UBC Undergraduate Research

Campus greenscaping : management plan for the first rooftop garden at UBC Vancouver Knoll, Kelsey; Mussel, Kerry; Radley, Michelle; Severide, Megan; Van Horne, Kalyn

Abstract

The new Student Union Building on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus, which is scheduled for completion in 2014, will feature a rooftop garden with 166m2 dedicated to food crop production. This UBC Food System Project will focus on creating a management plan that will implement a community garden scheme of managing the garden. This rooftop garden has the ability to positively impact the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of the UBC Food System. Methods were conducted through determining if there was demand for community garden space on UBC campus, outlining the goals of the garden by meeting with stakeholders, reviewing past UBCFSP papers, researching the management structure of other community gardens, and creating a management plan by determining the essential components of the rooftop garden by performing a cost-benefit analysis. It was determined that there would be adequate interest in the rooftop garden and the goals of the garden should be to be: student focussed, foster peer-to-peer learning, offer community building opportunities, promote food system and sustainability issues, enhance the sustainability of the UBC Food System, and be cost neutral. It was determined that the garden would need a coordinator in the form of a work study student, directed studies student, or a paid position and the pros and cons of each of these options was discussed. Having an AMS gardening club to provide structure to the operations of the garden was also discussed. The rules that would need to be implemented into the plot-holders contract agreement were also determined, discussed, and put into a draft contract. Stakeholder recommendations were divided into four sections: pre-garden completion, preparation for garden opening, annual garden management, and recommendations for general club functions. The project was then evaluated based on a comparison between the objectives and the results. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada