URBAN FARMING

United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines urban agriculture (UA) as the production, distribution, and marketing of food and other products within the geographical limits of a metropolitan area. This includes community and school gardens, backyard and rooftop plots, and non-traditional methods of growing plants and animals within a constrained area. Urban agriculture systems are highly diverse in size, form and function and can be found in different types of urban spaces from vacant lots to roofs, backyards and streets (RH).

USDA classifies urban farms into four general categories as shown below:

1. Institutional Farms and Gardens: Typically linked with an institution (such as hospitals, churches, prisons, schools, public housing) whose primary mission is not large-scale food production, but instead to provide health, educational, and lifestyle opportunities. Furthermore, it can be adopted at small scale in household level in the backyard or in the roof as well. 2. Community Gardens: Usually located on publicly owned land or land trusts and managed by local resident volunteers. Community gardens are mostly used to grow food, but some also can be used for growing flowers. Some community gardens provide space for community gatherings and events. 3. Community Farms: Typically operated by a nonprofit organization in communal growing spaces that engages the surrounding community in food production as well as social and educational programming. 4. Commercial Farms: Practiced for profit in urban areas by commercial growers. Although commercial farms tend to be small and often produce niche products. Some small urban commercial farms focus on non-traditional growing techniques like vertical or soil-less farming.

These four types of UA use one or a combination of the following practices and structures to grow food. Each interacts and affects with stormwater quality differently and the next chapters will explain how stormwater can become a problem as well as the potential solutions to effectively control stormwater pollution originating from urban farms.

A TOOLKIT FOR STORMWATER BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR URBAN FARMING Types of Urban Agriculture Types of Urban Agriculture Types of Urban Agriculture General description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem

TYPES OF URBAN FARMING General description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam General description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam

ROOFTOP GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam This practice is comprised of raised beds or container gardening on rooftops. Rooftop gardening takes advantage of traditionally underutilized impervious surfaces. Rooftops gardens can lower energy consumption cost for the buildings by reducing the amount of heat absorbed with immediate access to food to urban farmers. ROOFTOP GARDENING: ROOFTOP GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam ROOFTOP GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam

SMALL SCALE GROUND FARMING SMALL SCALE GROUND FARMING Small scale ground farming can grow Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam vegetables and other crops such as flowers by utilizing and possibly amending existing soil on-site. Urban soils present specific challenges for urban farmers such as nutrient depleted soils, compacted soils and soils contaminated with construction debris Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam and chemicals from previous site users.

SMALL SCALE RAISED BEDS Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam SMALL SCALE RAISED BEDS Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Raised beds are easily installed and used on top of deteriorated or polluted soils with the addition of a fabric barrier and new soil media. They are helpful in cultivation, weeding, and harvesting as they are more accessible since they are raised above the ground.

GREENHOUSES & HIGH TUNNELS: GREENHOUSES & HIGH TUNNELS Providing the benefit of season extension GREENHOUSES & HIGH TUNNELS GREENHOUSES & HIGH TUNNELS Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam to four seasons gardening, greenhouses and high tunnels offer a variety of benefits for urban gardeners. Each structure, walled with plastic or glass, provides adequate light, maintains growing temperatures, and protects plants from outside weather conditions. GREENHOUSES & HIGH TUNNELS Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam

These methods use water to grow plants rather than soil. Hydroponics cycles AQUAPONICS & HYDROPONICSAQUAPONICS & HYDROPONICSnutrient enriched water through a contained loop system through pumps and gravity. AQUAPONICS & HYDROPONICS AQUAPONICS & HYDROPONICS Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Aquaponics uses the waste from aquaculture or grows aquatic animals such as fish, snails, shrimp or crayfish to fertilize the plants. Bacteria processes the waste of aquatic animals, releasing the accessible nutrients into the solution which is then cycled through Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam a hydroponics system.

VERTICAL GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam VERTICAL GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Vertical gardening takes advantage of growing plants along vertical or steeply sloped surfaces. This type of gardening allows farmers to maximize the use of vertical space which is typically more abundant in urban settings. In addition, these gardens can reduce ambient heat effect of buildings, retain water, and add aesthetic value. VERTICAL GARDENING Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam

Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. SMALL ANIMAL GRAZING Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet SMALL ANIMAL GRAZING SMALL ANIMAL GRAZINGSMALL ANIMAL GRAZING: Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Description to go here. Obit eicim quiditatus. Pel im con pratem volorro venis mostem vellore escipictaes nemolor alisto corio es voluptatet ratiantur? Mus, sequiam, ium nobitis sit alissequo to eumquidest, que el ea audam Depending on local city codes, small animal grazing may be allowed. If managed properly, this farming technique can add nutrients to the soil and deter pests. Stormwater must be managed to ensure local waters are not negatively impacted by fecal nutrient and bacterial loads associated with them.

Urban farms and gardens can provide economic, social, and environmental benefits to a neighborhood while offering physiological, nutritional and psychological benefits to its residents. (ARB) (HLT). Some of the urban agriculture benefits are as follows:

࢙ Connects urban residents to food systems. ࢙ Improves food security in urban areas through access to fresh and nutritious food.

࢙ Improves health conditions such as obesity, diabetes through physical activity and nutrition.

࢙ Provides opportunities for outdoor activities. ࢙ Provides opportunities to socialize, cooperate with friends and family. ࢙ Creates space for interracial and intercultural exchange. ࢙ Supports cultural heritage of citizens through access to ethnic foods. ࢙ Helps gardeners and urban farmers gain new knowledge and technical skills. ࢙ Decreases local crime rate.

࢙ Increases property value of surrounding area. ࢙ Increases green space and reduces urban heat island (UHI) effects ࢙ Alleviate direct peak run-off and flash flood concerns of urban areas while recharging the ground water.

The National Water Quality Assessment shows that rural agricultural runoff is the leading cause of water quality impacts to rivers and streams, the third leading source for lakes and the second largest source of impairments for wetlands (EPA2). While the full environmental impacts of urban farming have yet to be fully assessed, each urban farming practice can potentially compromise the surrounding watershed by allowing pesticides, nutrients, and sediments into the local watershed via stormwater runoff.

Urban soils can be a challenge to urban farms as they can be highly compacted, and frequently contaminated due to years of industrial and development activities. Prior to any farming activities, it is important to test and evaluate the soil at the site to determine levels of pollution and subsequent remediation required. Deep tillage, addition of compost and use of cover crops can dramatically improve infiltration and water holding capacity while making metals such as lead and cadmium less mobile in soil, reducing uptake by plants (ARB). Overall, despite the challenges, scientific literature shows that the benefits of UA practices provide more benefits in comparison to the potential challenges present with respect to human health and urban environment (HLT). Furthermore, those challenges can be addressed by adopting a number of different available strategies to make urban farming sustainable for urban farmers. The purpose of this toolkit is to introduce and provide techniques to urban growers to reduce the environmental impacts of planning, developing and maintaining an urban farm.

Urban agriculture is seen as a promising practice to contribute to more sustainable and resilient urban communities. It contributes to higher food security in urban areas, and can be considered as a new educational, participatory and citizenship strategies. Wide adoption of urban farming is inevitable to provide sustainable solution to water-energy-food-climate nexus related challenges in cities specially when low-income urban households spend 60–80% of their income on food specially in developing countries. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) reports that 800 million people worldwide POPULATION FACTOID: grow vegetables or fruits or raise animals in cities, supplying 15 to 20% of the world’s food demand in urban areas (FD). The populations of the world’s cities are expected to increase from 55% of the 7 billion today (2021) Recent policy adjustment in major US cities to 68% of the ~9.5 billion have paved the pathway to incorporate UA into projected for 2050 the fray of commonality amongst city dwellers. (United Nations) The new policy changes reduce barriers to adopt urban farms and increase urban food production in economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable ways. This trend is expected to grow increasingly as urban areas will be home for more than 68% of the World’s population by 2050.

This growing trend of urban agriculture is occurring against a backdrop of global climate change, in which the Chesapeake Bay region is particularly vulnerable. The Chesapeake Bay region can expect climate change in form of increasing intensity and frequency of storm events -- heavier downpours followed by hot, dry periods (Fourth National Climate Assessment, US Global Change Research Program). Changes in the intensity and timing of rain events can impact the quantity and quality of stormwater that cities and urban farms must plan for. Considering the multi-faceted pressures, the urban environment presents, it is no longer justifiable for urban agriculture to solely focus on production. There is a great opportunity to include stormwater management best management practices (BMPs) as a part of UA design. Green infrastructure, a BMP approach, offers a promising new approach to manage quality and quantity of stormwater. By handling stormwater at its source, green infrastructure can reduce the volume of water and remove pollutants that would otherwise flow through traditional stormwater systems (ARB) (STT). Incorporation of green infrastructure BMPs into the urban agriculture site design can ensure urban resiliency in the era of climate change. Thus, these best management practices not only can reduce pollution load and dampen peak run-off from urban farms but also can provide additional ecosystem services to the community. Thus, urban farming can be an integral part of new sustainable city model.

What is Stormwater and why is it a challenge? Urban Water Cycle & Urban Farms Stormwater Management Pollution Related to Urban Farming Activities & Impacts on the Chesapeake Bay

Rainfall, the lifeline of any farm, meets the water demand of plants of any farm but can lead to environmental challenges when it turns into stormwater runoff. Stormwater runoff is any precipitation (e.g. rainfall) that does not evaporate or percolates into the ground, but instead collects and flows over the surface into storm drains, rivers and streams. Increased development across the Chesapeake Bay watershed has made stormwater the fastest growing source of pollution to the Bay (EPA). Stormwater originating from urban farms are expected to carry pollution from soil to the discharge point of the farm and might need intervention to prevent them from entering our waterways. So, stormwater in urban areas poses challenges related to both water quantity and quality. First, as urban areas are mostly impervious, rain cannot percolate easily into the soil and can generate a significant amount of stormwater with direct runoff stressing the drainage systems. This can also cause flooding and erosion in the area. Second, water quality of stormwater gets affected by contaminants that exist in urban areas and can be picked up by stormwater during overland flow ending up in a river, stream or lake. The environmental damage caused by stormwater pollutants not only harms wildlife but also affects humans in various ways such as contaminating drinking water. As a part of the urban landscape, urban farming has both positive and negative impacts to the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff. These impacts will become more prominent as urban agriculture and gardening rapidly expand in the coming years. Some municipalities may require urban farms to develop a stormwater management plan. So, a proper understanding how typical farming activities are connected to this pollution will help all scales and types (home, community, commercial) of urban farmers and gardeners to plan their stormwater pollution control strategies accordingly. This chapter explains how rainfall becomes stormwater, the types of pollutants relevant to urban farms and impacts of this polluted stormwater runoff on the natural environment and the specific roles of urban farms to stormwater quantity and quality.