Migration Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of New England Showing Movements down the Urban Hierarchy and Ensuing Impacts on Real Estate Markets

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the United States, the media began reporting stories of people leaving cities for rural destinations, setting off frenzied real estate activity in receiving communities. This article builds a case study of New England using nonconventional data collected from mobile devices as a proxy for population to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of movement down the urban hierarchy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two research questions guide the analysis: (1) How have urban–rural migration systems in New England shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) In what ways have real estate markets been affected by these apparent migration shifts? The analysis reveals shifts of population away from metropolitan core areas of the region and into micropolitan and noncore counties. These population shifts were most pronounced in late summer and fall 2020 with loosening travel restrictions. By the end of 2020, migration systems in New England once more resembled prepandemic patterns. Further, these places down the urban hierarchy consistently showed more substantial increases in real estate activity as reflected in rising prices, reduced inventories, and increased sales volume. These real estate dynamics suggest urban to rural migration during the COVID-19 pandemic might be initiating new waves of rural gentrification. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] A medida que la pandemia del COVID-19 afectó por todo lado los Estados Unidos, los medios empezaron a informar sobre historias de gente que dejaban atrás las ciudades por destinos rurales, desencadenando una frenética actividad inmobiliaria en las comunidades receptoras. Este artículo construye un estudio de caso de Nueva Inglaterra, usando datos no convencionales recogidos de dispositivos móviles, como un proxy por la población para explorar los patrones temporales y espaciales del movimiento descendente desde la jerarquía urbana a partir de la aparición de la pandemia del COVID-19. El análisis se guía por dos preguntas de investigación: (1) ¿Cómo han cambiado los sistemas de migración ciudad–campo en Nueva Inglaterra desde el comienzo de la pandemia del COVID-19? (2) ¿De qué manera se han visto afectados los mercados inmobiliarios por estos cambios aparentes de migración? El análisis revela desplazamientos de población fuera de las áreas del núcleo metropolitano de la región hacia condados micropolitanos y no nucleados. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] 随着COVID-19流行病席卷美国, 媒体开始报道人们离开城市前往农村、在农村引发疯狂的房地产活动。本文构建了美国新英格兰地区（New England）案例, 使用来自移动设备的非常规数据替代人口数据, 探索了COVID-19流行病发生以来由城市迁移到农村的时空模式。研究分析了两个问题：（1）自COVID-19发生以来, 新英格兰地区的城乡迁移体系如何变化？（2）这些显著的迁移变化, 对房地产市场产生了哪些影响？分析表明, 人口从新英格兰大都市核心区域迁移到小城镇和非核心县。随着旅行限制的放松, 人口迁移在2020年夏末和秋季最为显著。到2020年底, 新英格兰地区的迁移体系, 再次呈现出类似于COVID-19之前的模式。处于城市等级体系底层的地区, 房地产活动持续大幅增长, 这反映在价格上涨、库存减少和销售量增加。房地产变化表明, 在COVID-19流行病期间, 城市到农村迁移可能会引发新一轮的农村中产阶级化。 (Chinese) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Professional Geographer is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

TVET Technology Development and Transfer Effort for Combating COVID-19 in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

Purpose --The main purpose of this research work is to evaluate the efforts of TVET efforts' in developing and transferring useful technologies in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. TVET Institutions are engaged in developing and transferring technologies like hand washing devices, sanitizer sprayers, ventilators, beds, disinfection devices, sanitizers, antiviral finish fabrics, masks and hand-free devices that is used to prevent contamination of the human body while working with materials of different kinds. These equipment's posse's characteristic simple operational and quality properties like usability, functionality, efficiency, etc. The evaluation of these developed and transferred technologies help to prevent transmission of COVID-19 at community level. Design/methodology/approach -- The methodology used in this research was descriptive and purposive sampling type. The sample pool consisted of 5 TVET institutions. 40 respondents participated in this questionnaire study. The response was recorded through interview questionnaires based on the 5-point Likert Scale. Data analysis and Cronbach's alpha reliability tests were computed using SPSS and Minitab software. Practical Implications: The coronavirus is the deadly pandemic and highly contagious disease the human mankind has witnessed since 1918 flue pandemic. However, the coronavirus spread in Ethiopia at the community level has prompted many TVET (Technical Vocational and Education Training) institutions and universities to ramp up their efforts to develop and transfer technologies. Hence TVET organizations need therefore to develop and transfer technologies that are useful to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This research will help to gather the technical information pertaining to design, quality and performance of Hand washing equipment's, face masks, Hand sanitizers and other equipment's. Findings - The results prove TVET Institutions' efforts were successful in developing and transferring the technologies required to combating COVID-19. Cronbach's alpha (reliability test) value is 0.77 for the TVET colleges, indicating the data is excellent, unique and consistent. The position of the TVET institution is excellent as regards to the efforts put in developing and transferring technologies used for combating COVID-19 in and around Addis Ababa. The responses received were unique in nature. Originality/value -- COVID-19 has posed many challenges to public and has resulted in many deaths in Addis Ababa and entire Ethiopia. This work is unique and would make valuable contribution and gather information on the design and technical aspects of developed and transferred technologies by TVET Institutions used for combating COVID-19. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results is the property of ResearchTrentz and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

URBAN AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES, A FOOD SYSTEM RESILIENCE STRATEGY DURING COVID-19 IN HAITI

The COVID-19 crisis is impacting the reconfiguration of food systems at different scales. In poor countries where food insecurity had already been a major problem, the urban population under the lockdown often had to cope alone with shortages of food and access to it. In the poorest country in the Americas, the urban population adapted the food system by intensifying the practice of urban agricultural activities. In this exploratory research, using a sample including urban dwellers that were engaged in urban agriculture and those who were not, we investigated the following question: Did urban agriculture linked to COVID-19 represent an appropriate and innovative strategy for the urban food system resilience? Our results confirm that the Haitian urban population used urban agriculture as an innovative and appropriate food resilience strategy. They produced varieties chosen for their very rapid production character and were able to cope successfully with the crisis, and also have lessons to share with other actors and countries. © Paul B., 2022.

Vertical farming - smart urban agriculture for enhancing resilience and sustainability in food security

Global food security has been significantly threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic and several prolonged challenges such as climate change, population increases, shortage of natural resources, energy crisis, and rapid urbanisation worldwide. Although numerous attempts have been made to secure resilience in the food system, many countries are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, particularly in African and some Asian countries. This review paper presents one of the sustainable farming practices - vertical farming that could play a key role in mitigating global food security in the current uncertain world. It addresses the recent development of vertical farming with advanced precision monitoring and controlling system by the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It also provides information about the opportunities and challenges of vertical-urban agriculture and how urban agriculture meets economic, social and educational needs.

Assessing the poverty impact of the COVID-19-induced tourism crisis in Tanzania: a social accounting matrix microsimulation analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to international tourism and has stimulated research interest. This study examines links between COVID-19-induced tourism disruption and poverty in Tanzania. Unlike previous studies linking COVID-19, tourism and poverty, this paper uses a social accounting matrix (SAM) microsimulation analysis that allows decomposition of poverty indices by population subgroup and assessment of the drivers of aggregate poverty. The results of the SAM multiplier analysis indicate that all households will experience reduced incomes, and that this effect will be more pronounced in urban than rural households. The microsimulation results suggest that the COVID-19-induced tourism crisis will exacerbate the poverty headcount, poverty gap and poverty severity, with urban and rural non-farm households being most affected. The results of the poverty decomposition show that the growth effect has a stronger impact than the inequality effect on increased poverty. Poverty increases and inequality decreases simultaneously. The paper suggests several demand- and supply-side policies that may help to build tourism resilience and recovery and alleviate poverty in Tanzania in the post-COVID world.

Urban Food Autonomy: The Flourishing of an Ethics of Care for Sustainability

Urban agriculture is often advanced as a sustainable solution to feed a growing urban population, offering a number of benefits: improved fresh food access, CO2 absorption, social justice and social cohesion among others. Going beyond these direct tangible/objective benefits from urban agriculture, in this paper we ask: How can growing food in the cities teach us about taking care of each other and the natural environment? We use the example of urban food autonomy movements to discuss the transformative potential of a grassroots-led initiative promoting permaculture, which is anchored in three "ethics”: care for the earth, care for the people, and fair share. Through examining the philosophical underpinnings of "autonomy” and "care”, we explore how urban food autonomy initiatives can enable the development of an ethics of care, especially using permaculture inspirations. Our theoretical review and case analysis reveal that "autonomy” can never be achieved without "care” and that these are co-dependent outcomes. The urban food autonomy initiatives are directly relevant for the achievement of the three of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals: "Zero Hunger,” "Life on Land” and "Climate Action”, and contribute to a culture of care. Indeed, urban agriculture can act as a powerful education platform for the engagement of diverse stakeholders while also supporting a collective transformation of values.

Urban agriculture in walkable neighborhoods bore fruit for health and food system resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Urban agriculture is the key to creating healthy cities and developing resilient urban food systems in uncertain times. However, relevant empirical evidence is limited. This study quantitatively verified the association of access to local food through urban agriculture with subjective well-being, physical activity, and food security concerns of neighborhood communities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The target was Tokyo, Japan, where small-scale local food systems are widespread in walkable neighborhoods. We found that diversity in local food access, ranging from self-cultivation to direct-to-consumer sales, was significantly associated with health and food security variables. In particular, the use of allotment farms was more strongly associated with subjective well-being than the use of urban parks, and it was more strongly associated with the mitigation of food security concerns than the use of food retailers. These findings provide robust evidence for the effectiveness of integrating urban agriculture into walkable neighborhoods.

Evaluation of the Grow Your Groceries Home Gardening Program in Chicago, Illinois.

COVID-19 exacerbated existing disparities in food security in Chicago. Home gardening can improve food security but there are often barriers to participation and the benefits are understudied. Chicago Grows Food (CGF) formed in 2020 to address food insecurity during COVID-19, and created the Grow Your Groceries (GYG) program to provide home gardening kits to families at risk of food insecurity in Chicago. A participatory program evaluation was conducted to better understand the experiences of and benefits to individuals participating in GYG. Program participants shared feedback via focus groups (n = 6) and surveys (n = 72). Qualitative data were analyzed using an iterative coding process. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Most participants reported confidence in using a grow kit to grow food, increased healthy food consumption, easier access to healthy food, and high likelihood of growing food again. Additionally, participants described increased connections within their communities, increased interaction with their family, and personal growth as benefits of the program. These results demonstrate the benefits of a novel home gardening program that uses fabric grow bags to address food insecurity. A larger scale program evaluation is necessary to better understand the impacts of participating in this home gardening program.

Urban Agriculture as a Means to Food Sovereignty? A Case Study of Baltimore City Residents.

A large body of research suggests that neighborhood disparities in food access persist. Emerging evidence suggests that the global COVID-19 pandemic likely exacerbated disparities in food access. Given the potential role that alternative food networks (AFNs) and local food sources may play during times of extreme scarcity, this study examines urban agriculture (e.g., community farms and gardens) as a sustainable strategy to address food insecurity. In-depth qualitative interviews with fifteen community stakeholders revealed several major themes including food insecurity as a feature of systemic racism, food affordability and distance to food as major barriers to food security, and the role of AFNs in creating community empowerment. Our findings indicate that urban agricultural practices help build social capital, inform and educate community members about healthy eating behaviors, and facilitate the distribution of affordable food. Implications for future research and policy targeting sustainable food distribution in marginalized communities of color are discussed.

The 'Covid-Trigger': New Light on Urban Agriculture and Systemic Approach to Urbanism to Co-Create a Sustainable Lisbon.

In 2018, Lisbon won the title of Green capital of Europe 2020. It was described by the Expert Panel as an inspirational city which had started its journey towards sustainability during a period of economic crisis. A year later, Covid-19 had become a global pandemic. Imposed confinements highlighted the extent to which globalisation has spread the virus, as well as the particular fragility of places like cities where people, living together, were asked to not physically interact anymore. Exploring further that very particular global crisis can help to identify the faults in our economic systems and to ask why Lisbon was neither resilient nor sustainable in the face of that adversity. In addition to highlighting how weak our health is, Covid-19 has exacerbated vulnerabilities in Lisbon such as job losses (especially in the touristic sector), food supply (Portugal imports 70% of its food) and food waste. This paper explores how the activity which, 'par excellence', meets the most basic of our needs (food), through the example of Urban Agriculture (UA), could contribute to discussions on what makes a city sustainable. A literature review on UA in Lisbon highlights its various benefits, complemented by a broader literature review which converges to showing how UA can help to address the vulnerabilities generated or exacerbated by Covid. Having shown its potential contribution to addressing crises, this article then suggests to examine how systems approaches could help to incorporate UA further in a new type of more participatory urbanism aimed at creating sustainable cities.

A participatory tool for assessing land footprint in city-region food systems-A case study from Metropolitan Copenhagen

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of current food systems to feed populations around the world. Particularly in urban centers, consumers have been confronted with this vulnerability, highlighting reliance on just-in-time logistics, imports and distant primary production. Urban food demand, regional food supply, land use change, and transport strategies are considered key factors for reestablishing resilient landscapes as part of a sustainable food system. Improving the sustainability of food systems in such circumstances entails working on the interrelations between food supply and demand, rural and urban food commodity production sites, and groups of involved actors and consumers. Of special significance is the agricultural land in close proximity to urban centers. Calling for more holistic approaches in the sense of inclusiveness, food security, citizen involvement and ecological principles, this article describes the use of a new decision support tool, the Metropolitan Foodscape Planner (MFP). The MFP features up-to-date European datasets to assess the potential of current agricultural land use to provide food resources (with special attention to both plant- and animal-based products) and meet the demand of city dwellers, and help to empower citizens, innovators, companies, public authorities and other stakeholders of regional food systems to build a more regionalized food supply network. The tool was tested in the context of the food system of the Copenhagen City Region in two collaborative workshops, namely one workshop with stakeholders of the Copenhagen City Region representing food consultancies, local planning authorities and researchers, and one in-person workshop masterclass with MSc students from the University of Copenhagen. Workshop participants used the tool to learn about the impacts of the current food system at the regional and international level with regard to the demand-supply paradigm of city-regions. The ultimate goal was to develop a participatory mapping exercise and test three food system scenarios for a more regionalized and sustainable food system and, therefore, with increased resilience to crises. Results from this implementation also demonstrated the potential of the tool to identify food production sites at local level that are potentially able to feed the city region in a more sustainable, nutritious and way.

The impact of COVID-19 on urban agriculture in Sao Paulo, Brazil

During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers worldwide were greatly affected by disruptions in the food chain. In 2020, Sao Paulo city experienced most of the effects of the pandemic in Brazil, with 15,587 deaths through December 2020. Here, we describe the impacts of COVID-19 on urban agriculture (UA) in Sao Paulo from April to August 2020. We analyzed two governmental surveys of 2100 farmers from Sao Paulo state and 148 from Sao Paulo city and two qualitative surveys of volunteers from ten community gardens and seven urban farmers. Our data showed that 50% of the farmers were impacted by the pandemic with drops in sales, especially those that depended on intermediaries. Some farmers in the city adapted to novel sales channels, but 22% claimed that obtaining inputs became difficult. No municipal support was provided to UA in Sao Paulo, and pre-existing issues were exacerbated. Work on community gardens decreased, but no garden permanently closed. Post COVID-19, UA will have the challenge of maintaining local food chains established during the pandemic. Due to the increase in the price of inputs and the lack of technical assistance, governmental efforts should be implemented to support UA.

A study on the benefits and intention to implement urban agriculture among urban dwellers: Case study in Southern Region of Malaysia

In Malaysia, urban agriculture activity is getting popular, especially during the pandemic of Covid-19. As the pandemic struck, the economic situation in Malaysia faced a downturn. Rapid urbanization, slow income growth, and unstable food prices in the market are the major problem faced by urban dwellers nowadays. This study discussed the intention to implement among urban dwellers in the southern region of Malaysia and the benefits of urban agriculture that influence their intention. The study employs quantitative analysis and was based on the primary data collected via face-to-face and distributed google form in 5 urban areas in 3 states in the southern region of Malaysia. The total sample size was 214 urban dwellers. Intention level analysis, Correlation analysis, and exploratory factor analysis were used in the study to achieve the objectives. The study shows that the majority of the respondents have moderate to high intention levels. The results indicate a positive relationship between the benefits of urban agriculture and the implementation intention of urban dwellers at a 0.01 significant level. The results also indicate 3 factors that affect the intention to implement which are financial, social, and environmental.

The importance of urban and peri-urban agriculture in sustainable development and increasing food security

The concepts of urban and peri-urban agriculture, although they are not new, are current as a result of the fact that one of the problems that arose during the Covid-19 crisis was that of food security as a result of the need to ensure food resources from nearby sources, in the conditions in which transport and other sectors of activity have reduced or suspended their activity. In this paper, we propose that, starting from the study of the specialized literature regarding urban and peri-urban agriculture, to identify their development possibilities, to identify the forms of practice of urban and peri-urban agriculture, to present the strengths and weaknesses weak related to their development and to propose solutions for their integration in the development of cities on a sustainable basis. The research methodology assumed the study of specialized literature, the consultation of internal and international databases, the processing and analysis of data with the aim of formulating conclusions that can be the basis of future studies, but also formulating conclusions that can be integrated into future policies regarding the development of urban and peri-urban agriculture, taking into account the fact that at the moment there is still no exact formulation regarding their support.

Trend Analysis of Balcony Vegetable Gardens in Korea, Before and After COVID-19 Pandemic Using Big Data

Background and objective: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been staying at home more and "balcony vegetable gardens," a form of urban agriculture, have been mentioned more frequently. As a result of the Korea Housing Survey in 2020, the percentage of households living in apartments among general households in Korea was 51.1%, but there is insufficient research to understand public perception and trends of the balcony vegetable gardens. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the trends of balcony vegetable gardens over the last 4 years including before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and to provide basic data for effective application to related policies and research. Methods: A total of 5,011 posts that mentioned balcony vegetable gardens were collected from Naver blogs and cafes from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. To tokenize nouns, Okt morphological analysis of KoNLPy was used, and keywords were derived using TfidfVectorizer of Scikit-learn library. Following that, LDA topic modeling was performed by setting the hyper parameters as α= 0.1, β = 0.01 and iterations = 1,000. The above analysis was conducted using Python 3.9.5. Results: Before the outbreak of COVID-19, balcony vegetable gardening began to receive attention and vitalized as a form of participation in urban agriculture, but after the outbreak, they are established as an activity for healing, emotional support, environmental campaign, and healthy hobby. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, people clearly seemed to seek a more sustainable lifestyle through balcony vegetable garden activities. This shows the values and expected outcomes the public has toward urban agriculture. Conclusion: Balcony gardening activities heal the public, and this healing effect could be a key to the revitalization and development of urban agriculture. These findings can help establish policies and set the directions for urban agriculture that reflect the values and expected outcomes the public has toward urban agricultural activities. © 2022 by the Society for People, Plants, and Environment.

A hybrid method to quantify household urban agriculture gardening: Implications for sustainable and equitable food action planning

Urban food action plans seek quantitative data on household agriculture gardening, traditionally difficult to quantify rapidly, as welt as data on inequality to explore the potential to improve equitable access to fresh vegetables through household agriculture. This article presents a novel hybrid field survey (HFS) method, combining ground surveys with satellite imagery to quantify the prevalence and area of household agriculture gardens, as well as inequality by neighborhood income. We test the method in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, (Twin Cities), USA, analyzing the presence/absence (prevalence) and size of agriculture gardens across a total of similar to 17,500 households in 2017 and repeated in 2020 (during COVID-19). In 2017, the overall mean frequency of household agricultural gardening was 5.0%, with significant differences (2.7 vs. 7.0%) across low- vs. high-income neighborhoods. The city-wide median area per agriculture garden size was 14.6 m(2) with greater size (19.8 vs. 11.6 m(2)) in low- vs. high-income neighborhoods, respectively. Across all income groups, the gardening area was a small fraction of the yard area, suggesting little land availability constraints. Measurements in the summer of 2020 during COVID-19 found the method sensitive over time, showing an overall 60% increase in the prevalence of household agriculture with low-income neighborhoods increasing rates from 3 to 5%. Overall, the method can inform aggregate production potential and inequality in household agriculture.

Vertical farming - smart urban agriculture for enhancing resilience and sustainability in food security

Global food security has been significantly threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic and several prolonged challenges such as climate change, population increases, shortage of natural resources, energy crisis, and rapid urbanisation worldwide. Although numerous attempts have been made to secure resilience in the food system, many countries are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, particularly in African and some Asian countries. This review paper presents one of the sustainable farming practices - vertical farming that could play a key role in mitigating global food security in the current uncertain world. It addresses the recent development of vertical farming with advanced precision monitoring and controlling system by the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It also provides information about the opportunities and challenges of vertical-urban agriculture and how urban agriculture meets economic, social and educational needs.

The Pandemic Boom of Urban Agriculture: Challenging the Role of Resiliency in Transforming our Future Urban (Food) Systems

In Australia, COVID-19 has accelerated the reliance on resiliency as a tool of post-pandemic urban recovery. We draw on critical literature on resilience to examine its use in proposals for urban agriculture in cities after COVID-19. Crucially, we situate the pandemic in a longer history of settler-colonialism, and in the role of agriculture in the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We argue that the pandemic conditions which urban agriculture is currently operating within risks perpetuating urban colonial governmentality. This paper calls for a rethinking of urban agriculture for future cities by radically disrupting the foundational colonial logics of urban spatiality. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] 摘要 在澳大利亚，新冠加速了对复原力的依赖，将其作疫情后城市复苏的工具。我们借鉴了关于复原力的批评性文献，来研究它在新冠之后的城市农业建议中的应用。至关重要的是，我们将这一流行病置于定居者-殖民主义的较长历史中，以及农业在剥夺原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民中的作用中。我们认为，城市农业目前在大流行的条件下运作，有可能使城市殖民政府性长期存在。本文呼吁为未来的城市重新思考城市农业，从根本上打破城市空间性的基础性殖民逻辑。 (Chinese) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Urban Networks, Micro-agriculture, and Community Food Security.

The white paper first outlines the state of inequity in food security/sovereignty in our area of focus, taking into account historical context as well as emerging and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and community and policy responses to it. We then discuss a food acquisition intervention, structured as a longitudinal, collaborative research, and service-learning effort known as Everybody Eats. The white paper provides detailed discussion of competing understandings of agriculture, horticulture, and the social problem of food insecurity; the preliminary data that has led to a current collaborative effort to enhance the skillset of people previously not understood as food producers and provisioners, but only as end-user consumers; and the new iteration of the project wherein specific sets of expertise from diverse disciplines are deployed both to offer a more robust intervention, and bring new methodologies to bear in assessing the ecology of a local foodshed. We propose mobilizing existing resources and expertise of the Land Grant/Cooperative Extension system to act as a regional hub for facilitating full community food security (caloric and nutritional adequacy) and food sovereignty (participatory decision-making regarding living spaces and culturally appropriate foodways). Finally, we illustrate how a nexus of faculty, working from a service-learning advocacy perspective and embedded in a participatory action framework, provides a mechanism for bringing together and sustaining a community of intellectually diverse researchers and stakeholders.

An Evaluation Approach to Support Urban Agriculture Implementation in Post-covid19 Cities: The Case of Troisi Park in Naples

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact worldwide by producing, especially in urban contexts, severe consequences not only in the healthcare field but also in socioeconomic terms with visible implications for food security. In this difficult context, Urban Agriculture (UA) stands as a valuable means to ensure social, environmental, and economic benefits for urban realities. Indeed, UA implementation’s multi-dimensional opportunities can also be read in terms of ecosystem services. However, despite this wide acknowledgment of UA’s multiple benefits, a gap exists between the number of policies already implemented to promote urban agriculture and the demand for these policies. The reasons for this gap can be found both in prejudice towards agriculture as a low-income activity, discouraging private investments, and in public administration’s reduced financial capacity. In this light, the paper proposes an evaluation approach based on a Sustainability Assessment to support agriculture-led implementation processes in urban spaces by dealing with financial constraints. This methodology is tested on the regeneration of Troisi Parks’ greenhouses in Naples, which have recently been the subject of the Urbanfarm design challenge within the EU H2020 FoodE Project. Thus, after describing the main features of the International Challenge and the project for Troisi Park, the paper delves into the application of the Sustainability Assessment to support Troisi Park’s regeneration. Finally, the opportunities stemming from such an evaluation approach to UA and its possible room for improvement are discussed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.