Urban Agriculture Case Studies in Central Texas From The Ground To The Rooftop

The Island of Skiathos occupies a total area of 50 km2, accounting for 1.6% of the area of the prefecture of Magnesia and 0.28% of the Region of Thessaly, Greece. The land is hilly and can be divided into farmland, meadows, woodlands, land covered by water and land occupied by settlements and roads. Also, a large part is occupied by burnt areas that resulted from the fire of 2007. The aim of this chapter is to present the evolution of existing land uses at the Island of Skiathos during the past decades. With the contribution of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the orthophotomaps, the spatial planning of the land uses can be evaluated for all these years and the total area can also be calculated. Our results are important for understanding the impacts of land uses on ecosystems in the frame of sustainable development. There has been no other research regarding land uses in Skiathos Island in the past, and, also, this is the first digitization of the area. Finally, two sustainable spatial development scenarios for the Island of Skiathos are proposed. The first scenario relates to the results obtained from a prediction (application of the model of automatic cellular) while the second scenario refers to a more realistic model of development with focus on environmental protection and sustainable development Urban agriculture is practiced in various forms and scales. Practices range from the production of edibles in small to large lots or plazas to vertical production on walls and rooftops. Produce is grown in rural locations and sold at farmers markets in urban locations or grown onsite. Efforts to produce, maintain and sell products of urban agriculture involve many participants and leaders from multiple disciplines. This chapter highlights an introduction to several urban agriculture concepts and case study examples representing activities in Central Texas, home of the Texas A&M University. These case studies highlight a modular pavilion type farmers market and urban garden in downtown Bryan, Texas, designed and built by students and faculty collaborations. The farmers market is designed to be a flexible structure to accommodate current and future needs. A rooftop crop pilot study at Texas A&M on walls and roof deck highlights the varieties grown on top of a four-storey building. The diversity of activities taking place in Central Texas exhibits concepts transferable to many locations across the world. The challenges for these projects include adaptability of crops to the Central Texas climate, structural and community support and the presence of a viable market for locally grown produce Some agricultural systems, especially peri-urban agricultural systems, are characterized as agricultural ecosystems that provide goods and services related to leisure and recreation, the process development beneficial to the environment, such as fixing CO2, the production of healthy and safe food, and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. Public intervention in agriculture has traditionally been known as a basic economic task performed by the government whose main objective is food security. But now, agricultural policies have been increasingly challenged by civil society demand, such as a new agricultural model with stronger consideration for non-commodity goods and services. The main obstacles for public intervention are, knowing production of goods and services and externality by peri-urban agriculture system, and identifying what specific demands agriculture needs to satisfy social preferences for goods and services This book provides useful information about Urban Agriculture, which includes the production of crops in small to large lots, vertical production on walls, windows (window farms), rooftops (green roofs), urban gardens, farmer's markets, economic models of urban gardening, peri-urban agricultural systems, and spatial planning and evolution of the land uses. Additionally, this book elucidates further agricultural technologies, such as the aquaculture systems