Scenarios for controlled environment agriculture planning and implementation in a city-region

Urban Farm DB summary

Using the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada as a case study, this paper defines and assesses the tradeoffs across six common scenarios for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) implementation. Land use considerations and operational priorities define the scenarios and weight the modelling criteria. Geospatial modelling estimates the share of the population within walking distance of potential CEA sites that could be supplied with their daily intake of leafy greens, alongside associated yields, energy use, water use and potential land sparing. Across all scenarios, between 4% and over 100% of nearby populations could be served, demonstrating both the promise of hyper-local food provisioning and how sharply outcomes swing with siting and operational goals.