Mapping of Urban Agriculture for Land Use Planning in Almada, Portugal

Caitlin Pohle

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Urban agriculture is a budding topic of exploration within the field of urban planning, especially in more recent years in reaction to Agenda 21 and other policy initiatives which encourage urban green space and other sustainable practices in city planning and development. While an abundance of literature and studies which explore the social and environmental role of agriculture in urban settings, typologies, practices and implementation of urban agriculture are available; there is minimal information on the actual quantitative measure of agricultural land use within urban settings and indicators of the land use change. In fact; considering many sites for urban agriculture are independently organized regardless of zoning, there is no way for municipalities to measure the actual extent of this type of land use. This was found to be the case in the municipality of Almada, Portugal. The purpose of this study is to create a methodology to identify and quantitatively measure the amount and locations of agricultural land use within a set urban boundary which can be easily replicated in various locations internationally. Qualitative interview methods are used with stakeholders to create a profile of UA typologies in the study area. The resulting data has the potential to be used in conjunction with other available data (i.e. demographic data and zoning maps) in order to make land use change predictions and zoning decisions among other uses. The case study performed in Almada, Portugal applies the land use identification methods followed by an analysis comparing the agricultural land use map with demographic and municipal zoning maps as well as local information which may be indicative of land use change.

Abstract:

Urban agriculture is a budding topic of exploration within the field of urban planning, especially in more recent years in reaction to Agenda 21 and other policy initiatives which encourage urban green space and other sustainable practices in city planning and development. While an abundance of literature and studies which explore the social and environmental role of agriculture in urban settings, typologies, practices and implementation of urban agriculture are available; there is minimal information on the actual quantitative measure of agricultural land use within urban settings and indicators of the land use change. In fact; considering many sites for urban agriculture are independently organized regardless of zoning, there is no way for municipalities to measure the actual extent of this type of land use. This was found to be the case in the municipality of Almada, Portugal. The purpose of this study is to create a methodology to identify and quantitatively measure the amount and locations of agricultural land use within a set urban boundary which can be easily replicated in various locations internationally. Qualitative interview methods are used with stakeholders to create a profile of UA typologies in the study area. The resulting data has the potential to be used in conjunction with other available data (i.e. demographic data and zoning maps) in order to make land use change predictions and zoning decisions among other uses. The case study performed in Almada, Portugal applies the land use identification methods followed by an analysis comparing the agricultural land use map with demographic and municipal zoning maps as well as local information which may be indicative of land use change.

Keywords

Urban agriculture, Land use change, Satellite imagery, GIS, Mapping, Qualitative research

Keywords

Urban agriculture, Land use change, Satellite imagery, Qualitative research, Mapping, GIS, Lisbon, Portugal, Landscape planning

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 24. 4. 2015

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Vojtěch Barták

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Science

Master programme / field:
Landscape Engineering / Landscape Planning