Visualising and Valuing Urban Agriculture for Land Use Planning: A Critical GIS Analysis of Sydney and Neighbouring Regions

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dc.contributor.authorZeunert, J.
dc.contributor.authorHawken, S.
dc.contributor.authorGowers, J.
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractThe loss of a city’s agricultural lands due to land use change through urban development is a global problem, as local food production is an essential green infrastructure for intergenerational sustainability. Like many cities, much of Sydney’s rapid urban development occurs on land previously used for food production. Sydney has one of the highest rates of urban growth among Western cities and a planning strategy that marginalises its agricultural productivity. To better understand and advocate for Sydney’s capacity for food production we explore all available government datasets containing agricultural biophysical capacity using a critical GIS approach. Employing various spatial-data visualisations to contextualise agricultural production, we examine inherent biophysical agricultural capacity in Sydney and comparable regions along the eastern coast of NSW. Our approach interrogates the notion that Sydney’s metropolitan landscape is of low inherent biophysical quality for agriculture, thereby challenging current development and planning orthodoxy and policy. In ascertaining Sydney’s comparative capacity for agriculture we find that, despite current metropolitan planning policy, datasets reveal western Sydney is biophysically well suited for agriculture. Sydney overall is comparable to five of six other coastal regions of NSW and superior to at least two. While acknowledging metropolitan land use complexities that shape agricultural production in practice, we argue for improved critical application and contextual understanding of existing agricultural datasets to better inform future planning policy to advance regional food security and aid long-term sustainability.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityJoshua Zeunert, Scott Hawken, and Josh Gowers
dc.identifier.citationLand, 2025; 14(4):854-1-854-28
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/land14040854
dc.identifier.issn2073-445X
dc.identifier.issn2073-445X
dc.identifier.orcidHawken, S. [0000-0001-6874-3730]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/144502
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherLAND
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE200100529
dc.rights© 2025 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 (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.source.urihttps://www.mdpi.com/journal/land
dc.subjectcritical GIS; urban development; peri-urban agriculture; land use change; green infrastructure; open data; local food supply; food security; food production; landscape planning
dc.titleVisualising and Valuing Urban Agriculture for Land Use Planning: A Critical GIS Analysis of Sydney and Neighbouring Regions
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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