Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

Despite some attempts to curb urban sprawl, such as the creation of a strategic andregulatory planning system ‘to protect prime growing areas from relentless urbansprawl’ by the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works in the early 1950s (Budge,2009: 5-6), or the designation of the ‘green wedge’ zones on Melbourne’s boundariesby the government of Premier Dick Hamer in the late 1970s, the reality was, and still is,that farmers and market gardeners were slowly pushed further out to the fringes of thecity and beyond. As has occurred with other major cities on Australian’s easternseaboard, Melbourne’s farmland and urban orchards have over time been absorbedwithin the city’s boundaries and built upon. The land has been given over to other uses– residential, commercial and industrial – and the urban farmers and growers havebeen forced to move further out to the fringes of the expanding city, or have given upthis occupation.Continuing the process of urban expansion, the remaining peri-urban farmland areas ofMelbourne are still under threat through recent expansions to the Urban GrowthBoundary (UGB), which has now been revised four times since its introduction in 2002.The recent revision in August 2010 included 5000 hectares in the south-east growthcorridor, the majority of which was prime market garden land in the Casey-Cardiniashires. Many of these councils have attempted to resist this urban encroachment intothe market garden areas on the grounds that it undermines ‘their last remainingindustry’. They have asked, unsuccessfully, the current Victorian government toreverse some or all of the 2010 decision, by excising market garden land in the Clyderegion.Under this scenario, it seems that local food production in Melbourne is under threatand this could well compromise the food security of the city. However, Melbourne stillholds vast areas of land, both in inner and peri urban regions, where food production,processing, distribution and recycling could take place. Urban agriculture has a lot tooffer in terms of food security to Melbournians. Roofs, verandas, alleys, avenues andparks could provide significant areas for urban agriculture to flourish and consequentlyimprove Melbourne’s resilience to climate change, while strengthening community spiritand fostering education.The Gold Coast is a coastal city situated in South East Queensland. It is the sixth mostpopulous city in Australia, and the second largest local government area. One of thefastest growing cities in Australia, with a current population of around 500,000 people,it is projected to exceed 780,000 by 2031 (PIFU, 2008).The history of the Gold Coast began in the late 1880s when agriculture wasbrought to the hinterland region and a string of coastal holiday villages quicklyemerged. The Gold Coast region grew significantly after the 1920s with theestablishment of tourism facilities such as the Surfers Paradise Hotel, and theestablishment of the coast as an ‘R&R’ venue for Australian and Allied armedforces during World War II. The city further developed with the tourism booms ofthe 1950s and 80s to become one of Australia’s top tourist destinations. (GCCC,http://heritage.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Histories).Unlike Melbourne, and despite this fast pace of growth, the city still has just under halfof its footprint (63,678 hectares) covered in native vegetation and the built environmentUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 103