Multiscapes and Urbanisation: The Case for Spatial Agroecology

Abstract

The two most significant signatures of the Anthropocene—agriculture and urbanisation—have yet to be studied synoptically. The term periurban is used to describe territory where the urbanising trend of the planet extends into multiscapes. A periurban praxis is required that spatially reconciles urbanisation and agriculture, simultaneously permitting urban growth and the enhancement of critical ecosystem services provided by agricultural hinterlands. This paper presents a synthesis of four fields of ecological research that converge on periurban multiscapes—ecological urbanism, landscape ecology, ecosystem services science and agroecology. By applying an ecosystem services approach, a diagram is developed that connects these fields as a holistic praxis for spatially optimising periurban multiscapes for ecosystem services performance. Two spatial qualities of agroecology—‘ES Density’ and ‘ES Plasticity’—potentiate recent areas of research in each of the other three fields—ecology for the city from ecological urbanism, landscape metrics from landscape ecology (particularly the potential application of fractals and surface metrics) and ecosystem services supply and demand mapping and ‘ES Space’ theory from ecosystems services science. While the multifunctional value of agroecological systems is becoming widely accepted, this paper focuses on agroecology’s specific spatial value and its unique capacity to supply ecosystem services specifically tailored to the critical ecosystemic demands of periurban multiscapes.

ESMAX for spatial agroecology: A conceptual spatial model for the quantification and visualisation of ES performance from different configurations of landscape

“…Literature on urban cooling effect generally correlates cooling effect with the size of the parks and other urban green spaces (Blachowski & Hajnrych, 2021; Zardo et al, 2017), suggesting that green areas of all sizes, including individual trees, contribute to this cooling phenomenon (Martini et al, 2018). For the purposes of this work, we assume the second‐order effect of overlapping fields to be additive (Morris et al, 2024).…”

“…Normalisation is carried out by subtracting the lowest ES total of all the configurations, then dividing this by the overall range of values. Detailed explanation of the development and testing of ESMAX development of ES fields for these ES are provided in Morris et al (2024). AFS, agroecological farm systems; ES, ecosystem services.…”

“…Literature on urban cooling effect generally correlates cooling effect with the size of the parks and other urban green spaces (Blachowski & Hajnrych, 2021; Zardo et al, 2017), suggesting that green areas of all sizes, including individual trees, contribute to this cooling phenomenon (Martini et al, 2018). For the purposes of this work, we assume the second‐order effect of overlapping fields to be additive (Morris et al, 2024). Flood mitigation: Among the secondary effects of agricultural intensification and simplification is increasing vulnerability to flooding, resulting from increased soil compaction, elimination of natural flood paths and reduction of ground surface texture (Rogger et al, 2017; Ryszkowski, 1995).…”

“…to this cooling phenomenon (Martini et al, 2018). For the purposes of this work, we assume the second-order effect of overlapping fields to be additive (Morris et al, 2024).…”

“…At this scale it is most feasible for farmers and land managers to implement changes in configuration and composition affecting ES supply, this being the scale they are used to modifying from year to year, and the smallest self‐standing unit of land found on a farm (Hatt et al, 2018; Landis, 2017). Our recent work has developed ESMAX, a conceptual spatial model used to quantify and visualise the ES performance of different configurations of landscape components (Morris et al, 2024). This work applies ESMAX to spatial agroecology, in this instance to designing paddock‐scale AFS to deliver multiple regulating ES.…”