Urban Farming sustainable supply with fresh produce in urban areas

Introduction
Today 54% of the worlds population lives in urban agglomerations. According to recent predictions of the
United Nations, the urban population will increase by another 2.8 billion people, so that 6.3 billion people
will live in cities.
Due to the increased population density, the demand for consumer goods like food will also increase. The
result of that development is the challenge, to provide urban residents with enough nutritious food while
acting in a sustainable way. Thus, resource streams into the cities need to be limited which can be
achieved by growing food exactly where they are required: in cities. This way of growing and harvesting
food in urban areas is called Urban Farming.
This seminar thesis deals with the question, whether it is possible to supply the urban population with
vegetable food grown in the way of Urban Farming. In order to find out if this is possible and sustainable,
the city of Munich functions as an example.
Feasibility
The feasibility to supply Munich with Urban Farming depends on the available space, the consumption of
fruits and vegetables as well as the yield, which can be achieved.
Calculation of the available space
Available areas for Urban Farming are either flat roofs, which need to be considered stable enough to
ensure they can carry additional loading, or fallow land.
The calculation takes place by using two reference-boroughs: the first one (Maxvorstadt) represents
central Munich while the second one represents the periphery (Trudering-Riem). By manually identifying
and selecting available areas on Geography-Information-Systems (Google Maps Engine, ArcGIS)
automatically calculate the selected areas in acre. Thus, a relative percentage rate can be determined
which can later be transferred to the whole city of Munich, whereby the area of the downtown-borough
(Altstadt-Lehel) was subtracted as Urban Farming is not possible there, due to the roof-form and the
competition for space.
Thus, 4.44% of Munich is suitable for Urban Farming which is 3.360,63 acres.

Selection of the available space via Google Maps Engine

Demand of fruits and vegetables

According to statistics by a health report, the per-capita-consumption in Germany is 275.57 pounds
vegetables and 209.55 pounds fruits (2006). It can be mathematically concluded, that the demand in
Munich with 1 477 951 residents (July 2014) is about 716 502 352 lbs.
Research on Outdoor-Farming
Outdoor-Farming is possible at comparatively low costs as it can be freely decided whether a greenhouse
is useful in an individual case. Thats why the practicability is high while the carbon footprint is kept at a
low level as outdoor-farming doesnt necessarily include energizing.
In terms of the yield, this seminar thesis focuses on the supply of vegetables as summing up the yield of
fruits varies more because there are various groups (tree/bush/soil). For Outdoor-Farming it can be
assumed that planting trees which grow fruits are more complicated than growing vegetables in soil or
hydroponics. The reason behind is additional weight on e.g. flat roofs which must be taken into account
when deciding what is grown in urban areas.
Informative are statistics by the German Federal Office for Statistics which reveal that the average yield is
63 934,056 lbs per ha per year. Multiplying this data with the available space in Munich leads to conclude
that 86 950 316,2 lbs can be achieved per year by conventional Outdoor-Farming. This is 12% of the
demand in Munich. Due to the fact that the contribution of Outdoor-Farming is comparatively low, it is
required to think of methods to alter the growing space so that more yield can be achieved per year.
Research on Vertical Farming
If the goal is to maximize the yield per area, vertical farming is an option. The advantage is that cultivation
and harvesting are possible all year round. Though, it needs to be questioned whether building Vertical
Farms in Munich is possible as well as sustainable. In terms of their cost effectiveness the investment
costs which include purchasing Hydroponics or Aquaponics and renovating old buildings are so high that
it can be assumed that even an economically strong city like Munich is not able to finance Vertical Farms.

Accordingly, it is crucial to see if there are private investors to undertake the initial investment. In general,
it is possible to operate Vertical Farms so that profit can be realized like in a conventional business. An
example is the Sky Green Farm in Singapore.
In addition, the power supply of Vertical Farms is a challenge. Since farming takes place within the
buildings, there is a dependency on artificial light. Therefore, renewable energies should be used;
nevertheless supplying bigger Vertical Farms exclusively with renewable energy is not possible yet as the
efficiency is too low. However, research is being done to work out appropriate technologies, such as the
Fraunhofer-Institut for environment-, safety-, and energy technologies in Germany.
In Munich such farms could be situated in peripheral quarters of the city but also a certain building in
Laim, Munich which has been vacant for 20 years would have been suitable for Vertical Farming.
Important for the localization is in any case the proximity to surrounding residential buildings as this
ensures vegetable and fruit distribution right at the bottom of the Vertical Farm. By picking up the fresh
produce the aim of consumer-related production can be achieved.
Realization of Urban Farming in Munich
As an interim summary, it can be noted, that both Vertical Farming and Outdoor-Farming have their weak
points. Thus, a supply of Munich by one of the two options is not useful. While Vertical Farms are costintensive, the urban population cant be fed by outdoor-farming. Accordingly, various forms of urban
farming should be combined, so that the individual preconditions are being recognized and each form of
space is being used in the ideal way.
Usage of fallow land
On fallow land, it is advisable to create socio-ecological community gardens. The aim of this form of
urban farming is not the efficiency but to establish an urban green space for leisure activity and
interaction for residents. Furthermore, these urban gardens foster exchanges between the atmosphere
and soil which is of great ecological importance, considering the fact that the degree of sealing in Munich
is 44.4 %. In addition, such gardens have a positive effect on the urban climate as the evaporation of
water on the soil or grass reduces the average temperature and improves the city air by photosynthesis.
The ideal cultivation in urban gardens is in mobile raised beds, so that fruit and vegetables dont grow
directly in the soil which can be contaminated.
In order to improve and distribute urban gardens in Munich, the city council should ease their conditions
regarding contracts for urban gardening and by promoting other projects such as ,O'pflanzt is' on
Leonrodplatz in Munich.

Urban Garden Opflanzt is in Munich

Usage of flat roofs

In terms of flat roofs, they should not only be used in the way of conventional outdoor-farming. If possible,
a greenhouse containing Hydroponics or Aquaponics should be used as the yield can be altered. The fact
that 70% less water is required when using Hydro-/Aquaponics is certainly an advantage. Though, it is
questionable whether this is really necessary, considering the warm and rainy climate in Munich where
the average annual precipitation is around 36.61 inches. Thus, it is advisable to save the rainfall in water
reservoirs regardless of using hydroponics or not. Now it needs to be examined, whether cultivation in
greenhouses should also take place in the winter months. Since the heating of greenhouses in Germany
amounts to 90% of the entire power consumption, the advantage of greenhouses on top of buildings
should be realized: the usage of the rejected heat of the buildings beneath. This can be particularly
profitable when energy-intensive buildings like bakeries or swimming pools are concerned as they are
rich of the heat of waste water and building ventilation. In return, the buildings take profit from a thermal
buffer element as it prevents the building from getting too hot in summers or losing too much heat in
winters. As a conclusion, isolation is the point of interest here as the energy consumption is being
reduced. A mean of isolation is an energy screen, which offers possible savings of energy ranging from
20% to 40%. Thus, greenhouses can alter the yield, though it might be necessary to import fruits and
vegetables in the coldest winter months, as the energy demand would be too high here.
Conclusion
Based on these results it can be concluded, that 12% of the demand of fruits and vegetables can be
covered through Outdoor-Farming. In addition to that, green houses should be used on top of buildings,
where this is profitable and Vertical Farms should be applied as pilot projects in a sustainable and
reasonable way, so that it can be contributed to the local urban supply in a greater way. Even though the
demand of fruits and vegetables cant be covered through Urban Farming at this time, it will certainly play
a big role in the future, when the question is asked: How can we supply our citizens?