Allocative Efficiency of Grid Farming in Urban Green Built Environments

Aaryan Nair; New York City College of Technology

The United Nations’s Intergovernmental agricultural reliant nations, such as India or

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC Summit Brazil, which account for agriculture to be
2018) highlighted and discussed key the key source of employment for 54%, and
discrepancies in the urban built agriculture 51% of their populations respectively.
system compared to rural environments. The
study addressed deficiencies in the net loss
of biodiversity, nutrient leaching, and
generally low productivity agriculture.
Despite sevenfold in the total space
allocation (Springer 2015), and total
distributary grants exceeding $75M in New
York alone over the past two decades, the
urban built environment falls well below the
efficiency standards of the Continuous
Productive Urban Landscape program. This
needs to be further examined due to the
accelerated urbanization of traditionally
 space. Due to a combination of
disinvestment, suburbanization and
One solution could be the application of
hyperinflation of properties in the CBD,
agroecological principles in urban grid
there has been large swathes of vacant
farming. In agroecosystems, agricultural
unproductive land in CBD’s of most major
production follows ecological necessity and
cities. According to Newman et al., 2016,
they have been
approximately 16% of the hyper urban areas
credited to support the creation of socially
in Midwestern and Southern cities have been
just food systems and places (Altieri, 1999).
categorized as vacant. Mobilizing this
Increased awareness in the conservation-
availability of arable unused lands with local
regeneration of grid systems could
community planning could potentially
potentially reduce the nutrient leaching, and
address the disparity in food access the
potentially improve the yields of produce.
availability, access, and distribution in
Another proposition in the same vein is the
improving the quality of life of the most
development of intersecting landscape,
affected population demographic- low-
agriculture and ecology in a new spatial
income neighborhoods, and traditional
typology.
worker towns. (Mok et al., 2014)
An important aspect to consider in landscape
Disparity in locally produced fresh produce
ecology is the idea of spatial heterogeneity,
occurs due to a combination of poor
whilst also enhancing functional biodiversity
distribution, low fund allocation, and
to bring sustainability to urban built
general neglect in maintaining premises.
environments. Essentially, we would need to
Therefore, this would necessitate
integrate agroecological food production
multifaceted solutions to address this in low-
with local governmental spatial planning.
income areas. Rather than aiming for

homogeneity in locally managed gardens,

implementation of culturally sensitive
Another interesting solution we could adopt
farming projects could be attempted. This
is the conversion of vacant parcels into
could reinstate traditional farming practices
urban agriculture and other forms of green
and make use of native expertise and also be
treated as part of an educational culture.
Socially, this might minimize communal
neglect, and might be better maintained.
Furthermore, the local produce could be
absorbed by nearby cafes, farmer’s markets,
and native restaurants. The parks could
provide school-gardening classes or serve
recreational tourns for the urban population.
Ecological literacy and food literacy could
be acquired as part of general education,
imparting endemic farming practices and
expertise to the next generation. This could
massively drive-up commercial interest from
the increased tourism regurgitating
investment, and hopefully creating a positive
cycle.
Adopting macro farming techniques into
urban grids could be massively enhance
biodiversity while also integrating aesthetic
quality. This could be locally adapted to the
geography such as incorporating mosaic
habitats in local community parks, or
developing terrace farming on apartment
complexes. Adopting mosaic habitats with
its changing pattern of food growth of
reconstructive patches could serve as an
ecological corridor for the circulation of
biodiversity on these patches, allowing
distribution of plant and wildlife species.
Adopting vegetation strips between food
producing patches would restrict soil
nutrient loss leaching and soil erosion. This
patching of the grid could also moderate the
stress on the soil. Research by Vasimov et
al. have suggested that aligning existing GI
concepts to include food-system activities
can be the sustainable choice for an
agroecological transition, and a food-
productive GI can provide space for
economic production and social benefits
while addressing the key agroecological
concerns of urbanization and climate
change.
 Bohn, K., & Chu, D. (2021).
Food‐productive green infrastructure:
Enabling agroecological transitions from an
urban design perspective. Urban Agriculture
& Regional Food Systems, 6(1)
doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/uar2.20017

Thiesen, T., Bhat, M. G., Liu, H., & Rovira,

R. (2022). An ecosystem service approach to
assessing agro-ecosystems in urban
landscapes. Land, 11(4), 469.
doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/land11040469

Amani-Beni, M., Xie, G., Yang, Q., Russo,

A., & Khalilnezhad, M. R. (2022). Socio-
cultural appropriateness of the use of
historic persian gardens for modern urban
Essentially, we would need to develop edible gardens. Land, 11(1), 38.
frameworks to develop standards for doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010038
developing the built environment in urban
spaces. These frameworks would need to
adjusted for the local terrain, population
concentration and be mindful of the ethnic
and cultural components. Collaborative
work with the local policy makers, funding
agencies, and local community farming
experts is necessary for developing
programs that can be sustainable, large scale
and efficient. Although concepts like
greenways, GI’s and CPUL’s are all within
experiment stages, we can adopt
methodologies and concepts to improve the
allocative efficiency of grid farming in the
urban built environment.

References

Thapa, B., Banerjee, A., Wilson, J., &

Hamlin, S. (2021). Strategic placement of
urban agriculture: A spatial optimization
approach. Urban Agriculture & Regional
Food Systems, 6(1)
doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/uar2.20019