Urban agriculture with EO technology

Uncontrolled urban expansion

Urban agriculture plays an indispensable role in feeding the population living in cities and providing ecological services. However, most of the land used or that is suitable for growing crops in surrounding cities of developing nations are rapidly transforming into settlements due to a higher rate of population increment and uncontrolled urban expansion. As a result, the paradox between the increasing food demand and shrinkage of farming areas is a challenge facing many cities in the developing world.

Urban Agriculture Intensity monitoring tool

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia, home to over five million residents which are expected to reach around nine million by 2035. This rapid population increment of the city is resulting in an unprecedented expansion of built-up areas encroaching on farmlands. 

In response, Arba Minch University and IWMI are creating an interactive Urban Agriculture Intensity (UAI) monitoring tool that will generate quantified knowledge by articulating recent changes to urban agricultural intensity in Addis Ababa. Utilising the Google Earth Engine (GEE) licenses and training provided by EO Data Science, they are able to access several Earth observation datasets, explore different artificial intelligence computation approaches, and share their findings through an interactive platform.

Improving cities living environment

By making the UAI monitoring tool easily transferable, Arba Minch University and IWMI will be able to support the decision-making processes related to urban agriculture planning and implementation across the world.

Furthermore, they will be able to question how, where, and when changes to the urban environment happened. The outcome will contribute to the second and eleventh UN Sustainable Development Goals that focus on eliminating hunger and ensuring sustainable cities, respectively. 

All these findings will benefit researchers, urban planners, policymakers and practitioners to improve cities' living environment for their inhabitants.