Urban agriculture as cultural heritage

Der Beitrag verdeutlich, dass urbane Agrikultur kein modernes Phänomen ist, sondern in bestimmten Formen auf mitunter lange Traditionen zurückblicken kann. Urbane Agrikultur kann daher als kulturelles Erbe angesprochen und entwickelt werden. Diesen Ansatz greifen vereinzelt supranationale Institutionen wie UNESCO und FAO auf, deren Erbe-Formate erläutert und kritisch beurteilt werden. Zudem wird verdeutlicht, wie lokale Initiativen urbane Agrikultur als kulturelles Erbe aufgreifen, um Städte nachhaltig zu entwickeln.The article makes clear that urban agriculture is not a modern phenomenon, but in certain forms can look back on sometimes long traditions. Urban agriculture can therefore be addressed and developed as cultural heritage. This approach is occasionally taken up by supranational institutions such as UNESCO and FAO, whose heritage formats are explained and critically assessed. In addition, it is illustrated how local initiatives take up urban agriculture as cultural heritage in order to support a sustainable development

Urban Planning and Corona Spaces – Scales, Walls and COVID-19 Coincidences

This study focuses on the role and responsibility of urban planning in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic ́s impact. The far-reaching social and economic consequences of this threat are counteracted by organisational and constructional measures to prevent lockdowns and finally illnesses and deaths. Corona spaces and voids are introduced as a consistent multi scale approach concerning the pandemics spatial implications and respective measures. These terms are operationalised for urban planning and can be used as an overarching concept to be communicated within cross-sectoral planning tasks. A comparison of Taiwan's and the USA's responses to the outbreak suggests that the coincidence at the beginning of a pandemic can be controlled by institutional precautions. On an urban scale, organisational measures (e.g. contact tracing, quarantine, and lockdown) can be supported by constructional ones concerning e.g. transport, public spaces, urban agriculture, and offices aimed at crowding reduction. If appropriate measures are applied, urban density does not seem to increase spreading the virus, whereby a regression analysis based on data of districts in Germany shows no relationship between population density and COVID-19 deaths. Lockdown prevention should be a planning goal and multifunctional approaches that integrate aspects of virus resilience should be favoured over the monothematic urban development approach (Leitbild) of a virus resilient city. Urban planning can contribute to the mitigation of future outbreaks by including pandemic preparedness in planning frameworks

The aquaponic principle—It is all about coupling

The aquaponic principle is the coupling of animal aquaculture (e.g. fish) with plant production (e.g. vegetables) for saving resources. At present, various definitions of aquaponics exist, some bearing the risk of misinterpretation by dismissing the original meaning or being contradictory. In addition, there is no standard terminology for the aspects of coupling between the aquaponic subsystems. In this study, we addressed both issues. (1) We developed new or revised definitions that are summarised by: Aquaponic farming comprises aquaponics (which couples tank‐based animal aquaculture with hydroponics) and trans‐aquaponics, which extends aquaponics to tankless aquaculture as well as non‐hydroponics plant cultivation methods. Within our conceptual system, the term aquaponics corresponds to the definitions of FAO and EU. (2) A system analysis approach was utilised to explore different aquaponic setups aiming to better describe the way aquaponic subsystems are connected. We introduced the new terms ‘coupling type’ and ‘coupling degree’, where the former qualitatively characterises the water‐mediated connections of aquaponic subsystems. A system with on‐demand nutrient water supply for the independent operating plant cultivation is an ‘on‐demand coupled system’ and we propose to deprecate the counterintuitive term ‘decoupled system’ for this coupling type. The coupling degree comprises a set of parameters to quantitatively determine the coupling's efficiency of internal streams, for example, water and nutrients. This new framework forms a basis for improved communication, provides a uniform metric for comparing aquaponic facilities, and offers criteria for facility optimisation. In future system descriptions, it will simplify evaluation of the coupling's contribution to sustainability of aquaponics.Belmont ForumEuropean Commission via the CITYFOOD projectPeer Reviewe

The aquaponic principle : it is all about coupling

The aquaponic principle is the coupling of animal aquaculture (e.g. fish) with plant production (e.g. vegetables) for saving resources. At present, various definitions of aquaponics exist, some bearing the risk of misinterpretation by dismissing the original meaning or being contradictory. In addition, there is no standard terminology for the aspects of coupling between the aquaponic subsystems. In this study, we addressed both issues. (1) We developed new or revised definitions that are summarised by: Aquaponic farming comprises aquaponics (which couples tank-based animal aquaculture with hydroponics) and trans-aquaponics, which extends aquaponics to tankless aquaculture as well as non-hydroponics plant cultivation methods. Within our conceptual system, the term aquaponics corresponds to the definitions of FAO and EU. (2) A system analysis approach was utilised to explore different aquaponic setups aiming to better describe the way aquaponic subsystems are connected. We introduced the new terms ‘coupling type’ and ‘coupling degree’, where the former qualitatively characterises the water-mediated connections of aquaponic subsystems. A system with on-demand nutrient water supply for the independent operating plant cultivation is an ‘on-demand coupled system’ and we propose to deprecate the counterintuitive term ‘decoupled system’ for this coupling type. The coupling degree comprises a set of parameters to quantitatively determine the coupling's efficiency of internal streams, for example, water and nutrients. This new framework forms a basis for improved communication, provides a uniform metric for comparing aquaponic facilities, and offers criteria for facility optimisation. In future system descriptions, it will simplify evaluation of the coupling's contribution to sustainability of aquaponics