A Transdisciplinary Framework to Assess the Value of Urban Agriculture Chapter in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • Cities are facing an escalating crisis at the intersection of food systems, climate change, and urbanization. Beyond food insecurity and unsustainable consumption patterns, rapid urban growth exacerbates social fragmentation and gentrification, weakening community ties and further disconnecting people from nature. Addressing these challenges requires engineers, policymakers and city planners to design urban environments that can foster resilience and sustainability. In response, Urban Agriculture (UA) emerges as a multifunctional solution, fostering food resilience, environmental sustainability, and social well-being. However, despite its potential, UA often struggles to justify its viability and long-term investment due to a lack of standardised UA value assessment methodologies. To bridge this gap, this research develops a comprehensive UA value framework through a transdisciplinary and innovation-driven process using a structured Double Diamond approach. The framework is built upon the Six Capitals Model, allowing for a holistic assessment of UA's contributions across natural, human, social, financial, manufactured, and intellectual value dimensions. For each dimension, three key enablers are identified. An illustrative application demonstrates how value across these dimensions can be supported by 10 disciplines and deliver benefits to 13 key stakeholder groups. This research highlights the importance of systematically assessing UA's value to inform decision-making, optimise resource allocation, and support policies that enable its integration into urban planning. By identifying UA's key value dimensions and enablers, this study lays the foundation for a future systematic assessment of its benefits, contributing to a more structured and evidence-based approach to UA evaluation. © 2025 The Authors.

publication date

  • October 14, 2025