under certain conditions, may cause underground cavities formation. This phenomena known as soil piping can evolve and generate the surface collapse. It is clear that such phenomena in densely urbanized areas represent an unpredictable and consistent risk factor, which can interfere with social activities. In this study a multidisciplinary approach aimed to obtain useful information for the mitigation of the risks associated with the occurrence of soil piping phenomena in urban areas has been developed. This approach is aimed at defining the causes of sudden soil subsidence events, as well as the definition of the extension and possible evolution of these instability areas. The information obtained from rainfall data analysis, together with a study of the morphological, geological and hydrogeological characteristics, have allowed us to evaluate the causes that have led to the formation of soil pipes. Furthermore, performance of 3D electrical resistivity surveys in the area affected by the instability have allowed us to estimate their extension in the subsoil and identifying the presence of further areas susceptible to instability.

Summary and conclusions from the SIWI Seminar for Young Water Professionals Drainage basin security - implications of virtual water trade and agricultural subsidies at regional, national and local levels

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 215-218
Author(s):  
Å. Johannessen
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Agricultural Subsidies ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Generating Capacity ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Different Levels

This is a summary of the Young Water Professionals Seminar involving more than 50 young people from all over the world working with water. The presentations and following discussion were very lively and were about how subsidies and trade barriers imposed by the developed countries are influencing the income-generating capacity of millions of people in the developing world. Even though this is a very complex issue not easily resolved during the seminar it was also clear that there are some fundamental problems that need to be addressed. The importance of looking for solutions at different levels (i.e. local, regional, national) was highlighted as well as the policy of double standards, preaching free trade but only for the benefit of overdeveloped countries themselves. Further it was discussed how to achieve basin security through food security, and managing water for food security. The conclusion was that win-win solutions would be made if agricultural subsidies were to be completely removed.

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