Water Footprint of Urban Agriculture: a First Assessment in Rome Urban Gardens

The practice of urban agriculture is an answer to periods of economic and social crisis and it aims at producing food, especially vegetables, thus contributing to livelihood (even social) of people living in urban areas, where the access to natural resources is more limited. In this sense, urban agriculture is emerging as a new competitor for natural resources, including land and water. Rome is the largest European agricultural municipality in which, in recent years, the phenomenon of urban agriculture has experienced a so strong expansion that the acquisition of information is becoming a key point to assess the sustainability of its practices, especially as it regards the use of water. The aim of this work is to propose a methodological approach for the estimation of the water footprint (WF) of the most common crops cultivated in the community gardens located in the city of Rome.