Towards urban resilience: Urban gardening in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract

The chapter looks at urban gardening in Christchurch since the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes through the lens of resilience, specifically focusing on disaster resilience, community resilience, food resilience and the overarching notion of urban resilience. Following a discussion of urban gardening projects in post-earthquake Christchurch, it shows that notions of food resilience are contextually interwoven with the disaster history of a region that went through a major earthquake. However, recent initiatives exemplify that discussions around food resilience have broadened and become inclusive of a range of environmental, socio-economic and cultural challenges. Urban gardens in Christchurch have become part of a wider resilience narrative responding to more diverse crisis scenarios and related concepts of urban resilience. The chapter argues that such a broadening of discussion and focus provides new opportunities to increase the impact and benefits of urban gardening beyond food resilience narratives, including new funding opportunities, research and strategic investment into urban gardening.