Finding Land

1.Subject: 1 residential city block in each of Vancouver's neighbourhoods (see map) which is a total of 22 blocks.

2.Methods

Choosing the block
- Randomly
- Randomly but from a selection of the most dominant residential block type (condos, single family dwellings, duplexes etc.)
- Choose the block in the center of the neighbourhood
Finding land suitable for agricultural purposes
- Use GIS much like this projectto create a land layer.
Manipulation
- Manipulate the land layer to narrow down suitable areas for agriculture using certain variables affecting crop health
- Variables
  - Sunlight
  - Soil
  - Slope
  - Accessibility

School gardens

Communication with Marnie Newell at SPEC

I (MW) emailed Marnie to get some hints about how to determine the baseline of school gardens and here was her response:

"Unfortunately I think this would be a very difficult task. I think the best you could do would be an estimate of how many school gardens there are and of the typical area. I personally know of about 20 school gardens in the city, but they are all used to different degrees and with different purposes (i.e. it may be a butterfly garden, or produce some food but not be entirely devoted to food growing). I'd say the average size would be somewhere around 30-60 square feet. Again these are just estimates.

Currently there is a research project going on through Land and Food Systems at UBC under Dr. Allejandro Rojas called Think And Eat Green At Schools that is researching this type of thing over the course of 5 years. You may do well to try to contact them."

Land Team (Archived)

Connie

Nicole

Marianne