Search

There is a significant amount of evidence highlighting the health, wellbeing and social benefits of gardening during previous periods of crises. These benefits were also evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents a narrative review exploring gardening during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the different forms of gardening that took place during this crisis and key elements of this activity. Research about gardening during the pandemic focused on food (in)security and disrupted food systems, the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening, and the social dimensions of gardening. We offer three vignettes of our own research to highlight key insights from local, national and international perspectives of gardening during the pandemic. The paper's conclusion outlines how researchers, policy makers and public health practitioners can harness what has been learned from gardening during the pandemic to ensure these benefits are more widely available and do not exacerbate already entrenched health inequalities in society. • Gardening during times of crisis offers significant public health benefits. • Social and health benefits associated with gardening were evident during COVID-19. • This paper explores literature on what gardening during COVID-19 looked like. • There is a need to strengthen the role of gardening in policy to be prepared for future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Scenarios are a useful tool to help think about and visualise the future and, as such, are utilised by many policymakers and practitioners. Future scenarios have not been used to explore the urban context in much depth, yet have the potential to provide valuable insights into the robustness of decisions being made today in the name of sustainability. As part of a major research project entitled Urban Futures, a toolkit has been developed in the UK to facilitate the use of scenarios in any urban context and at any scale relevant to that context. The toolkit comprises two key components, namely, (i) a series of indicators comprising both generic and topic area-specific indicators (e.g., air quality, biodiversity, density, water) that measure sustainability performance and (ii) a list of characteristics (i.e., 1–2-sentence statements about a feature, issue or small set of issues) that describe four future scenarios. In combination, these two components enable us to measure the performance of any given sustainability indicator, and establish the relative sensitivity or vulnerability of that indicator to the different future scenarios. An important aspect of the methodology underpinning the toolkit is that it is flexible enough to incorporate new scenarios, characteristics and indicators, thereby allowing the long-term performance of our urban environments to be considered in the broadest possible sense. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Existing studies on FEW nexus do not consider urban agriculture. • A nexus enhances assessment of urban agriculture, but must include social dynamics. • We propose a FEWP (Food/Energy/Water/People) nexus for urban agriculture. Many studies examine the correlation between the use of resources such as water, energy and land, and the production of food. These nexus studies focus predominantly on large scale systems, often considering the social dimensions only in terms of access to resources and participation in the decision-making process, rather than individual attitudes and behaviours with respect to resource use. Such a concept of the nexus is relevant to urban agriculture (UA), but it requires customisation to the particular characteristics of growing food in cities, which is practiced mainly at a small scale and produces not only food but also considerable social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. To this end, this paper proposes a new conceptual basis for a UA Nexus, together with an assessment methodology that explicitly includes social dimensions in addition to food, energy and water. The conceptual basis introduces People, together with Food, Energy and Water, as a fundamental factor of the UA Nexus. On this basis, a methodology is developed measuring not only resource efficiency and food production but also motivations and health benefits. It comprises a combination of methods such as diaries of everyday UA practices, a database of UA activities, life cycle assessment (LCA), and material flow analysis to connect investigations developed at a garden scale to the city scale. A case study shows an application of the methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role that soil-less methods of food production can play in urban agriculture, particularly in projects that are run by community groups. Over the last years, a drive by people to engage in sustainable lifestyles has resulted in a surge in urban agriculture. Typically, on-soil horticulture is greatly appreciated by urban farmers for its invaluable contribution to urban ecology. Yet, some community projects across Europe are experimenting with indoor soil-less methods, which offer an opportunity to reduce the waste of resources such as water and space, including valuable greenspace. Against this backdrop, the paper investigates the drivers and barriers that may facilitate or hinder soil-less methods for urban farmers. We triangulate information from the literature with a small-scale pilot study, based on interviews in a community garden in Portsmouth, UK, in which a small hydroponic unit was utilised by a group of experienced farmers. We subsequently compare results with a previous pilot study, similar in design but with interviewees who have limited experience in growing food. Qualitative results show a general appreciation of the environmental advantages that the hydroponic unit can yield and at the same time diffidence towards a hydroponic produce which is perceived as non-natural in both groups. Quantitative analysis showed that 90% of experienced farmers had prior knowledge of soil-less methods against 42% of the wider sample group. We conclude that, for the participants to the pilots, higher knowledge of soil-less systems does not necessarily lead to higher acceptance. Yet, feedback gathered suggests that there is interest in soil-less methods, which appears to be linked to the propensity of community gardens to test new arrangements and techniques within their projects. Image 1002898 • Factors preventing use of hydroponics in urban agriculture are poorly understood. • Hindering factors include use of chemicals and hydroponics perceived as non-natural. • Hindering factors are stronger amongst experienced urban gardeners. • Awareness of overall environmental benefits of hydroponics can combat reservations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]