Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6 Blue green urban
agriculture
6.1 What Are the Challenges Regarding Water
Conservation?
Cultivating crops for food often requires signi
cant amount of water for irrigation,
which could be an
for water demand in urban areas. Moreover,
municipal water supplies are usually more expensive and energy consuming than
agricultural water supplies, as municipal water must go through particular treatment
to meet drinking water standards (Nolasco
2011
). Thus, it is of key importance that
water-use ef
'
extra burden
'
ciency and conservation practices are incorporated into urban agri-
culture. Such techniques could include rainwater harvesting, grey water harvesting,
physical water retention methods, drip irrigation, etc.
Showcase Zuidpark, The largest rooftop garden in Europe
In 2012, the conventional rooftop of Zuidpark, a former administrative
building in an industrial zone of Amsterdam, was redeveloped to host a
3,000 m
2
garden, so far the largest in Europe, where organic vegetables, herbs
and
flowers are cultivated (IGRA
2012
). The roof garden substrate was
speci
cally developed to be used for urban agriculture. Unlike common
practices of urban agriculture, agricultural products are not for sale but are
served to the building
is common restaurant. The rooftop farm is a place
where people meet, rest, have lunch and can even take gardening lessons.
Most of all, Zuidpark
'
'
s farm roof represents a great example of creative
thinking.
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