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postgraduate thesis: Urban agriculture and sustainable living : a case study of Hong Kong

TitleUrban agriculture and sustainable living : a case study of Hong Kong
Authors
Issue Date2015
PublisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
Citation
Lau, K. [劉敬琳]. (2015). Urban agriculture and sustainable living : a case study of Hong Kong. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5674056
AbstractIn recent decades, the agricultural evolution, from the perspective of food regimes transit towards productivist, Green Revolution and post-productivist era, UA have become multifunctional in terms of social, environmental and economical dimensions. Cities like New York City, Singapore and Shanghai gain success to revitalize UA to achieve various multifunctional goals. Urban agriculture (UA) in Hong Kong is deemed to be a despair industry. Given a small portion of active farmlands, small number of jobs generated, little contribution to Hong Kong’s overall GDP, new forms of UA have emerged in the rural and urban areas in quest of sustainability. Since there is limited research of UA in Hong Kong, there is a missing linkage to put together UA functions and sustainable living. By developing this new perspective, not only the academic gaps can be filled, it can provide insights to answer the citizens’ aspiration on sustainable living, potential use of abandoned farmlands, directions for agricultural development, as well as policy recommendations. The aims of this study is to critically evaluate the UA, by exploring to what extent UA in Hong Kong can exhibit its functions in achieving sustainable living under current and expected scenario, potentials will be investigated therefore, give recommendations to enhance its contribution towards sustainable living. The study shows that after UA in Hong Kong has undergone changes from food security, economical contributions, and environmental degradation before 1990s. Towards the recent decades, social and environmental functions are profound. In current context, respondents mostly agree on food safety, health improvement, food and environmental education, land use economic are the key UA functions to achieving sustainable living therefore enhancement and improvement efforts should be made in these aspects in the future. Interestingly, respondents with different farming experience have slightly different perception, particularly on waste and nutrient recycling and biodiversity enrichment. In contrary, food security, improvement on microclimate, provision of business and employment opportunities are least perceived and expected from respondents. Discrepancies were also interpreted to assess the gap between perception and expectation on individual aspect to address the challenges perceived. Other than the abovementioned food security and microclimate improvement, respondents recognize social solidarity is a challenge. For these reasons, the results put forward to policy recommendations on setting local self-sufficiency rate, secure farmlands for agricultural use, provide training for agricultural related disciplines, increase the supply lands with a joint-sector collaboration: government, NGOs and corporates. Finally, further encourage sustainable farming practices and enhance food safety tracking system are suggested to enhance UA in achieving sustainable living.
DegreeMaster of Science in Environmental Management
SubjectSustainable living - China - Hong Kong
Urban agriculture - China - Hong Kong
Dept/ProgramEnvironmental Management
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/221859
HKU Library Item IDb5674056

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorLau, King-lam-
dc.contributor.author劉敬琳-
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-14T23:14:57Z-
dc.date.available2015-12-14T23:14:57Z-
dc.date.issued2015-
dc.identifier.citationLau, K. [劉敬琳]. (2015). Urban agriculture and sustainable living : a case study of Hong Kong. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5674056-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/221859-
dc.description.abstractIn recent decades, the agricultural evolution, from the perspective of food regimes transit towards productivist, Green Revolution and post-productivist era, UA have become multifunctional in terms of social, environmental and economical dimensions. Cities like New York City, Singapore and Shanghai gain success to revitalize UA to achieve various multifunctional goals. Urban agriculture (UA) in Hong Kong is deemed to be a despair industry. Given a small portion of active farmlands, small number of jobs generated, little contribution to Hong Kong’s overall GDP, new forms of UA have emerged in the rural and urban areas in quest of sustainability. Since there is limited research of UA in Hong Kong, there is a missing linkage to put together UA functions and sustainable living. By developing this new perspective, not only the academic gaps can be filled, it can provide insights to answer the citizens’ aspiration on sustainable living, potential use of abandoned farmlands, directions for agricultural development, as well as policy recommendations. The aims of this study is to critically evaluate the UA, by exploring to what extent UA in Hong Kong can exhibit its functions in achieving sustainable living under current and expected scenario, potentials will be investigated therefore, give recommendations to enhance its contribution towards sustainable living. The study shows that after UA in Hong Kong has undergone changes from food security, economical contributions, and environmental degradation before 1990s. Towards the recent decades, social and environmental functions are profound. In current context, respondents mostly agree on food safety, health improvement, food and environmental education, land use economic are the key UA functions to achieving sustainable living therefore enhancement and improvement efforts should be made in these aspects in the future. Interestingly, respondents with different farming experience have slightly different perception, particularly on waste and nutrient recycling and biodiversity enrichment. In contrary, food security, improvement on microclimate, provision of business and employment opportunities are least perceived and expected from respondents. Discrepancies were also interpreted to assess the gap between perception and expectation on individual aspect to address the challenges perceived. Other than the abovementioned food security and microclimate improvement, respondents recognize social solidarity is a challenge. For these reasons, the results put forward to policy recommendations on setting local self-sufficiency rate, secure farmlands for agricultural use, provide training for agricultural related disciplines, increase the supply lands with a joint-sector collaboration: government, NGOs and corporates. Finally, further encourage sustainable farming practices and enhance food safety tracking system are suggested to enhance UA in achieving sustainable living.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)-
dc.relation.ispartofHKU Theses Online (HKUTO)-
dc.rightsThe author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subject.lcshSustainable living - China - Hong Kong-
dc.subject.lcshUrban agriculture - China - Hong Kong-
dc.titleUrban agriculture and sustainable living : a case study of Hong Kong-
dc.typePG_Thesis-
dc.identifier.hkulb5674056-
dc.description.thesisnameMaster of Science in Environmental Management-
dc.description.thesislevelMaster-
dc.description.thesisdisciplineEnvironmental Management-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.5353/th_b5674056-
dc.identifier.mmsid991018588299703414-

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