Urban, green and edible

Urban Farm DB summary

A master's thesis assessing urban agriculture (UA) in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, and its place in the city's green infrastructure, using literature studies, map studies, site visits, interviews, and field observations. It situates the study against China's ongoing urbanization, in which agricultural land is converted for real estate development, deepening dependency on imported agricultural products, alongside a cultural shift from the older agricultural society toward Western ideals — exemplified by the adoption of short-cut monocultural grass lawns using species unfamiliar to the Chinese climate, which the thesis states causes negative environmental effects. It also finds numerous examples across China, including on former lawn sites, where agriculture is practiced in urban environments, and analyzes UA's effects and potential in Xi'an to propose design principles for environmentally and culturally beneficial UA practice for food production. UA is concluded to have many potential benefits beyond being a food source — including community-building properties, enrichment of urban biodiversity, and the potential to reconnect with China's agricultural roots — but these benefits are stated not to be absolute: UA can also be a source of conflict as well as a source of environmental pollution and contaminated food. The thesis notes many uncertainties remain around the subject, and that because UA is often neglected in governmental planning processes, these issues can be difficult to address.