Agroecology for the City—Spatialising ES-Based Design in Peri-Urban Contexts
Richard Morris, Shannon Davis, Gwen‐Aëlle Grelet, Pablo Gregorini
Land
Urban Farm DB summary
Applying a GIS-based model (ESMAX), this study tests a spatial method called "Agroecology for the City," aimed at maximizing ecosystem services (ES) in outwardly expanding peri-urban development. Agroecological farm system (AFS) parcels of 1 ha and 4 ha were configured within a real-world 200 ha peri-urban residential development to identify arrangements maximizing the supply of three regulating ecosystem services the local community identified as critical, plus multifunctional performance across them. Configurations with AFS parcels interspersed evenly among built-up areas provided the best multifunctionality across the four ecosystem services tested.