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ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Regional Planning
Degree Type
Master of Regional Planning (M.R.P.)
Year Degree Awarded
2015
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
This thesis makes the connection between urban agriculture and a specific suite of ecosystem services and lays out a typology and toolkit for planners to take advantage of these ecosystem services. The services investigated here are: food production, water management, soil health, biodiversity, climate mitigation, and community development benefits. Research from a variety of fields was aggregated and synthesized to prove that urban agriculture can be beneficial for human as well as environmental health.
A set of urban agriculture typologies was generated to illustrate best practices to maximize a particular set of ecosystem services. The typologies are: production farm, stormwater garden, soil-building garden, habitat garden, climate mitigation farm, cultural/educational garden, and ecosystem garden. Each typology was paired with a precedent study to demonstrate how that typology might be realized in the real world.
Finally, a toolkit for planners was assembled to demonstrate some tools and techniques that planners might use to implement urban agriculture as a strategy for providing ecosystem services. Planners can utilize the toolkit to insert themselves into the urban ecosystem at multiple scales in a creative way to apply best practices and urban agriculture typologies in order to take advantage of the multiple benefits of urban agriculture.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/7080798
First Advisor
Mark Hamin
Second Advisor
Jack Ahern
Third Advisor
Carey Clouse
Recommended Citation
Doherty, Kathleen, "Urban Agriculture and Ecosystem Services: A Typology and Toolkit for Planners" (2015). Masters Theses. 269.
https://doi.org/10.7275/7080798
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/269
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Food Security Commons, Sustainability Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons, Water Resource Management Commons