Building Resilience of Food Production in Calgary’s Community Gardens to an Increasing Number of Extreme Weather Events

Shoults, Erin Elizabeth

Building Resilience of Food Production in Calgary’s Community Gardens to an Increasing Number of Extreme Weather Events

dc.contributor.advisor	Laycock Pedersen, Rebecca
dc.contributor.author	Shoults, Erin Elizabeth
dc.contributor.committeemember	Koppe, Jennifer
dc.contributor.committeemember	Macedo, Joseli
dc.date	2024-06
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-03T15:58:42Z
dc.date.available	2024-04-03T15:58:42Z
dc.date.issued	2024-03-27
dc.description.abstract	Extreme weather caused by climate change has reduced food security and adversely impacted ecosystems, including in Calgary’s network of 64 public community gardens. Increased instances of heat waves, drought, and hail have negatively impacted food production in Calgary’s community gardens. Developing the resilience of food grown in community gardens to extreme weather will safeguard a food source, which supplements gardeners’ diets and is donated to local charitable food organizations and ensure ongoing vibrancy of public space allocated to community gardens in Calgary. In this thesis, I ask how can food production in Calgary’s community gardens be resilient to increasing extreme weather events? In this study I interviewed four Community Garden Coordinators and five gardeners who were growing food in community gardens and distributed a questionnaire to all community gardens in Calgary, receiving 53 gardener responses. The interview and questionnaire questions gathered gardeners’ perspective relating to four research questions. How is food production in Calgary’s community gardens impacted by extreme weather events? How have individual gardeners in Calgary’s community gardens adapted food production strategies to extreme weather events? How have community gardens used cooperation to increase resilience of food production to extreme weather events? What garden design strategies were implemented to adapt food production to extreme weather? Themes identified in the responses were analyzed using the principles of social ecological resilience. This analysis indicated improvements are required in in Calgary’s community gardens to increases resilience of food production to extreme weather. This work highlights that regular meetings, communication, experimentation, and knowledge transfer are crucial to ensuring effective implementation of strategies to build resilience of food production to extreme weather. Increasing soil water retention, building microclimates, and planting adapted plant varieties are highlighted as effective strategies. This work fills a gap in knowledge by identifying strategies that build resilience of food production in Calgary’s community gardens to extreme weather.
dc.identifier.citation	Shoults, E. E. (2024). Building resilience of food production in Calgary’s community gardens to an increasing number of extreme weather events (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/118343
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/43186
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Community gardens
dc.subject	Extreme weather
dc.subject	Resilience
dc.subject	Adaptation
dc.subject	Design adaptation
dc.subject	Cooperative adaptation
dc.subject	Social ecological resilience
dc.subject	Urban food production
dc.subject	Urban food security
dc.subject	Climate change
dc.subject.classification	Landscape Architecture
dc.subject.classification	Education--Agricultural
dc.subject.classification	Urban and Regional Planning
dc.subject.classification	Horticulture
dc.subject.classification	Sociology--Organizational
dc.subject.classification	Soil Science
dc.title	Building Resilience of Food Production in Calgary’s Community Gardens to an Increasing Number of Extreme Weather Events
dc.type	master thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Environmental Design
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Master of Environmental Design (MEDes)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.