Sowing Seeds in the City – Ecosystem and Municipal Services
This volume will highlight how urban agriculture and ecosystem services are directly linked
Editors: Sally Brown, Kristen McIvor, Elizabeth Hodges Snyder
Springer
2016
Excerpt:
The first volume focuses on urban agriculture and ecosystem services and how growing food can be integrated into the physical and legal framework of cities in the United States. The first chapter describes a “city of the future” where agriculture is well integrated into the fabric of a municipality. This sets the tone for the remainder of the books. The next part focuses on the natural resources soil and water. A basic guide to soils in urban areas and how to improve them is the focus of the soil chapter. The water chapters describe the different types of water that can be recycled in urban areas with supporting regulations and guidelines; provide details on gray water, the water from homes used to wash our bodies, clothes, and dishes; and give a broad call on the importance of maximizing our use of recycled water in urban areas.
The next part of the first volume focuses on ecosystem services. Waste treatment is the first section. The fi rst chapter provides an overview and guide to the role of organic residuals in urban agriculture. The next chapter provides an engineering perspective including infrastructure, economic and climate requirements, and costs for different waste management alternatives. The section closes with a case study of Seattle where food scraps are now composted along with yard waste. The discussion focuses on the political background that enabled landfill diversion of organics and describes the factors needed to compost the food and yard waste.
