Urban permaculture aims to apply permaculture design principles to cities to make them more sustainable. Some key strategies discussed include increasing urban biomass through rooftop gardens, vertical planting, and urban food production. Proper water and waste management can help cities become closed-loop systems. Community building through projects, cooperatives, and public spaces can increase self-sufficiency and resilience. Designing cities at a human scale with mixed uses and alternative transportation can reduce resource consumption and build strong local economies. Examples like Curitiba, Brazil demonstrate how urban permaculture principles have been successfully applied.

1. Urban Permaculture
By Selwyn Polit
Austin, TX USA

2. The problem with cities is
that we don't know how to
think about them.
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of
the American City .

3. Scientific thinking – 3 waves
 Simplicity, 2-variable (x & y)
 Disorganized complexity - billions of
variables, probability, averages, chaos
theory
 Organized complexity - many factors
interrelated into an organic whole

4. Living Systems & Cities
Tactics for
understanding both
are similar
Organized
differently
Both: Organized
complexity

5. Understanding Cities
Great consumption organism with end
product of great waste problem
Think of:
Processes
Energy &
Material flow

6. Understanding Cities
Work inductively:
From particulars to the general (real
examples to theory)

7. Understanding Cities
Seek “unaverage” clues:
Check out the small stuff to reveal the much
larger.
Principle: observation

8. Understanding Cities
The edge is where the action is. (buildings,
covered/not covered, concrete, roads,
chopped up, jumbled up)

9. Urban Ecology
 More hard surface than soft
landscape
– Climate
– Heat
– Run-off
– Wind tunneling & turbulence

10. Urban Ecology
 High dependence on fossil
fuels
– Cars
– Electricity
– Increased pollution and heat

11. Urban Ecology
 High dependence on large
support systems
– Electricity
– Gas
– Water
– sewage

12. Urban Ecology
 Low levels of self-sufficiency
– Food
– Imports
– Flow through (very few loops)
– Social dislocation

13. Principles
• Observation of
Nature
• Focus on Natural
Patterns & Edge
• Diversity
• Each element
performs multiple
functions
• Relative Location
• Each critical function
supported by many
elements
• Energy Efficient
Planning
• Biological
Resources
• Energy Cycling
• Appropriate
Technology
• Small Scale
Intensive Systems
• Stocking
• Stacking & Packing

14. Health
Start at Zone 0
Clean drinking
water

15.  Clean indoor air
 Spider plants are
one of the best air
cleaners among
houseplants

16.  Grow some food -
sprouts,
mushrooms, greens,
espaliered fruits
 Organically grown
food - as local as
possible

17. Meet Your Neighbors
 Buying/barter clubs (Austin
freecycle, more local freecycle)
 Coops
 Playgrounds
 Community gardens
 Block parties
 Creek watch

18. Get some chickens

19. Get a Project
 Cohousing
 Ecovillage
 Political and social
action
 Environmental
action

21. Design Strategies in Cities
 Analyze
– Yields: social edges,
resources (waste?),
information
– Needs: security, self-
reliance

22. Inner Cities
 Increase Biomass
 Vertical Planting
 Rooftop gardens
 Balcony and window box
gardens
 Pollution tolerant species
(Gingko, London Plane,
Acacia Longifolia, Black
Locust

23. High Density Residential
 Food Parks
 Food trees
 Home gardening education –
square foot gardens
 Vertical planting
 Community gardens
 School gardens
 Children community
plantings
 Warehouse – live/work
communities

24. High Density Residential
Urban Patchwork - Paige hill - Urbanpatchwork.org

25. Med-Low Density Residential
 Food Parks
 Community Orchards
 City Farms (chickens,
bees, livestock)
 Home Food Production
 Food trees on quiet streets

26. Med-Low Density Residential

27. Design Strategies in Cities
 Manage local wastes as a nutrient
resource, while maintaining
public health.

28. Design Strategies in Cities
Redesign storm water & wastewater
systems to prevent erosion, catch
nutrients, and provide for plant
growth.
Gabion

29. Build soil

30. Build soil

31. Catch water

32. Design Strategies in Cities
 Identify & use local energy sources -
solar, wind, water, and methane.
 Support home retrofit, and new-
homes, using passive solar design
and green building materials and
techniques.

33. Design Strategies in Cities
 Encourage small
farms and
community gardens
throughout the city.
 Encourage edible
landscaping, both
public and private.

34. Design Strategies in Cities
 Nurture local celebrations -
culture, history, nature, art,
music, dance, education,
barter/trade fairs, seasons,
harvests.
 Build sense of community -
coops, local pubs, sidewalk art,
gardens, block parties, creek
watch
 Support local businesses.

35. Design Strategies in Cities
 Minimize the need for transportation:
– Design for mixed-use urban
neighborhoods
– Design suburban areas with shops,
schools, parks in walking distance
– Provide public transportation

36. City Swale

38. Food
 Buying
– Local trading feeds your
community several times for
each dollar, whereas the $
goes away when you buy
from a national company
– Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA)
– Buying clubs

39. Food
 Growing without a garden
– Balconies, trellises, windowfarms
window boxes, window sill,
sprouts, mushrooms, planter boxes
Community gardens, vacant lots,
friends/neighbors/relatives with
garden space
– Trees in large planter boxes, city
streets

40. Food
 Windowfarms.org

44. Building Community
 Community sizes
– 30-40 people - minimal
number of people to cover
most human functions
– 200-300 people minimum
for genetic variability,
smallest village
– 600-1000 people can know
each other by name,
optimum village size

45. Building Community
 Community sizes
– Over 250 households in
community/over 3000 people in a
school = dysfunction (cliques, theft &
cheating, hierarchies)
– 1000-5000 max for federation of tribes,
bioregional group, maximum village size

46. Building Community
 Community sizes
– 7000-40,000 people in towns; not
workable unless broken into smaller
cooperatives/villages
– 50,000 = optimum city size
– Regions of the world = 10 million
optimum

47. Building Community
 Sharing utilities
– 4-5 families share 1 washer
– 5-10 people share 1 shower,
Zone 1 garden
– 15-35 families share kitchen,
gardens, food processing (2-
3 people shop, prep, cleanup
for each meal)

48. Building
Community
 Projects
– Coops - food buying, child care,
automobile
– Barter, banks, etc.
– Farm Links - Bulletin board with NEED
LAND/HAVE LAND listings

49. Strathcona Community Gardens –
Vancouver, BC Canada
 Community Gardens
 Began in 1985 when local residents saw
gardening potential in an abandoned 3-
acre industrial dump site, got a one-year
lease from the parks board
 Tested soil for metals- OK, but very poor
soil, so began composting - Now
composting a ton of garbage a week from
local restaurants

50. From this…

51. To this…

52. And this

53. and

54. 200 individual plots
Vine walk &
espaliered
orchard
Apple trees &
meadow
Wild Area
Nursery
beds Kids area

55. Strathcona
 No fence – open to all people to sit on a
bench, help, connect with nature & other
people - Surplus-produce table - free
 Learned that gardening is political
 Some members of city govt. want to use
garden for playing field or park; gardeners
must keep area clean, though it is used by
prostitutes, drug-users & the homeless.

56. Strathcona
 It's growing - gardening on some
unused land adjacent to Community
gardens
 Created connection with the larger
community: coalition to stop an
environmentally unfriendly garbage
processing plant- and stopped
spraying herbicides in Vancouver
parks

57. Greening Cities
 Create lots of symbiotic relationships

58. Greening Cities
 Create city-country fingers, so all
have easy access to country
 Break into villages/pods with
community-bonding activities:
– neighborhood-size facilities
– block parties
– local markets & night-life
– ecological projects

59. Greening Cities
 Human scale buildings & activities
 Create safety
 Create a stable biological base:
– Soil
– Water
– species protection.

60. Greening Cities
 Increase biomass (Green:other-l:2
minimum)
– Green belts not just around traffic, but
for walking trails, etc.
– Texture hard surfaces (biotexturing)
 Create negative ion generator sites
(plants, splashing/falling water)

61. Greening Cities
 Create people- friendly economic
system
– Recycling is main source of raw
materials for industry.
– Barter systems/new currency with no
advantage to hoarding
– Business in homes
– Reduce social tensions, by reducing gap
between rich & poor

62. Greening Cities
 Energy systems based on solar &
wind
– Decentralize energy production
– With PV, homeowners become
producers of electricity

63. Greening Cities
 Transportation
– Mostly rail & bus, bicycles; people live
closer to workplace
– Close some streets to prevent/reduce
thru traffic
roads = traffic
Big Roads = Big Traffic
as population increases, roads widen so less
space for humans & wider gulfs to traverse
urban sprawl = more roads and so on.

64. Greening Cities
 Goals
– Value systems emphasizing quantity,
expansion, competition, domination will
be replaced by quality,
conservation, cooperation,
partnership
– Measure of success is sustainability, not
growth

65. Greening Cities
 Some city examples:
– L.A. dedicates 70 % of its space to
automobiles - roads, parking lots,
garages, etc.
– Hong Kong raises 45 % of its vegetables
– Cuba is creating the first post-fossil fuel
economy
– Norway's gov't is investing in farms
– Vietnam - PC is the official agricultural
policy

66. Hopi Villages
The oldest cities in North America.
 The village is an entity, the plaza its heart
 Many homes built by women-like giving
birth
 Built by the people, for the people
 Apartments were created as extended
family units
 Building was art instead of science
 face to face society instead of back to
back."

67. Curitaba - Brazil
 Capital
 City of 2.4 million
people ,
 Changes began in
1971, when Jaime
Lerner was
elected mayor

68. Curitaba - Brazil
 PRIORITIES
 Decrease the number of vehicles
– many roads designated for the sole use of
collective vehicles
– increased public transportation - buses
 Increase ratio of green areas to
inhabitants
– in 1970, .5 sq. meters/person
– in 1992, 50 sq. meters/person
– 1.5 million trees have planted in 20 years

69. Curitaba - Brazil
 "GARBAGE THAT ISN'T GARBAGE"
Began as an education program, now almost
90% are separating garbage in home
Special collection van for recyclables "
Paper recycling alone spares 1200 trees
daily!
Profit is reinvested in social programs

70. Curitaba - Brazil
 "GARBAGE THAT ISN'T GARBAGE"
– Landfill is spared
– Garbage Purchase where no access for vans
– pay people to bring garbage to vans instead of
paying garbage collection company
– pay with transport vouchers or surplus produce
(gov't buys surplus produce at low price
instead of having it thrown in river or burned)

71. Curitaba - Brazil
 LOCAL DISTRICT EMPOWERMENT
– Local districts belong more to the people
than to the city (Polish Woods, Italian
district, etc.)
– The people who live in a district knows
best what its needs are

72. Curitaba - Brazil
 CITY GOV'T DUTY: ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION
– Environmental education is not a separate
course, but is inserted into the curriculum.
– Free University for the Environment - short
courses designed for the people - energy
efficiency, recycling, gardening, planting trees,
etc.
– Green Guard - police who work in parks and
teach people about the environment

73. Curitaba - Brazil
 LESSONS:
– Search for the simplest possible solution
– Work with local people - people who
know and like the city
– Changes should be done on the
broadest scale possible
– Although started with traditional top-
down legislation, now recognize the
importance of involving the people in
every initiative

74. A sustainable society is one which
satisfies its needs without
diminishing the prospects of
future generations.

75. Thanks for your kind attention
Questions?