Site Identification for Urban Agriculture in North St. Louis

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL The City and Its North Side

First, I needed to establish which neighbourhood are considered North St. Louis.

To do this, I had to add Corridor data into the Attributes table for existing neighbourhood data.

St. Louis City

North St. Louis Corridor Central and South Corridors

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL STL Grocery Stores

In order to establish the location of a new urban agriculture site that can also host a fresh food market, it is crucial to know the locations of existing grocery stores in the area in order to supply food to an area that is currently underserved and located in a food desert.

!

In order to establish GIS shaepfile data that represents the location of grocery stores, I used Google Earth to determine the locations of major grocery store chains Schnucks, Aldi’s and Trader Joes (Dierbergs, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods were nowhere near the research area), and saved the data as KML files. I was then able to use the conversion tool in GIS to convert the data into shapefiles.

After merging these layers together, I was able to Select by Location the North Parcels that sit within a 1 mile distance from these stores (by definition, food deserts are considered to be one mile away from a grocery store in urban areas). Next, I added a field to the Parcel Layer indicating if it was within or outside of this one mile radius making it easier for me to select the parcels found outside this area.

!

! !

!

!

! ! !

!

! !

! ! ! !

!

!

!

!

! !

! !

!

! !

! ! !

!

!

! !

!

! !

!

Grocery Stores in St. Louis Aldi Save-A-Lot Schnucks

Grocery Stores in 1 mile proximity to North St. Louis

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Property Parcels in the Region

After determining the locations of grocery stores in the north corridor of St. Louis, We can then begin to reduce the possible land parcels appropriate for an agriculture site.

First we need to identify the parcels within the 1 mile radius. After establishing which parcels were located in the radius (using the select by location tool, with reference to the grocery store points), a field was added to the attribute table indicating if it was within the radius with the term ‘yes’. The unselected parcels, were noted as ‘no’ under the new field.

!

The symbology of this parcel data layer can then be altered so that only the parcels outside of the radius are visible. These are possible parcels that are available for the agricultural land.

!

! !

! ! ! !

!

Parcels near Grocery Stores

Parcels that exceed the 1 mile distance from a grocery store

Aldi

Parcels within the 1 mile distance from a grocery store

Save-A-Lot Schnucks

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Vacancy and Size

After establishing which parcels exceed the one mile radius from existing large chain grocery stores, we can narrow the lot choices by extracting out the parcels that are non vacant.

Now, we can narrow down the search by determining which lots are large enough to host an agricultural site. This area has been established as one acre, or 43,560 square feet - enough space worth establishing a farm, but not too large of an endeavour.

Vacant Parcels

Vacant Parcels greater than one acre

Parcels within one mile radius

Non-recommended Locations

Non-recommended Locations

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Landuse

In conjunction with establishing which lots are vacant, and appropriately sized in the study area, it is important to determine the existing land use in the area.

Agricultural lots are not ideally located in some land use areas. We must then extract those vacant lots that are surrounded by these nonideal locations.

Landuse Areas in the Norther corridor of St. Louis Vacant Parcels Greater than One Acre Commercial Transportation

Vacant Parcels Greater than One Acre

Industrial

Landuses not recommended for close proximity to agriculture

Cropland

Cropland

Public

Public

Residential

Residential

Recreation

Recreation

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Potential Sites

By establishing landuse areas appropriate for close proximity to an urban agriculture site, we can now identify three zones for potential sites.

Zone A

Zone B

Zone C

Target Areas for Urban Agricultural Development Vacant Lots greater than One Acre surrounded by appropriate landuse Vacant Parcels Greater than One Acre Landuse Appropriate near Agriculture

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Soil Study

Unfortunately none of these identified sites are in good soil zones. This indicates that soil remediation will be a necessity to develop an agriculture site in these specified areas.

Target Areas for Urban Agricultural Development

Potential Agriculture Sites Landuse Appropriate near Agriculture

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Identifying the Best Location

Finally, we can analyze the area to determine the optimal aspect, slope and shading. We are looking for a souther exposure, a slope under 12%, and a non-shaded area. This information has been derived from LIDAR imagery, and then reclassified and symbolized to improve its relevance and legibility.

From this information, we can conclude that Sites i and ii are best suited for an urban agriculture site.

Aspect

Slope

Based on an aspect analysis, it is clear that zone C is not facing southward, which would be the optimal direction for an agricultural site.

After performing a slope analysis, it becomes obvious that zone A has areas of steep slopes. This is not conducive for optimal agriculture.

Southern Exposure

i

<1%

iI

iII Northern Exposure

>12%

IV

Hillshade, 30 degree altitude This leaves us with zone A to establish an urban agriculture site. Based on the zoomed in version of the hillshade analysis, it seems Plot ii and iv are less ideal because they are in shadier zones. This concludes that Plot i and Plot iii are the ideal locations for an urban agriculture site in North St. Louis.

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN STL Weighted Overlay

I did perform a weighted overall between the aspect (50%), Sloe (25%), and Hillshade (25%), but the developed spatial analysis did not offer any more acute information to help establish where the urban agriculture sites should be.