Mapping Arcadia: Developing a Multicriteria Geospatial Analysis Framework for Identifying Potential Community Garden Sites on Public Parcels

Abstract

Community gardens are important to the communities that cultivate them because they provide them with numerous social, health, and environmental benefits at a relatively low cost. As demand for community gardening space grows, it will be important to have clear, replicable methods for identifying suitable sites to host gardens. However, there is limited research about how to best conduct this analysis. Therefore, this paper examines the existing methods and frameworks to assess their strengths and weaknesses and consolidates them into one framework. This paper also includes a review of the literature concerning siting community gardens, a case study that applies key aspects from the literature, and a set of recommendations and considerations for future research.