Philippine E-Journals

Changes in Urban Agricultural Landscape Affect Community Food Security: A GIS-based Analysis

Ricardo T. Bagarinao

Discipline: Ecology

 

Abstract:

Community food security, which is a relatively new concept, has become a global concern amidst momentous impacts of climate change in several communities across the globe. Urban areas in the Philippines, like Calamba City in Laguna province, are not exempted from the impacts of climate change. Urban agriculture landscapes play important roles in establishing community food security. The study analyzed an urban agricultural landscape in the Philippines through the use of patch analyst extension in a geographic information system (GIS). The study employed the geospatial and temporal image processing and analysis research method to compare two sets of land use-land cover (LULC) maps, i.e. 2003 and 2010 from NAMRIA. Two landscape metrics were used in the comparison: mean patch size (MPS) and mean shape index (MSI). The landscape consists of two agricultural patches (i.e. annual cropland and perennial cropland) with MPS and MSI values (i.e. MPS = 1,088.15 vs. 274.55 has; MSI = 3.87 vs. 1.94) that significantly changed from 2003 to 2010. Such change may lead to a food production system that is more dependent on external supplies. Externally supported food production system can threaten the local community’s food security in the long term.