Cities / Green and blue infrastructure
Healthy City Design 2022
Expanding access to urban gardening – the contributions of community gardens and adoption/sharing schemes
By Yi Zhang, Jazz Browne, Jamie Hilton and Tilly Collins | 21 Dec 2022 | 0
Access to urban gardening and contact with green space brings a wide range of benefits to people, young and old. Allotment gardens, one of the traditional and widespread access schemes, are reducing in number and extent, both in British cities and in many dense urban areas worldwide. This creates immense demand for novel and space-efficient schemes, which can expand access.
Abstract
In this study, we’ve sought to evaluate and quantify some of the benefits of two access scheme types. This begins to provide the basis of social return on investment (SRoI) calculations that help place a more accurate broad-scale valuation and a clearer understanding of the contribution that each can make across the range of benefit dimensions.
Adopt-a-garden, a partnership between Fulham Good Neighbours and the Nubian Life Resource Centre in London, UK, has provided an opportunity to examine two interlinked approaches to increase access and confidence.
Our results indicate that there is a real opportunity for expanding the range of approaches to increase gardening and green space access in ways that reflect cultural diversity and preferences in urban areas.
Organisations involved
