School of Geography - Research Publications
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ItemA citizen science approach to obtain quantitative measurements of urban agriculture inputs and outputs in Melbourne(SOAC, 2017)There are many advocates and critics of urban agriculture’s role in a sustainable food system but little quantitative data, potentially due the difficulties in collecting it. Urban food production is an example of a distributed system intrinsically linked to urban farmers and urban lifestyles and therefore cannot be recreated in a lab. Citizen science (CS) is identified as a potential method to measure aspects of urban agriculture but has potential issues associated with maintaining participation in data collection. This paper presents the development of a citizen science methodology combining general CS project design methods with methods for engaging and retaining participants in CS projects, based on motivation, for the design of a citizen science project measuring the sustainability performance of urban food gardens in Melbourne, Australia. It was found that an additional motivation emerged that is not yet documented in existing literature and is particular to citizen science projects. Other conclusions were also drawn related to timeline management, potential cost reductions conflicting with reducing barriers to participation and diversifying recruitment methods to attract participants with more time to be involved.
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ItemWhat does a low carbon local diet look like for Melbourne?(Association for Sustainability in Business Inc., 2017)Food systems in cities are under increasing pressure. Food production is occurring further and further from the point of consumption and extreme weather events due to climate change are impacting on food supply networks. It is possible that cities will have to rely on their local regions to meet at least some of their food needs in the future. Although large amounts of food are produced on the outskirts of cities, it is not clear the extent to which the nutritional needs of inhabitants could be met sustainably. This paper aims to investigate if it is possible to feed the city of Melbourne a healthy diet from the local area (i.e. achieve direct food availability) and what that diet might look like. It tests a new methodology using linear programming to find the optimal mix of food types to produce a diet profile that meets the Australian Dietary Guidelines within theproduction capacity of the local ‘region’. Results from three region scenarios are presented – Greater Melbourne, Foodbowl and Rest of Victoria. No solution could be found that satisfied all constraints for any region, however this identified issues surrounding availability of certain food types, particularly fruit, vegetables and legumes. Systematically increasing certain constraints provided insight into how diets could be composed to meet requirements and where it might be necessary to increase production within a region or future proof food supply networks. It also highlighted conflicts between sourcing food locally and reducing carbon emissions.