TY - JOUR
T1 - A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture
AU - Clinton, Nicholas
AU - Stuhlmacher, Michelle
AU - Miles, Albie
AU - Uludere Aragon, Nazli
AU - Wagner, Melissa
AU - Georgescu, Matei
AU - Herwig, Chris
AU - Gong, Peng
N1 - Funding Information:
NC was partially supported by a National High Technology Grant from China (2009AA12200101) and Google, Inc. MG, MW and NU were supported by National Science Foundation Grant EAR-1204774. MG was also supported by DMS-1419593 and U.S. Department of Agriculture NIFA grant 2015-67003-23508. MG and MS were also supported by the National Science Foundation Sustainability Research Network (SRN) Cooperative Agreement 1444758, the Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN). MS was also supported by Dr. B. L. Turner II’s Gilbert F. White Environment and Society Fellowship at Arizona State University. Landscan data are available as a commercial dataset here: http:// web.ornl.gov/sci/landscan/landscan_ data_avail.shtml.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors.
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - Though urban agriculture (UA), defined here as growing of crops in cities, is increasing in popularity and importance globally, little is known about the aggregate benefits of such natural capital in built-up areas. Here, we introduce a quantitative framework to assess global aggregate ecosystem services from existing vegetation in cities and an intensive UA adoption scenario based on data-driven estimates of urban morphology and vacant land. We analyzed global population, urban, meteorological, terrain, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) datasets in Google Earth Engine to derive global scale estimates, aggregated by country, of services provided by UA. We estimate the value of four ecosystem services provided by existing vegetation in urban areas to be on the order of $33 billion annually. We project potential annual food production of 100–180 million tonnes, energy savings ranging from 14 to 15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 and 170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff between 45 and 57 billion cubic meters annually. In addition, we estimate that food production, nitrogen fixation, energy savings, pollination, climate regulation, soil formation and biological control of pests could be worth as much as $80–160 billion annually in a scenario of intense UA implementation. Our results demonstrate significant country-to-country variability in UA-derived ecosystem services and reduction of food insecurity. These estimates represent the first effort to consistently quantify these incentives globally, and highlight the relative spatial importance of built environments to act as change agents that alleviate mounting concerns associated with global environmental change and unsustainable development.
AB - Though urban agriculture (UA), defined here as growing of crops in cities, is increasing in popularity and importance globally, little is known about the aggregate benefits of such natural capital in built-up areas. Here, we introduce a quantitative framework to assess global aggregate ecosystem services from existing vegetation in cities and an intensive UA adoption scenario based on data-driven estimates of urban morphology and vacant land. We analyzed global population, urban, meteorological, terrain, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) datasets in Google Earth Engine to derive global scale estimates, aggregated by country, of services provided by UA. We estimate the value of four ecosystem services provided by existing vegetation in urban areas to be on the order of $33 billion annually. We project potential annual food production of 100–180 million tonnes, energy savings ranging from 14 to 15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 and 170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff between 45 and 57 billion cubic meters annually. In addition, we estimate that food production, nitrogen fixation, energy savings, pollination, climate regulation, soil formation and biological control of pests could be worth as much as $80–160 billion annually in a scenario of intense UA implementation. Our results demonstrate significant country-to-country variability in UA-derived ecosystem services and reduction of food insecurity. These estimates represent the first effort to consistently quantify these incentives globally, and highlight the relative spatial importance of built environments to act as change agents that alleviate mounting concerns associated with global environmental change and unsustainable development.
KW - earth engine
KW - ecosystem services
KW - food security
KW - remote sensing
KW - urban agriculture
KW - urban resilience
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U2 - 10.1002/2017EF000536
DO - 10.1002/2017EF000536
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85040254441
SN - 2328-4277
VL - 6
SP - 40
EP - 60
JO - Earth's Future
JF - Earth's Future
IS - 1
ER -