Vulnerability Analysis of Urban Agriculture Projects: A Case Study of Community and Entrepreneurial Gardens in the Netherlands and Switzerland

Small-scale bottom-up urban agriculture (UA) initiatives have a large potential to improve the quality of life in cities through their impact on ecological and social processes. However, it is unclear which criteria determine their successful establishment and continuity. We assessed these criteria for 29 projects in the Netherlands and Switzerland using a vulnerability analysis framework. We analyzed biophysical and socio-institutional criteria for project establishment by conducting interviews with project leaders. Projects were scored for their exposure to perturbations and their sensitivity and resilience after a perturbation, resulting in an overall vulnerability score per project. We found that the vulnerability of UA systems depends strongly on local circumstances. The main perturbations and causes of vulnerability originate from social-institutional and human conditions, such as the institutional sphere, assistance of local authorities, and the determination of project leaders. Different sources of resilience were found, such as social protest, and project leaders’ adaptation to local circumstances. Biophysical factors were of less influence as the adaptive capacity of projects provides resilience against such perturbations. As perturbations are case-specific, targeted policies would be desirable to support these promising initiatives.