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NFUA and Biodiversity: Current State of the Research and Potential Opportunities

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New Forms of Urban Agriculture: An Urban Ecology Perspective

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Abstract

The relationship between cities and biodiversity is not well understood in theory or in practice. Nonetheless, cities influence biodiversity by influencing the flora and fauna living within urban centres, of surrounding areas, and of far-away places directly or indirectly. With more than 50% of global population living in cities, it is imperative to understand how biodiversity is conserved in urban areas and how it influences the provision of ecosystems services. City landscapes are constrained in terms of land availability, and maintaining green or vegetative areas for provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation is challenging. Urban agriculture systems exist in many forms and vary from low tech traditional systems such as allotment gardens to high tech rooftop hydroponic systems. Because of the wide variation in vegetation cover, diversity of species, management, and structure, urban agriculture (UA) can exhibit high levels of biodiversity. This chapter documents the motivations behind conserving biodiversity in urban centres and cites examples from various cities. Next, the chapter moves to understand the relation between various forms of UA and biodiversity. The examples of various forms of UA from different cities described here enrich the discourse on the role of these systems in food security within urban spaces, in biodiversity management and conservation, and provision of ecosystem services.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    About—C40 Cities, https://www.c40.org

  2. 2.

    UNEP/CBD/COP/3/38 Report of the Third Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

  3. 3.

    Biodiversity can be measured at the three levels—Alpha, Beta, and Gamma diversity. Alpha diversity is within habitat or intra-community diversity. It has two components—species richness and evenness. Beta diversity is between habitat and inter-community diversity. It measures change in species composition along a gradient. Gamma diversity encompasses diversity at the landscape level (Whittaker 1972).

  4. 4.

    TEEB Manual for cities (2011).

  5. 5.

    Spontaneous species are those plant species that reproduce spontaneously in the gardens.

  6. 6.

    Bio-intensive agriculture is a sustainable organic farming system. Yields are optimized based on working with the basic elements needed for plant growth—soil, water, air, and sun and special focus is placed on increasing biodiversity and soil fertility. This form of farming is considered very suitable for small-scale farmers. This is because with minimal financial input farmers can harvest great amounts of produce from a small piece of land.

  7. 7.

    https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/green-roofs/

  8. 8.

    https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/04/18/green-roofs-will-soon-be-required-on-all-new-buildings-in-new-york-city/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agroparistech, Paris, France

    Harpreet Kaur

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  1. Harpreet Kaur
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  1. Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Jessica Ann Diehl

  2. Agroparistech, Paris, Paris, France

    Harpreet Kaur

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Kaur, H. (2021). NFUA and Biodiversity: Current State of the Research and Potential Opportunities. In: Diehl, J.A., Kaur, H. (eds) New Forms of Urban Agriculture: An Urban Ecology Perspective. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3738-4_17

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