Theme 2: Agriculture and Resource-Use Transformation along the Urban-Rural Continuum
The predicted population growth in urban areas worldwide will lead to enormous challenges in the supply and distribution of water, food, and energy. For this reason, rural and urban areas must be interlinked, and strategies developed to ensure the efficient use and exchange of resources. Sustainable agricultural production and landscape management with innovative concepts for urban areas and transition zones are necessary to ensure livelihoods and environmental health along the urban-rural continuum. Land-use concepts should target increased urban primary productivity, shortening resource cycles, efficient water use and increased water quality as well as an improved urban climate in adaptation to increasing temperatures. In this thematic area the conference will particularly focus on how agricultural systems can be interfaced efficiently along the rural-urban continuum regarding resource availability, food production, social peace, health, ecological sustainability, urban climate management and related themes.
The contributions and discussions related to the agriculture topic area will focus particularly on the following
aspects of the rural-urban continuum:
- Agricultural production systems in transition between rural and urban areas
- Innovation & resource use in urban agriculture
- Water pathways and food webs affecting markets, people, and livelihoods along the rural-urban continuum.