Urban pollution and the impacts in urban kitchen gardens sustainability

Abstract

A sustainable city must incorporate the environmental dimension in the development of the dense and complex urban area. To reach that, the urban agriculture and the green spaces with multiple uses, such as urban kitchen gardens, must be incorporated in the cities sustainable development model. In Portugal, Braga is a good example of those cities where the preservation of rurality tradition is important in the urban development, for the city presents an eminent agricultural involving landscape that coexists with the urban centre activities. Nowadays, city centre kitchen gardens represent the remaining portions of the agricultural life once intensely lived. However, Braga also presents typical environmental problems of large cities, such as the significant increase of mobility and road traffic, which puts the viability of the urban kitchen gardens health at risk. The present work describes the methodology used in a monitoring process in order to analyse the environmental condition of Braga urban kitchen gardens. Soil and lettuce samples from eight different sites had been analysed taking into account their chemical composition. The analysis results show viable problems for the urban kitchen gardens as agricultural spaces that produce food with an appropriate quality for a nutritious diet. The results reveal preoccupying levels of contamination and pollution of heavy metals such as Cadmium, Lead and Zinc.