Food production and provisioning through Circular Urban Systems in European Cities

With an expanding population concentrated in cities, it will be important to find solutions for more sustainable and resilient food production methods  with less vulnerability to supply-chain shocks.

Urban farming systems have emerged to enable more resilient food provisioning systems, offering solutions to secure food supplies, produce more sustainable food, and reduce pressure on dwindling agricultural land by shifting food production to urban environments.

Nonetheless, many current and prospective urban farming systems rely heavily upon external material and energy inputs, with little integration into their surrounding urban infrastructure, material, and energy flows.

Thus, there is potential for further integration to promote more circular-based approaches through industrial and urban symbiosis for food production in cities.

However, there is a lack of research and knowledge related to applying and assessing symbiotic strategies for urban food production systems and the link with urban design and morphology of European urban areas.

The overall aim of this project is to explore, envision, develop, and analyze approaches to promote more circular-based food production in cities to enable sustainable and resource-efficient food provisioning.

This will be done through an international consortium of municipalities, private actors, and researchers from different disciplines to highlight and facilitate circular approaches and methods in different contexts in European cities.