The Relation of Circularity to Sustainability

Urban Agriculture and the FEW Nexus: Join the discussion

Urban agriculture provides the necessary infrastructures to help process and close some organic and water-based flows in cities. It also helps increase food resilience, albeit marginally, and can assist in mediating the urban heat island effect in some instances. Due to this, it is seen as an essential aspect of circular cities and climate adaptation. The integration of food production within cities, however, leads to the additional demand for water and energy, which can effect the balance of the FEW nexus. This is especially true when considering open air soil-based raised beds, which are water intensive, or vertical farms that require a lot of energy for artificial lighting, for example. How do we ensure that the benefits provided by urban agriculture do not lead to resource scarcity in cities? Is it possible to balance the FEW nexus in cities by increasing demand, or do you foresee moments when the farms must be left to wither and die in order to preserve and maintain more typical/critical urban activities?

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Author

Andy Jenkins
Andy Jenkins
Postdoc Researcher

Dr. Andy Jenkins has been a postdoc researcher at TU Delft with a passion for urban agriculture, sustainable architecture, and circular urbanism. He now works at Salford University, UK. He searches for holistic solutions to the growing number of challenges that face cities as a result of linear economies and growing populations. He believes that only by addressing and mediating the different economic and social drivers of the food-energy-water nexus can we start to move towards circular economies. His key aim is to make cities healthier, happier, and more engaging places to live and work as a result of ecologically sound urban design and the (re)introduction of blue and green infrastructures. 

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Circularity for Educators

The platform is intended to provide with content on either circularity or pedagogy for and about circularity. It is one of the outcomes of the Circular Impulse Initiative (CII), a project intending to enhance the integration of circularity in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment education. The platform mainly aims to help tutors get better acquainted with circularity in the built environment by providing a series of resources on this subject that they can either view to get better informed or directly share with their students in class or online. A large number of the Faculty's professors and researchers have contributed substantially both in creating a coherent narrative for circularity in the built environment as well as further elaborating on different aspects of it. Besides this one, a new platform for interaction and direct exchange was also established in parallel that we call ‘Educators for Circularity‘. This one offers the opportunity for all of us to meet and share our experiences and learn from one another.

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