Assessment of water footprint of urban agriculture in Rome, Italy

The strategies to cope with future climate change scenarios need to take into account the water use at local level, especially in urban areas where water demand and water conflicts among different users may be relevant. In recent years, urban agriculture is emerging as new competitor among the users of water available in many metropolitan areas, due to the rapid growth of this phenomenon. In this new context, local water management in urban areas must be carefully reconsidered and improvement of tools and approaches is required for a better management of local water resources. Evaluating the water footprint at urban level can be an option to achieve the mentioned goals. In this study we estimated the water footprint of the most common crops cultivated in the community gardens located in the city of Rome (Italy). To this aim, a specific agrometeorological dataset was created by using representative local weather stations located nearby the community gardens. Further, land use data and crop types were surveyed in each community garden by direct interviews to “urban farmers”. Irrigation methods, systems and water sources were also investigated by involving community garden managers and the Municipality Planning Department. Then, Aquacrop was applied to collected data to assess the water footprint of urban agriculture in Rome, and results were statically analysed. A series of choropleth maps reporting water footprint estimates were also created as communication tools to relevant stakeholders (i.e. planners, urban farmers, citizens). This type of product, in fact, may support current and future urban water policies following the concepts of sustainability.