Water use efficiency in urban food gardens: insights from a systematic review and case study
Files
(Published version)
Date
2018
Authors
Pollard, G.
Ward, J.
Roetman, P.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Horticulturae, 2018; 4(3):1-24
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
Water use and the cost of water are key factors when considering the net value of urban agriculture (UA). This systematic review critically evaluates past and recent UA yield research from the perspective of water use efficiency. A systematic literature search was conducted using the databases Scopus, ProQuest Agriculture and Environment, and Web of Science for references from1975 to 2018, with 25 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Of these, only five articles had actively collected UA water use data, all on purpose-built experimental gardens. Considering the scarcity of UA water use efficiency and water measurement literature, South Australia is presented as a case study to demonstrate the considerable diversity of water pricing, water sources and irrigation methods available to urban food growers. The practical challenges of garden placement and the wide variety of cultivation techniques, water sources and irrigation methods are reviewed. Four equations to calculate the water use efficiency (WUE) of UA are proposed and demonstrated. Collection of additional UA water use data would support more robust evaluations of the water use efficiency and economic implications of different cultivation techniques. Further work in this field will enable a realistic understanding of the current and future contribution of UA to our society.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Data source: Raw and partially analysed data from the Edible Gardens project, https://researchoutputs.unisa.edu.au/11541.1/bd88909a-4dfb-449d-bd0a-1da7720d22ab
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)