INNOVATIVE URBAN FARMING TECHNIQUES FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF CITIES: FROM FARM TO FORK – CASE OF THE CITY LANUVIO, ROME, ITALY

— Urban areas and cities globally encounter manychallenges to confront vast urbanization and climatechange impacts. Urban farming is one of major responsesto some of these defies. Such challenges are manifested inLanuvio, a municipality near Rome situated in ‘CastelliRomani Regional Park’, use to have high cultural,historical, archeological and naturalistic values, but thesite of ARES (once served as a fire station) is now vacantland, hence considered a waste of resources that decreasesits value economically, socially and environmentally.Urban farming can assist in transforming cities to begenerative, resilient and sustainable. This paper presents aproject (Green Symphony) transformation that providesthe citizens of Lanuvio with smart and sustainabletechnologies focusing on urban agriculture. The objectiveof the study is to transform the abundant site to be agenerative urban farm while making people aware of theimportance of healthy food and creating connectivitybetween citizens and tourists. Indeed, aquaponic systems,permaculture, green walls, vertical farming, combinedwith energy harvesting from footsteps, solar panels, waterclose circuit, and rainwater collection are incorporated.Organic waste is also transformed into fertilizer, whichcontributes to the creation of a self-sustained farm. Thesite has been developed as a social hub and a businessmodel, including: strategy, marketing and operationsplans are developed to estimate the operation costs andlabour management. Results show that the developed sitecan generate 7 tons yearly of vegetables, fruits, herbs andfish, besides creating 3 stable jobs. The investment costsare paid off after a maximum of 5 years and the financialbalance is annually positive and 1.7 tons of produce.Finally, the vacant land is transformed into a social huband multi-functional green gardens to increase livabilityand targeted SDG 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 15.