Up on the Roof: Considerations for Food Production on Rooftops

Whittinghill, Leigh J.; Starry, Olyssa

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-7453-6_23

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The rooftop space in a dense urban environment can account for much of the city's surface area. The rooftop's potential is usually underutilized and unrealized [74,81,94]. Urban areas with limited open spaces, green spaces, and high land values and densities can use rooftops for intensive farming [87,[95][96][97].…”

Section: Literature Review: Rooftop Urban Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wind can result in soil dryness and the dehydration of plants. Wind can be filtered or deflected by constructing bamboo, reed screens, trellises, walls, or tall parapets [26,79,81,92,95,98,100,101,105,107,110]. (4) Shade: rooftops near taller buildings are not ideal places for setting up rooftop farms due to neighboring buildings' cast shade [81,92,115].…”

Section: Literature Review: Rooftop Urban Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such rooftops are unutilized spaces with direct exposure to sunlight, so they can be developed for cultivating local fresh food. As cities become denser, rooftops, as valuable urban commodities, can be adapted for food cultivation [21,[25][26][27]33,35,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86]. In this way, unutilized rooftops can be converted into productive grounds to assist in food security development for city dwellers [74,77,84,87].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Residential Rooftop Urban Agriculture: Architectural Design Recommendations

Daneshyar

2024

Sustainability

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It is evident that, due to population growth, future urbanization and urban growth are inevitable. It is estimated that the food supply demand of future urban centers will grow, which will place an additional burden on the agriculture sector to produce more food. It is projected that securing the food supply chain for future urban centers will be a challenge. Urban agriculture can be regarded as a remedy for possible future challenges that the global food system will face. It might be able to reduce the future burden on the agriculture sector. This research proposes that urban rooftop agriculture, as a subset of urban agriculture, can produce local fresh food in dense urban environments. The principal aim of this research is to suggest a series of design recommendations for architects interested in designing residential buildings capable of rooftop food production. This research attempts to highlight the specific design recommendations and the principal limitations regarding designing residential rooftop farms. To extract the data for developing the proposed design recommendations and limitations, a review of the literature within the fields of urban agriculture, building-integrated agriculture, and horticulture was conducted. Based on the literature review results, this research suggests that the following three types of farming methods can be developed on residential rooftops: (1) open-air rooftop food production, (2) “low-tech” rooftop greenhouses, and (3) “high-tech” rooftop greenhouses. In addition, factors that can be considered principal limitations are suggested. In sum, this research proposes that current and future residential buildings can be designed so that their rooftops are utilized as farms. In this way, such buildings can contribute to delivering local fresh food to current and future metropolitan dwellers.

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Section: Literature Review: Rooftop Urban Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Review: Rooftop Urban Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Residential Rooftop Urban Agriculture: Architectural Design Recommendations

Daneshyar

2024

Sustainability

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“…These opportunities include green roofs to manage stormwater runoff, save energy, reduce air pollution, and preserve biodiversity (Mentens et al, 2006;Oberndorfer et al, 2007;Berndtsson, 2010;Rowe, 2011). More recently, rooftop farming has been explored as a way to achieve these goals and to produce food for local communities (Ackerman et al, 2013;Thomaier et al, 2015;Whittinghill and Starry, 2016;Harada et al, 2017). Ideally, these diverse ecosystem services could be integrated into the limited space available in urban environments and to offer social-cultural benefits, such as environmental education, eco-justice, and building more cohesive communities (Lovell, 2010;Lovell and Taylor, 2013;McPhearson et al, 2013;Specht et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen Biogeochemistry of an Urban Rooftop Farm

et al. 2018

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Intensive agriculture represents a recent extension of green roof technology. Perceived ecosystem services provided by rooftop farming include stormwater management and the production of affordable and nutritious vegetables for local consumption. However, intensive agriculture can increase nutrient loads to surface water, yet there is little empirical data from full-scale operational rooftop farms. This study reports the N balance and N management efficiency of the Brooklyn Grange Navy Yard Farm, a 0.61-ha farm atop an 11-story building in New York City USA. We monitored atmospheric N deposition, soil N concentration, N output by harvest, N leaching from soil, and drainage N output, in addition to estimating net N mineralization and the N load to sewers during the combined sewer overflows. We found that the annual drainage N output was 1,100% of the atmospheric bulk N deposition, and was 540% of the estimated total atmospheric N deposition, which makes the Brooklyn Grange a net N source in the urban environment. Annual N leaching from soil was 97% of fertilizer N input, and the efficiency of N management can be lower than in conventional vegetable production. For the Brooklyn Grange to integrate stormwater management and intensive agriculture, it will be important to use soil with greater water holding capacity within the range of readily available water, and to recycle drainage. This case study shows how the intensification of agriculture on rooftops should be managed for both the yield and quality of crops and to reduce N loss to storm drains, which affects aquatic ecosystems and water quality.

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“…Green roofs further provide numerous environmental benefits including retention of storm water, lowering ambient air temperature, mitigating urban heat island effects, filtering air pollutants, providing insulation for buildings, and creating habitat for local fauna (Berndtsson, Bengtsson, and Jinno 2009;Kadas 2006; Kumar and Kaushik 2005;MacIvor and Lundholm 2011;Speak et al 2012). On a socioeconomic and cultural basis, green roofs offer community building and aesthetic values and may support local livelihoods through the sale of harvests (Whittinghill and Rowe 2012;Whittinghill and Starry 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%