inFarming: Harvesting on urban rooftops

Modern agriculture is resource-intensive: averaged across global data, agriculture requires an area which approximately corresponds to the size of South America, consuming about 70 percent of the available drinking water. In addition, it is the largest cause of water pollution and requires at least 20 percent of world-wide fuel consumption. In urban areas space, resources, and energy efficient solutions are needed. One possibility to provide fresh food locally are urban farms. They integrate municipal and industrial material and energy flows via intelligent linking of production systems and building infrastructures. In a feasibility study  Fraunhofer UMSICHT investigated the concept of urban farms following the inFARMING^® approach. The technology components of this approach are tested in the inHaus center in Duisburg.