MediaWiki:Living labs and research questions 2023

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Montpellier Living Lab

Montpellier’s Foodscapes

https://www.foodscapes.fr/en Already approached questions (not all of these issues are necessarily relevant to sustainable food planning) :

  1. foodscapes from the residents' viewpoints
  2. relationships between foodscapes and residents' spatial supply practices
  3. community gardens and their impact on different lifestyle sustainability aspects
  4. impacts of the development of online food shopping
  5. relationships between foodscapes and food behaviors

We can extend the study of one question in particular, or open up a new one, by looking at the agricultural land that the city owns and asking, for example, "what impact does maintain productive land have in the metropolis of Montpellier?"


L’AgriParc des Bouisses

An Agriparc is an agricultural park included in the urban space, combining different functions around agriculture. It is a landscaped place of production, of marketing in a short circuit but also a place of green leisure open to all, including for example playgrounds for children, a health course... Subjected to intense urbanization and heavy automobile traffic, the inhabitants of the western sector of Montpellier have suffered a degradation of their quality of life and their environment. With the Agriparc des Bouisses project, the ambition is both to create a new place of attraction for the entire sector, and to offer the inhabitants a quality landscape and natural area. An innovative participatory approach has been launched with the inhabitants so that they can contribute to the Agriparc project on which the teams of landscape designers, urban planners and urban agriculture specialists will work. The project consists of an agroforestry space, a recreational and resource centre for the inhabitants of the Metropolis, respectful of the ecological frameworks and a refuge for fauna and flora.


Assignment questions for local students

Governance/public consultation

  1. What lessons can be learned from the public consultation process?
  2. What recommendations to make for the next process?
  3. How to ensure that the public's opinions are taken into account during the project?

Management of the Agriparc

  1. how to connect this Agriparc to the city, ensuring that it is inclusive of all populations?
  2. how to reconcile leisure, recreational, environmental/biodiversity preservation, commercial and productive activities?

Connections

  1. how to make this Agriparc an urban-rural connection point?
  2. how to relate this Agriparc to a network of various Agriparcs on the territory of the metropolitan area? around which type of activities?

Assignment questions for remote students

  1. how to reconcile leisure, recreational, environmental/biodiversity preservation, commercial and productive activities?
  2. how to make this Agriparc an urban-rural connection point?

The task is answering those two questions with inputs from other experiences elsewhere - that you know, by inquiring about local case studies, or by literature) building a typology of urban Agriparcs, based on literature.

The capacity to understand some French is helpful because of the local context, references in French and stakeholder reports. But for carrying out a comparative study on Agriparks elsewhere, this might be less relevant.

Warsaw Living Lab

The general theme of the living lab is the development of an urban farm/food hub. You can view the https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m7p8yf3m6NTqWwhltN8dITUo6Xvvd1_b8l-Xyfz8zYA/edit?usp=sharing.

MOST - Warsaw Urban Farm - production and collaboration with local farmers

MOST is an urban farm where organic fruits and vegetables are grown together with city residents and for residents. MOST is a place where everyone can get involved and have access to healthy, local food. MOST is a place that produces food in an innovative way using the latest environmentally-oriented farming techniques. MOST is part of the transformation of the city's food system in a time of climate crisis. MOST bridges different realities: urban and rural, urban entrepreneurship and agricultural practice, production spaces and education, volunteerism and economic participation. MOST is oriented toward a biocentric future - a close and harmonious relationship between the city and nature.

What do we want to do? We want to create the first Warsaw cooperative urban farm operating in the following areas: food cultivation; food hub (distribution point for local farmers); recreation space; education and innovation; economic participation; green jobs.

MOST is intended to be an open space, open to the public, giving its visitors an opportunity for active and passive participation. Amidst the cultivated areas there will be places for leisurely strolling, leisure and admiration of fauna and flora. MOST is a cultivation site and a park at the same time. MOST is meant to educate. In the first place through example, practical activities, but also through its own educational programs. From the very beginning, it has been an initiative related to educational and research activities and the involvement of higher education institutions (WULS). This cooperation is developed in the spirit of participatory action learning and action research. This creates the conditions for innovation. Collaboration between researchers and social entrepreneurs serves the development and implementation of new urban solutions in both the agrotechnological and social spheres.

MOST will be based on economic participation. Residents will have the opportunity to share ownership as well as gain access to local products and jointly decide on the further development of the initiative. The application of the community investment mechanism will allow expanding the community around the initiative, including new people and at the same time raise additional funds. MOST is intended to function as a common good, accessible to everyone, and inclusive, which at the same time requires own contribution, in the form of work or financial commitment. MOST is expected to generate green jobs in the city, contributing to the development and promotion of a new profession - urban farmer. A profession that is based on technical and social innovation. Ultimately, the success of MOST will be measured by financial self-sufficiency, which guarantees employment.

The aim of the LL is to establish an urban farm in Warsaw (MOST) The overall scope of research and activities includes:

  • a review of the current state of the art on urban farms as an element of the food system;
  • mapping stakeholders (municipality, neighbor community, involved institutions, farmers);
  • searching for local farmers and interviewing them about their needs - what their expectations are and what they can give from themselves?
  • a plan of food production;
  • developing a cooperative management model
  • urban farm design

MOST's main activity is cultivation.

  • First, cultivation in a formula social and public, under the guidance of gardeners and farmers, in the form of workshops and other activities aimed at people who want to work, learn about, and maintain contact with nature. Here we see a wide field of cooperation with residents of the nearest neighborhood but also public institutions - kindergartens, schools, senior citizen clubs, and community centers.
  • Secondly, cultivation is oriented to the production and distribution of crops. MOST is to provide fresh, organic, and local vegetables to the residents of Warsaw. Support in developing the production part of the farm is ready to be undertaken by WULS’s company Innotech4Life, which is engaged in the transfer of knowledge and inventions developed at the university.

MOST is intended to serve as a food hub, a distribution center for producers operating around the metropolitan area, and, in some cases still within its borders. This local agriculture, referred to as an urban food zone, is becoming increasingly important to the city. MOST is expected to support them and promote their development into agroecological, environmentally, and human-friendly crops - following the slogan: healthy food, healthy people, healthy nature.

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m7p8yf3m6NTqWwhltN8dITUo6Xvvd1_b8l-Xyfz8zYA/edit?usp=sharing

Research questions for internal / local students

  1. In addition to finances, what are the potential benefits of establishing the MOST farm in the selected location?
  2. Who are the stakeholders (municipality, neighbor community, involved institutions, farmers) and what are their needs and influence?
  3. What is the attitude of local farmers towards urban agriculture initiatives, particularly MOST?
  4. What edible plants are the best to cultivate in MOST farm? Considering climate factors and socio-economic factors (production feasibility, retail).
  5. What is the Warsaw municipality's attitude toward biodiversity? Is it only a cost of maintaining vacant lands or a food production opportunity?
  6. What are the regional rituals associated with agriculture and how to transfer them to an urban context?

Research questions for remote students

  1. What should the coop urban farm include in its programme? What are the potential benefits (social, economic, environmental, others), and how to increase them?
  2. What are the models of coop urban farms around the world? (economic models, inner organization structures).
  3. How does climate change affect what can be grown in the city (in Poland or other countries)?
  4. What factors should be considered planning crops on an urban farm?
  5. What are the city's policies towards vacant lands considering its biodiversity and food production opportunities?
  6. What are the regional rituals and events around the world associated with agriculture and how to transfer them to an urban context?

Additional information on the Warsaw Living Lab

First ideas about partners / participants

  • The Commons Lab Foundation;
  • Warsaw University of Life Science (researchers, students and Innotech4Life company;
  • Agropermalab Foundation;
  • Cooptech Hub;
  • people involved in the establishment and development of the Food Cooperative Dobrze.
  • municipal authorities.
  • local farmers from Warsaw food zone

Location of the area The proposed site by representatives of the Warsaw Municipality is located between Gwintowa Street and the Siekierkowski Bridge. The land has mostly primarily high-quality soil. It is of the third quality class - Vistula silts. The soil is excellent for all kinds of crops. The land has been maintained for many years in horticultural culture (allotment gardens) and previously agricultural. This guarantees clean soil - uncontaminated by heavy metals, fertilizers and herbicides.

The area has a great number of valuable trees and shrubs, which still produce abundant crops (especially apple trees). Between them, the invasive plant grows (Canadian goldenrod). The whole area has the charm of informal urban nature, “a wild grove“ - a landscape of high preference aesthetic.


The close proximity of the river can be felt in the humid and clean air. This proximity also guarantees low water levels of groundwater, which has a positive effect on vegetation. In the neighborhood are allotment gardens and single-family houses. A little further away begin new housing estates, the inhabitants of which, certainly will need social spaces with an interesting program. The area is quite well connected with the rest of the city. There is a bicycle path and a bus stop, with a connecting bus to the subway line.


The downside of the indicated site is noise pollution. The close proximity of the route Siekierkowski Bridge, where the speed limit is 90 km/h and the roadway runs on an overpass several meters high. It makes noise omnipresent and difficult to eliminate. About a third length of the roadway is equipped with noise barriers. There, the level of loudness is tolerable. However, on the other two-thirds, where there are no screens, the noise is so intense that it causes discomfort, makes conversation difficult, and is not favorable to recreation and public use. Measurements of loudness there have indicated more than 50 dB. In this situation, it is worth considering setting up additional noise barriers. The second disadvantage of the plot is the lack of any outbuildings and utilities. The entire infrastructure has to be made from the beginning.

How do you involve students? workshops (e.g. composting workshops - involvement of a group of students in composting (distribution of household waste bins, construction of composters); open events in the venues, e.g. cooking day; Green Day; bioblitz

Ghent Living Lab

Agroecoligal Urbanism _ Future Heritage

This living lab is a collaboration of Ghent University and De Stadsacademie, with STA.M and ILVO. De Stadsacademie is a collaboratorium dedicated to transdisciplinary research and teaching on complex and urgent sustainability challenges faced by the city and the university of Ghent. De Stadsacademie works on several ‘trajectories’ that define the thematic scope of its work over a number of years.

The urban food policy of the City of Ghent, Gent en Garde, has been the subject of international attention including several prestigious prizes. At the same time, the systematic sale of public farmland in the peri-urban fringe of Ghent has alienated new and traditional farmers who are upset about the systematic loss of farmland. Farmers are rapidly disappearing from the peri-urban fringe, and new farmers face great difficulty to establish themselves.

Within the context of De Stadsacademie civil society actors, farmers, urban civil servants, students, and researchers have been engaged in the development of alternative policies regarding publicly owned farmland, and agricultural heritage more generally. The land currently being sold off by the city is the fruit of historical investment in urban agricultural heritage that has been handed down over several generations and is part of the permanent improvements (infrastructure, public space, heritage landscapes, drainage systems, etc.) that made farming possible. Contemporary urban constituencies seem to care little for the future of this publicly owned farmland. In the political debate on the sale of public land urban social goals are played against ecological concerns and the protection of local farming activities. The land is presented as ‘fragmented’ and of little public interest, and sold to finance the development of residential care facilities for the elderly. The campaign against the sale of public farmland has led to a moratorium on further sales in the neighboring municipalities of Ghent.

In the meantime, the city is preparing a vision for Agricultural land use in the city and the wider region. Within De Stadsacademie we want to enter into a dialogue with parties that could help to articulate a shared agenda regarding the way in which the public ownership of farmland could be leveraged to accelerate an agroecological food transition. This will happen in the framework of agroecological urbanism (www.agroecologicalurbanism.org), which is a way of urbanizing that actively supports the care for soils and the growing of food in an equitable and ecologically sustainable way. We will try to imagine new forms of urban infrastructure and future heritage that contribute to the local support of agroecological farmers and re-inscribe the farming activities within a new urban geography of farming.

The concrete exploration of a shared agenda for agroecological public land management will depart front the exploration of 4 positions in particular

  • the shared use of farmland for the harvesting of drinking water and the production of food.
  • the development of an integrated land policy by municipal care institutes for the production of food for consumption by their clientele.
  • the development of shared infrastructure for nutrient cycling at landscape level
  • the construction of new solidarities between old and new forms of decommodified food provisioning at the neighborhood level and periurban farmers.

Students in Ghent are working in the living Lab of De Stadsacademie in three capacities

  • Master thesis students working within a joint Master Thesis Atelier,
  • Students working within an advanced seminar focussed on bringing these positions into the conversation,
  • An Intensive Programme (July 7-17 2023) focused on public land-management for an agroecological urbanism.

Research subjects and research questions for remote students

  1. Literature review on public land management for an Agroecological Urbanism.
  2. What are the main areas of connection between municipal food policies and public farmland management?
  3. What are the key challenges or obstacles to integrating public farmland management within urban food policy?
  4. What are the key points of connection or areas of policy-making that have been identified by local or regional authorities to forge a better connection between farmland management and food system transition objectives?
  5. Documentation, and discussion of existing practices connecting food policy and public land management
  6. Examples of projects, plans or initiatives operating within the intersection between strategies of environmental land management (in light of nature conservation, green-blue infrastructure, water management, etc) and food policy initiatives. We are particularly interested in strategies focussed on the harvesting of drinking water in farming areas (i.e. initiatives by ‘Eau de Paris’).
  7. Examples around public catering within public institutes (schools, hospitals, care facilities…) that make a direct connection between public food provisioning, agroecological farmers, and land management.
  8. Examples of neighborhood-based initiatives around food support and place-based solidarity in connection with agroecological farmers. We are particularly interested in community kitchen initiatives building a food sovereignty agenda together with agroecological producers.
  9. Examples of investment in land readjustment and development of (new) collective farmers operating infrastructure in light of an agroecological transition and the activation of peri-urban farmland. We are particularly interested in initiatives working on nutrient cycling, biomass harvesting in light of composting, and soil remediation initiatives (on and off the farm).


Madrid Living Lab

The Living Lab is conceived as a space of interaction with the platform MAdrid Agroecologico, to provide support to make progress in one of their current main goals: consolidate the precarious network of agroecological farmers in the periurban area.

Research questions for remote students

  1. Are alternative food networks connected to these agroecological farmers recognisable in the urban scene? and in the landscape?
  2. Comparison with the “standard” food chain, in which ways do the alternative food network have better performance?
  3. Which planning tools can be activated to address the needs from small agroecological farmers ?
  4. Reframing the food system from these micro initiatives. How to visualize and communicate the desired future? Reflections about upscaling of micro initiatives making use of the principles of agroecological urbanism.