URBANITY IN LOCALIZATION OF GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM

JIAWEI DING

Behind the food we consume every day is a system based on global engaged production and consumption. Due to the uneven distribution of resources around the world, differences in climate conditions, and labor costs, the progressive industrialization of agriculture has crops cultivated and transported around the world. While the resulting global food system ensures an adequate supply of food in most parts of the world and maintains a degree of food diversity.

However, a closer look reveals its unsustainable nature. Maintaining a global food supply chain relies on distribution, storage, and refrigeration facilities, which cause large greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the current pandemic has proven the limitations of a system that is not resilient and flexible enough in the face of global crises. Since some countries depend on food imports from other countries, global geopolitical crises can directly affect one or more links in the supply system. For instance, the Russian armed invasion of Ukraine has brought turmoil to the global supply of wheat and sunflower oil. On the other hand, climate change is disrupting farming practices around the world and global population growth poses new challenges to feeding populations in less fertile geographies1.

This research explores the organizational logic of an internalized system based on localized food production. It is an extension of the existing system to eliminate the uncertainty of externalities and make it more flexible and resilient. This research takes the agricultural phenomenon of Campo de Dalías Area in Almeria as an object of study, the unique spatial relationships between intensively farmed land and urban areas here2, and the model of industrial-agricultural integration can guide the construction of localized agricultural production systems3. It will be presented from the following aspect: the intensive agricultural system, agricultural network, and agro-industrial model. In the end, the research will discuss the possibility of a broader application of such an intensive agricultural urbanity in terms of productive urbanism and hinterland urbanism.

Keywords

Food Production, Food Crisis, Intensive Agriculture, Agro-industry.

Urbanisms

Productive Urbanism

Hinterland Urbanism

Notes

1. Melanie Sommerville, Jamey Essex & Philippe Le Billon (2014) The‘Global Food Crisis’ and the Geopolitics of Food Security, Geopolitics, 19:2, 239-265, DOI:10.1080/14650045.2013.811641

2. Wolosin, Robert Tyrell, “El Milagro De Almería, Espana: A Political Ecology of Landscape Change and Greenhouse Agriculture” (2008). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 366.

3. Egea, Francisco & Torrente, Roberto & Aguilar, Alfredo. (2017). An efficient agroindustrial complex in Almería (Spain): Towards an integrated and sustainable bioeconomy model. New Biotechnology. 40. 10.1016/j. nbt.2017.06.009.

DEVENDRA HEMANT DUGAD

Water, a vital [re]source for human life, has been impacted by the rapid urbanization of metropolitan regions worldwide. Urban infrastructures and governing institutions have proven vastly inadequate to support the coexistance of healthy water systems with ever growing human populations, thus raising the question of the sustenance of life under these circumstances.1

Cities in the developing world are sites of acute asymmetries in the access to clean water, and proper infrastructure of sanitation. The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) exemplifies these problems. The historical source of water, the aquifer, has come under tremendous stress in recent times, leading to large-scale land subsidence.2 The city brings in drinking water from very distant basins through a 120 km-long infrastructural network requiring constant investment and expansive repairs.3 These difficulties, combined with inadequate hazardous waste management, leave the aquifer and the water distribution system vulnerable to contamination with consequent risks to public health.

The project investigates the mechanisms in which urban design can contribute to increased access to water quality, less dependance on outdated critical infrastructure and groundwater overexploitation, and increased social cohesion through sociohydrological resilience.4 The project delves into an approach to landscape and ecological urbanism to discuss alternate, sustainable, and decentralized water management systems based on hydro-urban acupuncture to address the issue of water management locally.

Using the five-fold strategy of ‘Delay, Retain, Store, Reuse and only Drain when necessary’ first proposed by De Urbanisten (Netherlands)5, the investigation looks at how social infrastructure can help develop localized water management strategies. Studying proposed and under-construction case studies in East Mexico City, the investigation discusses how Texcoco Lake Ecological Park, La Quebradora Hydraulic Park, and Lacustrine Pavilion act as urban catalysts addressing water infrastructure justice. Can other cities worldwide facing water management challenges learn from these context and scale-specific design strategies?

Keywords

Aquifers, Water Infrastructure, Decentralization, Hydro-urban Acupuncture, Socio-hydrological Resilience

Urbanisms

Landscape Urbanism, Ecological Urbanism.

Notes

1. Tiboris, Michael, “Threats to Supply Chain in the Developing World,” The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. April 01, 2016

2. National Research Council, “Mexico City’s Water Supply – Improving the Outlook for Sustainability” The National Academies Press, 1995.

3. Mccord, Hayley, “A Sinking Thirsty City: Water Crisis in Mexico City,” Latin America Reports, September 11, 2021. https://latinamericareports. com/a-sinking-thirsty-city-the-water-crisis-inmexico-city/6075/

4. ARUP, “City Characterisation Report Mexico City,” The Resilience Shift, April 2019. https://www.resilienceshift.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/04/CWRA_CCR_MexicoCity.pdf

5. De Urbanisten, “Towards a Water Sensitive Mexico City - Public Space as a Rain Management Strategy,” De Urbanisten & Deltares. July 2016