The Potential and Significance of Urban Agriculture on the Basis of the Ruhr Metropolis and the Upper Silesian Metropolis

Abstract

The paper attempts to evaluate the potential and importance of agriculture in the two largest (post)industrial metropolitan areas of Europe. It has been demonstrated that urban agriculture constitutes an important spatial component of studied urban organisms, as almost 40% of these consist of agricultural land. Analysis of chosen characteristics of agriculture in the researched metropolitan areas explicitly shows that their agricultural potential is comparable to the overall regions where they are located. This mainly concerns the average size of farms, the employment ratio and the intensity of both animal and plant production. The studies also led to the conclusion that, in spite of very similar natural environments, agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis is characterized by significantly higher production potential than agriculture in the Upper Silesian Metropolis.