Vertical farming - smart urban agriculture for enhancing resilience and sustainability in food security

Figures & data

Figure 1. Indoor vertical farming with the automated controlled system in the UK. (a) via a unique modular and scalable system called total controlled environmental agriculture (TECA), Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd. use 50% of less energy required by comparable systems for growing vegetables (photo provided by Intelligent Growth Solutions company). (b) Growing-Underground is the first commercial hydroponic farm of Zero Carbon Food Ltd. which utilised the discarded underground shelter in the UK (photo provided by Zero Carbon Food Ltd/Growing-Underground).

Figure 2. Vertical farming with LED lights technology. (a) LED lights for the shipping container farming in Nottingham Trent University. The effect of different light quality and intensity on plant quality has been investigated. (b) Data interpretation with optimal LED light systems in growing-underground farm (photo provided by Zero Carbon Food Ltd/Growing-Underground).

Table 1. The state-of-the-art technologies in vertical farming/urban farming (2017–2022).

Materials	Cultivation method	Technology	Key findings and performances	References
Spinach	Aeroponic	IoT for online and automated monitoring	Based on the real-time and online system, IoT system allows monitoring following key parameters including relative humidity, root temperature and light intensity. Within the system, it was possible to control for ideal temperature for spinach in an aeroponic system.	Jamhari et al. (2020)
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)	Aquaponic	Centre for hydroponic and aquaponics technology (CHAT)	Centre for hydroponic and aquaponics technology (CHAT) are based on the data which are evaluated and validated by the automated monitoring and controlling system. The real-time data was collected regarding pH and temperature of nutrient solution. Automated pH controller enables to maintain the optimal condition for hydroponic system indicating well growth of lettuce.	Lizbeth and Rico (2019)
Plants	Hydroponic	IoT for smart irrigation system with real-time hardware	Smart irrigation system based on the real-time analysis, so called ThinkSpeak IoT platform, monitor and control the follows parameters including the rate of water flow, temperature and humidity. Furthermore, compared to conventional irrigation system, smart irrigation system enhances crop yield with high efficiency.	Lakshmiprabha and Govindaraju (2019)
Plants	Hydroponic	Wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN)	The wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN) were utilised to control the environmental condition of two hydroponic chambers. The system obtained heterogeneous data from hydroponic source and send the data to monitoring centre.	Stefan et al. (2019)
Plants	Hydroponic	Smart hardware	Smart system allows to control humidification with optimal temperature for plant and to monitor water temperature, pH level and nutrient level in water tank by utilising micro-controller and further sensor.	Supriyanto and Fathurrahmanim (2019)
Pakcoy (Brassica rapa)	Aquaponic	IoT system within the smartphone mobile	Owing to automagical control and monitor system, the following parameters were successfully evaluated within small error results which are temperature, water level, pH, ammonia gas within the sensor. The accurate IoT system and smartphone application allows produce better quality of crops.	Zaini et al. (2018)
Mustard greens (Brassica juncea)	Hydroponic	IoT to monitor and control	Utilising device called Raspberry Pi allows to monitor and to control the environmental parameters including pH, temperature, humidity and circulation of water effectively based on the real time data. The plant grown with IoT controlling and monitoring system shows better growth performance.	Nurhasan et al. (2018)
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)	Hydroponic	Smart farming system	The overall quality of lettuce grown in smart system present better growth performance than normal growing system. The smart system analyses optimal practices for hydroponic lettuce within effective system for temperature control and automatic preparation of nutrient solution.	Changmai et al. (2018)
Vegetable crops	Hydroponic	IoT application for smart farming	Smart farming system is combined with the remote sensing system and data which are collected from water module and environment testing towards decision tree algorithm. A decision support system will produce for growers to optimal management of plants with remote monitoring system.	Thakare et al. (2018)
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)	Hydroponic	Prototype using Arduino IDE	It is greatly critical for growing Stevia to consider the relative humidity. Within the integrated monitoring and controlling system, Stevia is grown. In order to carry reliable measurements, further developed system are required within the various adjustments.	Ossa et al. (2018)
Vegetable crops	Hydroponic	NI LabVIEW and AVR microcontroller	Combined system with NI Lab VIEW and AVR microcontroller system is an automated based on the real time data. The smart system suggests very successful implementation indicating great stability and control actions which is a user-friendly system without human intervention neither monitoring.	Adhau et al. (2018)

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Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.