Integrating Urban Agriculture in Public Spaces: A Multi-Scale Approach to Climate Resilience

Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Abazia di San Lorenzo ad Septimum, 81031, Aversa, Italy

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Abstract

As cities face escalating climate risks, urban agriculture (UA) emerges not only as a food production strategy but as a transformative climate resilience infrastructure. This paper explores how UA can be strategically integrated into public spaces across multiple spatial scales—micro, meso, and macro— to address environmental challenges. Adopting a design-orientated qualitative methodology, the study develops a typological and multi-scalar framework that classifies public spaces based on their morphological, climatic, and resilience-related suitability for UA. Applying this framework to the case of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Italy), the research identifies five urban transformation areas from the city’s territorial plan and proposes tailored UA interventions. Results demonstrate that embedding UA into public spaces not only enhances microclimate regulation and ecological connectivity but also fosters community engagement, food justice, and place-based learning. The findings underscore the need for systemic, multi- level governance and spatial integration to unlock UA’s full climate-adaptive potential in urban environments.