Documentation of Edible City Solutions in Follower Cities (D4.3)

The first phase of the transition pathways methodology (TPM) for anchoring Edible City Solutions (ECS) in cities aims at developing a system model within the respective urban context. This system model helps cities to understand their state of the art holistically and is the basis for creating future scenarios that show us how ECS can be used to address social challenges. A crucial part of the status quo analysis is the documentation of already existing ECSs in each of the Follower Cities (FCs). D4.3 describes how the ECS were collected and described. More importantly, the deliverable also analyses and summarizes the main characteristics of the documented ECS (i.e. the ECS type and goal, social and ecological benefits, governance, and business models as well as barriers and enablers). The first step for the analysis and documentation was to select relevant ECS from the pool of ECS already identified in other work packages of EdiCitNet. Stakeholder analyses have been conducted in Berlin and Montevideo with more than 300 ECS identified. In other cities like Carthage and Lomé, detailed online research has been conducted to identify the relevant ECS. Out of this large pool of ECS, the City Teams selected the most relevant ECS for their respective case and documented these in detail. For the analysis and documentation, a mixed-method approach was used, that was adapted to the specific local conditions of each FC. In total 84 ECS have been selected and documented using different collection methods: 5 with the online survey, 30 with interviews, 4 with video pitches, 27 workshops, and 33 through key informants, online research or technical visits. The main lessons learned from this data collection process are first, that the concept of ECS needs to be adapted according to the local context. Second, it became clear, a flexible method mix for ECS documentation is crucial to adapt to the local circumstances and capacities and capabilities of the involved people. Findings of the documentation show that most of the identified ECS pursue different forms of urban gardening and have a high focus on providing social benefits for the community. The main social benefits are the provision of education, the fostering of social cohesion, and the increase of the urban life quality in certain neighbourhoods. The main ecological benefits are the recycling of resources, greening the city, and providing environmental services. ECS face various challenges like a lack of resources and support or legal security. To be successful they highly depend on the engagement and the skills of their members and the support of municipal and larger institutions. Education and schools play a key role in the establishment of many ECS. Findings also highlighted differences between the single FCs. In regard to the future masterplans of the findings show that in some FCs (Berlin, Montevideo) existing ECS might be already part of the solution to the cities’ identified social challenge. Here the question is how to upscale these already existing solutions up. In other cities suitable ECS still need to be implemented and therefore it is key to foster the exchange about ECS between the FCs.