Urban potential in Bio-based Circular Economy

Circular Economy (CE) will accelerate the emerging shift in resource consumption from finite to renewable and plants are key in enabling the switch as industries would opt more and more for resources with a bio-based origin.\ua0 Cities have an important role in the process not only as the main consumers of the resources but also because vegetation provides numerous intangible ecosystem services essential for the wellbeing of urban dwellers. But the urban lands are heavily burdened with present activities and ongoing urbanization. Retrofitting the now obsolete and potentially contaminated brownfields provides an opportunity to engage bio-based land uses within the city periphery. At the same time, vegetation can be incorporated with Gentle Remediation Option (GRO), an alternative and more sustainable option over common ‘dig and dump’ remediation to eradicate the contamination concern and restore soil health. ‘Opportunities of bio-based production in urban brownfields’, a Ph.D. research project, concerns with such topics aiming to investigate the possibilities and preconditions for preparing urban brownfields urban bio-based production to foster a bio-based circular economy in the cities. This literature review is performed as part of the research effort to support and capture the wider scope of the project. The review work is focused on outlining the topics, ‘CE’, and ‘urban brownfields’; and establishing a common ground merging these topics from where the rest of the research work can be based on. The novel concept (i.e. CE) are explored in this literature review together with the well-established topic (i.e. brownfields) to set the backdrop and their common subsets (i.e. cities in CE, urban land potential in bio-based CE) are further investigated to guide the review in delivering information necessary for the future project work. Urban Greenspaces (UGSs) and the ecosystem services (ESs) that can be derived from them are discussed as consecutively the potential bio-based land uses and the bio-based products in an urban setting. 14 UGSs are additionally explored to better understand the scope of ESS in the cities

Allotments and alternative food networks: the case of Plymouth, UK

Alternative food networks (AFNs) are the focus of an ‘explosive growth’ of research in Europe (Goodman 2004), and the term covers a wide range of activities, from food banks, community gardens, and farmers’ markets, to community supported or organic agriculture. However, there is an impasse in differing positions over whether AFNs represent an exclusionary place-based ‘quality turn’ (Ilbery and Kneafsey 2000), or whether they contribute to inclusive local communities, sustainability and food security (Tregear 2011, Kirwan and Maye 2013). This research aimed to clarify these debates, through exploration of UK allotments as a benchmark for AFNs, using the case of Plymouth, SW England. A political ecology perspective of social-ecological systems (Ostrom 2008) was used to investigate the activities, relations and governance involved in allotments and AFNs, organised through the concepts of multidimensional capital assets (Bebbington 1999). This research demonstrates how activities on allotments involve human, social, cultural, natural and political capital assets, encompassing both basic food security and a quality turn towards ‘good food’ (Sage 2003). Taking the long view, it is seen that the relative importance of the different asset dimensions are contingent on wider socio-political settings. Relations on allotments illustrate the building of social capital, which extends to wider communities of interest, practice and place (Harrington et al. 2008), and which involves values of social justice that can be explained as diverse or care economies (Gibson-Graham 2008, Dowler et al. 2010). However, the politics and governance of allotments are largely influenced by neoliberal policies that favour oligopolistic and transnational food systems and restrict urban land allocations for place-based food initiatives. Present-day urban population densities are at levels far higher than envisaged for the original garden cities. Nevertheless, alliances at neighbourhood, city, regional, national and transnational scales are coalescing around the values represented in the original setting up of the UK allotment system: of self-reliance, human-scale settlements and the restorative value of the natural environment. Any realization of the potential contribution of allotments and AFNs to the sustainability and resilience of food supplies for urban populations (Armitage et al. 2008, Folke et al. 2010) ultimately depends on multilevel responses to a large range of challenges. Finally, the thesis contends that, in the present day, evidence is building up around the potential of allotments and many other AFN activities, or place-based food systems, to meet multiple policy objectives through aligned values

Repurposing brownfields as urban greenspace with gentle remediation options: A circular outlook

Circular Economy (CE) is regarded as an efficient strategy to address the challenges arising from the linear ‘take-make-use-dispose’ system of exploitation of resources. Urban land and soil are among the most exploited resources wherein brownfields, the potentially contaminated and currently obsolete land, can be considered the waste of the linear land use system. Recent CE policies and action plans acknowledge soil as a finite resource and set out clear directives for circular management of both soil and land. Brownfields pose possibility to integrate Urban Greenspaces (UGS) in increasingly denser cities to provide a range of Ecosystem Services (ES) and are instrumental in ensuring the liveability of cities. To manage risks posed by contaminants present at these brownfields, UGS can be combined with Gentle Remediation Options (GRO). Gentle remediation options are remediation strategies involving plants, fungi, bacteria, and soil amendments for managing contamination risks and simultaneously improve or at least maintain the soil quality. The overall aim of this PhD project is to develop adequate tools and methods to facilitate bringing brownfields back in use by combining UGS and GRO. This thesis presents four studies: i) a framework for identification of different UGS at a brownfield, ii) a framework for identification of potential GRO strategies for a site, iii) a working process for stakeholder analysis to explore their interests, resources, and challenges related to different UGS at a site, and finally iv) a framework to support the exploration of combining UGS and GRO on a brownfield and which integrates the tools and methods in the aforementioned studies.. The final framework is demonstrated in the case study site Polstj\ue4rnegatan in Gothenburg, Sweden, and challenged in a workshop with relevant stakeholders. The necessity of such an approach is validated as it can potentially increase the value derived from the depreciated brownfields progressively and it can support the formulation of long-term goals for sites. \ua0Some additional needs are also identified to support the practical application of the framework and they are: procedures to monetise the value generation over time, tools for estimating the time required for risk reduction with GRO (and thus the cost), and tools for selecting suitable plants, bacteria, fungi and soil amendments for more detailed site desig

Process Evaluation Cities of Service ‘Grow, Share, Cook’ Project Plymouth

With food poverty and hunger current topics of national debate, local recommendations have been made in Plymouth for ‘improved nutrition across the city’ including enhanced access to affordable, healthy food (Fairness Commission, 2014). In response to the above, the Plymouth Cities of Service ‘Grow, Share, Cook’ (GSC) project was set up with the aim of improving the food network required to help tackle food inequalities by encouraging a volunteer network to link the growing (and cooking) of food to the people who need it most. Plymouth University was brought in as an independent consultation partner to support the process evaluation of the GSC project. This report outlines a comprehensive process evaluation which aimed to: i. identify what GSC was delivering; ii. critically assess how GSC was implemented and iii. explore the acceptability of GSC to stakeholders. The objectives for this evaluation were achieved via intervention mapping, stakeholder consultations and observations. In summary, GSC was a pilot complex intervention, made up of three discrete arms – Grow, Share and Cook. It reached 83 volunteers and over 100 disadvantaged families in Plymouth. The ultimate aim of GSC, to increase the number of households that regularly cook and eat (fruit and) vegetables was met: 2336 vegetable bags were delivered in total, creating 80 new distribution locations, one new 12 acre growing plot was leased, sub-divided into 12 x 1 acre plots. Eighty-nine individuals attended two cooking sessions, 80 (90%) of these reporting improved cooking skills as a result of GSC; 77 (87%) reporting eating more healthily than at the start of the project, and 70 (79%) reporting having a healthier diet. The findings indicate that all three stakeholder groups (steering group, volunteers and families) who participated in the process evaluation, agreed on their understanding of the aim of the GSC project and what it intended to deliver. Furthermore, there was overall agreement and many positive comments made about the success of the project, its implementation, and how it might be improved and sustained in the longer term. Given the complex nature of this project, detailed discussion of all of the factors influencing its effectiveness is not possible. We do, however, bring light to some of these, through offering insight into the ‘spirit of the GSC intervention’ (section 4.5) Suggestions are made for how GSC (or elements of it) might be embedded and aligned with strategic city-wide planning/delivery, to maximize its impact and efficiency in the longer term. Recommendations (section 4.0) made include ‘strengthening collaboration’ (section 4.2); ‘improving recruitment strategies’ (section 4.3); ‘building on social aspect’ (section 4.4); ‘participatory approaches (section 4.5) ‘investing in evaluation’ (section 4.6) and ‘optimizing next steps’ (4.7) Through a systematic process evaluation, we have shown that participants in a complex (pilot) food intervention have improved their food behaviours and built stronger social connections. Furthermore, the project elucidated a strong and powerful ‘spirit’, by effectively harnessing energy, vision and skill development to develop and build capacity with local communities which could conclude that stronger community cohesion has begun to be realized, but this now needs to be substantiated and driven forward. This work presents an opportunity - in light of marked changes in public sector services (budget and resources constraints), this food project adds to the compelling case being developed for how more community centred empowerment approaches can be used to engage individuals and improve their (mental and physical) health and wellbeing. We need to think (and act) differently. By creating a ‘social norm’ for food that is positive, one that fosters more creative and connective food activities that can be transformative, food becomes a powerful catalyst to re-connect people, culturally and socially. This provides the potential to enhance health, wellbeing and social justic