A Site Suitability Approach to Sustainable Urban Agriculture Using GIS and Decision Analysis

Abstract.

Urban agriculture is an important supplemental solution to provide food, non-food products, and ecosystem services for growing populations closer to the points of consumption. Detailed evaluation of the physical capacity, availability, and suitability of urban built and open spaces is needed to identify areas that would benefit from urban agriculture. A study was conducted to develop a site suitability model to find appropriate locations to implement urban agriculture in Lafayette, Indiana, a small scale urban location. Geospatial tools were used to generate maps of suitable sites for agricultural production. Data sets characterizing physical land and socio-economic factors within set boundaries around Lafayette were utilized to develop a hierarchy of sites for implementing urban agriculture systems (very appropriate, moderately appropriate, and not appropriate). Results showed that less than 1% of the sampled area was considered very appropriate for intensive conventional urban vegetable crop production. Only 2.4% of the sampled area was considered moderately appropriate for intensive conventional production. This project showed that though there were limited land resources for intensive conventional urban vegetable crop production in Lafayette, Indiana, the potential for context-specific controlled environment agriculture exists within the Lafayette city boundary.