Visualising and Valuing Urban Agriculture for Land Use Planning: A Critical GIS Analysis of Sydney and Neighbouring Regions

Loss of a city’s agricultural lands due to land use change through urban development is a global problem, as local food production is an essential green infrastructure for intergenerational sustainability. Like many cities, much of Sydney’s rapid urban development occurs on land previously used for food production. Sydney has one of the highest rates of urban growth among Western cities and a planning strategy that marginalises its agricultural productivity. To better understand and advocate for Sydney’s capacity for food production we explore the best available datasets containing agricultural capacity using a critical GIS approach. Employing various spatial-data visualisations to contextualise agricultural production, we examine agricultural capacity in Sydney and comparable regions along the eastern coast of NSW. Through this approach we interrogate the notion that Sydney’s metropolitan landscape is unsuited to agriculture, thereby challenging current development and planning orthodoxy and policy. In doing so we ask the question “what is Sydney’s inherent capacity for agriculture?”. We find that despite current arguments, Sydney is well suited for agriculture and comparable with other coastal regions in the state. While acknowledging the complexities of metropolitan land use dynamics, we argue for better use and promotion of existing agricultural datasets to guide future planning policy and to advance food security in the region and to ensure long term sustainability.