Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2017·United States (California)

Drought, water access, and urban agriculture: a case study from Silicon Valley

Lucy Diekmann, Leslie Gray, Gregory A. Baker

Local Environment

Urban Farm DB summary

This case study in Santa Clara County, California, used interviews and surveys to explore the implications of historic drought for urban agriculture (UA). It found that metropolitan California's decentralized water supply and diverse institutional arrangements create an uneven landscape of water access for UA. This results in geographically and socially differentiated pressures on UA water users to change water-consuming practices, with responses varying due to site-specific sociotechnical arrangements and UA purposes.