Time for urban farming in cities to reduce obesity

urban farm

In 2005 over 40 {1897c8b751ad578bd9a969480021909bcd327853590acbf66d5abd5e194cce96} of the Earth’s land was given over to agriculture. This is an area of roughly 4.6 billion hectares, about the size of South America.  A further 3.2 to 3.6 billion hectares is being used to raise livestock. By 2050 up to 80{1897c8b751ad578bd9a969480021909bcd327853590acbf66d5abd5e194cce96} of the earth’s population will live in urban centres. If food is to be produced and consumed in the same inefficient way as is today, we will need further arable farm land the size of Brazil to support this population.

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Is the postcode dead?

Sydney operaLondon-based start-up what3words (w3w) has devised a new addressing system.  The system divides the entire world into a grid of 3m by 3m squares — 57 trillion of them in total. Each square has been labelled with a three word sequence. Although GPS services can already accurately pinpoint any location on earth, the w3w system provides a three-word code that makes it easier to remember and communicate with people over using complicated latitude and longitude coördinates.

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High density without occupancy

High density housingThe article High density housing’s biggest myth by Ross Elliott published on The Pulse, suggests many high-rise apartments recently constructed or being constructed contain numerous apartments that are vacant or not occupied, particularly in the inner city areas. We have observed this trend with high density residential properties when developing urban growth models.  This trend imposes the requirement for urban models to provide for properties in some locations not being fully occupied. In some cases this can be as low as 20{1897c8b751ad578bd9a969480021909bcd327853590acbf66d5abd5e194cce96} occupancy. These low percentages are normally seen in holiday areas such as the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast.

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