The concept of food security has been on the international agenda as far back as 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food.....” Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights went further, in 1966, when it af...

Growing food in urban areas could solve a multitude of social and environmental problems. These potential benefits have resulted in an increased demand for urban agriculture (UA), though quantitative data is lacking on the feasibility of conversion to large-scale practices. This study uses multiple land use scenarios to determine different spaces that could be allocated to vegetable production ...

In an increasingly urbanized world, urban agriculture and community gardening are promoted as lever for sustainable development. Urban contributes to food security, provides health benefits the population, fosters social inclusion enhances perceived wellbeing. At same time, from a planning perspective, also valuable resource regeneration. However, depending on prevalent farming practices may ha...

The Inaugural Conference on "Healthy Agriculture, Healthy Nutrition, Healthy People" of the World Council on Genetics, Nutrition and Fitness for Health was held at Ancient Olympia, Greece on October 5–8, 2010. The focus of the Conference was on the evolutionary aspects of diet throughout the life cycle in terms of genetic predisposition, health, disease prevention and sedentary lifestyles; the ...

concepts useful at a specific stage of history, for the analysis of specific issues in general, may loose validity over time and this may happen only in some part of the world, owing to changes in the economies and in the relevant issues, yet, they may mean still the same elsewhere as before. The dichotomy of rural-urban or agriculture-industry is a good example for it. The very early version o...

This paper discusses the deterioration of indigenous irrigation system traditionally developed in the past to serve the peri-urban agricultural lands that have been affected by rapid urbanization in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The study is based on data collection from mapping, field survey and interview analyses and identifies current canal deteriorating conditions in four categories: fil...

Many Indian capitals are rapidly becoming megacities due to industrialization and rural–urban emigration. Land use within city boundaries has changed dynamically, accommodating development while replacing traditional land-use patterns. Using Landsat-8 and IRS-P6 data, this study investigated land-use changes in urban and peri-urban Hyderabad and their influence on land-use and land-cover. Advan...

Maya and Aztec cities exhibited a distinctive kind of low-density urbanism common in ancient Mesoamerica. The non-monumental components of these cities differed from the high-density ancient and historical cities in the Old World that are often considered the norm for pre-modern urbanism. Distinctive features include the practice of intensive agricultural cultivation within urban settlements, r...

............................................................................................ ii Dedication .......................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .............................................................................. iv Author’s Declaration ..............................................................................