Geospatial characteristics of allotment garden provision in Tokyo

Urban Farm DB summary

Quantitatively classifies roughly 430 registered allotment gardens in Tokyo by number of plots, plot size, price, contract duration, and facilities, mapping their spatial distribution and providers. Most allotments were founded after 2000 and are owned by local governments, yet demand for plots exceeds supply across much of the metropolis.

Only numbers and their conditions are stored, as structured data — never the source's own sentences. Metric and condition names stay in English, as coded.

• 313

  gardens sampled(allotment garden)

  Policyn = 313

  region

  JP-13

  city

  tokyo-metropolitan-region

  setting

  urban

  data source

  governmental-open-data

  study design

  non-hierarchical-cluster-analysis

• 6

  provision patterns identified(allotment garden)

  Policyn = 313

  region

  JP-13

  city

  tokyo-metropolitan-region

  study design

  non-hierarchical-cluster-analysis

• agricultural land share and resident socio demographics

  provision differentiation factors(allotment garden)

  Policyn = 313

  region

  JP-13

  city

  tokyo-metropolitan-region

  study design

  kruskal-wallis-test

  factors

  population, percentage of young population, income levels, city-center-to-suburb gradient

Direction of conclusions

Each author conclusion is recorded only as a coded direction per topic. Read the original for the conclusion itself.

• Equity / gentrificationSupports
• Policy and governanceSupports

Abstract Allotment gardens (AGs), one of the most popular forms of urban agriculture (UA), have attracted social attention because of the ecosystem services they provide to citizens. However, the services and availability of AGs may be unevenly distributed, owing to their geographic location. The patterns underlying the provision of AG plots and facilities to users in Tokyo are unclear. Thus, this study quantitatively examines the characteristics of different types of AG provision and their determinants in the metropolitan region of Tokyo. We classified a sample of 313 AGs gathered from governmental open data via a non-hierarchical cluster analysis of AG provision patterns based on their properties, including number of plots, plot size, contract price and duration, and facilities such as agricultural equipment and access to instructors. Moreover, we examined the influence of urban development and residential characteristics on these classes using the Kruskal–Wallis test. The analysis identifies six AG provision patterns based on their properties. It also revealed that AG provision in Tokyo was differentiated by the percentage of agricultural land and the socio-demographic characteristics of residents, including population, percentage of young population, and income levels from the city center to the suburban areas, corresponding to urban sprawl. These findings could provide valuable insights to help local governments, farmers, and non-profit organizations address the challenges and opportunities arising from each AG provision pattern and to make AG plots and facilities more adaptable to upcoming urban shrinkage, business opportunities, and possible excessive subdivision and price hikes.