Planning for a sustainable food system. The potential role of urban agriculture in Lisbon Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACT

A sustainable transition of planning practices is paramount for municipalities to improve urban environments. Shelter, mobility, and food constitute three basic human needs, which any inhabitant depends on, but attention placed by planning authorities to each differs. The spatial implications of these needs are fundamental for urban design and planning practices. This article ascertains how Portuguese municipal planning has integrated food system concerns and urban agriculture, including design typologies. Starting from a critical perspective on the current land-uses of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) and from case-studies of existing urban agriculture examples, this article shows that to promote urban resilience, one needs to account for the food system and use urban design as a tool for optimizing the role of mixed land-uses in urban environments, opportune for a sustainable transition of the LMA.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban agriculture
• urban planning
• urban design
• food system
• sustainability transition
• planning instruments

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sara Silva Lopes, researcher for the SPLACH Project, for assisting with the treatment of the DGT data; as well as the valuable suggestions of the two reviewers and the Journal editor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Part of the data supporting this study is available from the Portuguese General Directory of the Territory (Direcção Geral do Território - DGT). Restrictions apply to the availability of this data, which was used under Licence n.651/19 for this study.

Notes

1 Plan, and not Programme, because the approval is prior to the official designation in the new Basic Law (Diário da República 2014), which established that only municipal instruments should be Plans, and all others, Programmes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by COMPETE2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Grant POCI–01–0145– FEDER–016431;Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [POCI–01–0145-FEDER-016431];

Notes on contributors

Teresa Marat-Mendes

Teresa Marat-Mendes is a Professor of Urban Project and Ecological Urbanism at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism of Lisbon University institute ISCTE-IUL. She has a first degree in Architecture (The Technical University of Lisbon, 1994), a Master Degree in Land Use Planning and Environmental Planning (The New University of Lisbon, 1997) and a PhD in Architecture (The University of Nottingham UK, 2002). Her main research topics focus on the study of Urban Form, Urban Metabolism, Urban History, and Urban Sustainability. At present she coordinates at DINÂMIA’CET-IUL research centre, the research team for Project SPLACH- Spatial Planning for Change, financed by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) and PORTUGAL 2020 under Grant POCI-01–0145-FEDER-016431.

João Cunha Borges

João Cunha Borges holds a MSc in Architecture (ISCTE-IUL, 2017). He worked as a Researcher at Instituto Universitário de Lisboa ISCTE-IUL, DINÂMIA’CET, in the Project SPLACH- Spatial Planning for Change and is currently a PhD candidate at FCSH-NOVA/ Iscte. He wrote a dissertation on Aldo Van Eyck and Alison and Peter Smithson, titled “The dissolution of the modern complex”. His research seeks to contribute to a multidisciplinary approach to architectural theory, including Urban Planning History and Sustainability, Aesthetics, Anthropology of Space, and Popular Culture.

AnaMélice Dias

Ana Mélice Dias holds a master’s in architecture (ISCTE-IUL 2018). Her master thesis is intituled “The Shape of Food: An analysis of urban agricultural shapes in Lisbon’s Greater Area; Socializing with Food: Paredes’ Pedagogical Horta”. It analyses the morphology of urban agricultural spaces in the North region of Lisbon’s Metropolitan Area and applies the results attained in the creation of an agricultural project in Alenquer. Ana collaborated with the research group of project SPLACH at DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, where she developed case studies analysis, critical texts and participated in oral communications.

Raul Lopes

Raul Lopes has a degree in Economics, a master’s in urban and Regional Planning and a PhD in Economics (Territory) by ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL). He is an Associate Professor at ISCTE-IUL and was the Chairman of the Department of Economics, the President of DINÂMIA’CET-IUL (Research Centre of “excellence”), the Scientific Director of the Master in Economics and Public Policy, and a member of the Scientific Commission of Political Economy. He was also a board member of the IPPS-Public Policy Institute. Throughout his career he has had teaching duties, consulting, and research in the following areas: Economics of the Territory, Innovation and Regional Competitiveness, Strategic Planning, Regional Development Policies, Local Development in Rural Environment, Local Government, and Territorial Governance.