IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i17p7924-d1741253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to Assess Urban Food Resilience? Moving Towards Food Security in Chilean Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Zazo-Moratalla

    (Escuela de Ingeniería de Fuenlabrada, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28032 Madrid, Spain
    Centro de Estudios Territoriales Interdisciplinares, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile)

  • Alejandro Orellana-McBride

    (Departamento de Arquitectura, Universidad La Serena, La Serena 1720169, Chile)

Abstract

Background. Food resilience is the ability of the food system to adapt to external and internal disturbances and maintain the outcome of food security. This paper focuses on shaping the concept of urban food resilience regarding the operation of urban food infrastructure and its capacity to provide food security. Methods. To achieve this, a methodology based on the pillars defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for food security, i.e., availability, accessibility, and stability, is used, operationalized from a spatial approach, and evaluated in terms of urban food resilience. Three simple indexes are built, i.e., diversity, redundancy, and short-term stability, and combined into a composite index: the Urban Food Resilience Index (UFRI). Results. The results are analysed from a spatial and quantitative perspective, linking scores with urban surface area, population, and density. The study examines the reality of Chilean intermediate cities distributed throughout the country, using the La Serena–Coquimbo Conurbation as a case study. Conclusions. The ultimate goal is to provide a straightforward methodology for assessing urban food resilience in countries with limited data access, thereby providing a foundation for informed urban planning decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Zazo-Moratalla & Alejandro Orellana-McBride, 2025. "How to Assess Urban Food Resilience? Moving Towards Food Security in Chilean Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7924-:d:1741253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7924/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7924/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emiliano Magrini & Mauro Vigani, 2016. "Technology adoption and the multiple dimensions of food security: the case of maize in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 707-726, August.
    2. Hanna Karg & Pay Drechsel & Edmund K. Akoto-Danso & Rüdiger Glaser & George Nyarko & Andreas Buerkert, 2016. "Foodsheds and City Region Food Systems in Two West African Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-32, November.
    3. Verónica Iñiguez-Gallardo & Julia Loján Córdova & Andrea Ordoñez-León & Fabián Reyes-Bueno, 2022. "Food Markets and Free Fairs as Contributors for Designing Climate Resilient Cities: A Study Case in Southern Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, June.
    4. Federico Lopez-Muñoz & Waldo Soto-Bruna & Brigitte L. G. Baptiste & Jeffrey Leon-Pulido, 2025. "Evaluating Food Resilience Initiatives Through Urban Agriculture Models: A Critical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-34, March.
    5. Alison Blay-Palmer & Guido Santini & Marielle Dubbeling & Henk Renting & Makiko Taguchi & Thierry Giordano, 2018. "Validating the City Region Food System Approach: Enacting Inclusive, Transformational City Region Food Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-23, May.
    6. Yi Gu & Jinyu Sun & Jianming Cai & Yanwen Xie & Jiahao Guo, 2024. "Urban Planning Perspective on Food Resilience Assessment and Practice in the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-27, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prain, G. & Simon, D. & Halliday, J. & Drechsel, Pay, 2022. "Investment priorities for research and innovation in urban agri-food systems: toward more resilient cities in the Global South," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 1-6:965011..
    2. Alison Blay-Palmer & Guido Santini & Jess Halliday & Roman Malec & Joy Carey & Léo Keller & Jia Ni & Makiko Taguchi & René van Veenhuizen, 2021. "City Region Food Systems: Building Resilience to COVID-19 and Other Shocks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Simon Berner & Hartmut Derler & René Rehorska & Stephan Pabst & Ulrike Seebacher, 2019. "Roadmapping to Enhance Local Food Supply: Case Study of a City-Region in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Yi Gu & Jinyu Sun & Jianming Cai & Yanwen Xie & Jiahao Guo, 2024. "Urban Planning Perspective on Food Resilience Assessment and Practice in the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-27, October.
    5. Alexandra Doernberg & Annette Piorr & Ingo Zasada & Dirk Wascher & Ulrich Schmutz, 2022. "Sustainability assessment of short food supply chains (SFSC): developing and testing a rapid assessment tool in one African and three European city regions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 885-904, September.
    6. Katrin Martens & Sebastian Rogga & Jana Zscheischler & Bernd Pölling & Andreas Obersteg & Annette Piorr, 2022. "Classifying New Hybrid Cooperation Models for Short Food-Supply Chains—Providing a Concept for Assessing Sustainability Transformation in the Urban-Rural Nexus," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Roberta Sonnino & Helen Coulson, 2021. "Unpacking the new urban food agenda: The changing dynamics of global governance in the urban age," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(5), pages 1032-1049, April.
    8. Lamin Dibba & Manfred Zeller & Aliou Diagne, 2017. "The impact of new Rice for Africa (NERICA) adoption on household food security and health in the Gambia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(5), pages 929-944, October.
    9. Małgorzata Świąder & Szymon Szewrański & Jan K. Kazak, 2018. "Foodshed as an Example of Preliminary Research for Conducting Environmental Carrying Capacity Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Qureshi, Salman & Tarashkar, Mahsa & Matloobi, Mansour & Wang, Zhifang & Rahimi, Akbar, 2022. "Understanding the dynamics of urban horticulture by socially-oriented practices and populace perception: Seeking future outlook through a comprehensive review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Saisai Wu & Lang Qin & Chen Shen & Xiangyang Zhou & Jianzhai Wu, 2022. "Food Retail Network Spatial Matching and Urban Planning Policy Implications: The Case of Beijing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, May.
    12. Kerstin Schreiber & Bernard Soubry & Carley Dove-McFalls & Graham K. MacDonald, 2023. "Untangling the role of social relationships for overcoming challenges in local food systems: a case study of farmers in Québec, Canada," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 141-156, March.
    13. Lisa-Marie Hemerijckx & Katarzyna Janusz & Sam Emelen & Samuel Tumwesigye & Jac Davis & Shuaib Lwasa & Anton Rompaey, 2022. "Food accessibility of different socioeconomic groups in sub-Saharan African cities: a mixed-method analysis in Kampala, Uganda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 677-694, June.
    14. Rosário Oliveira & Gabriel Spínola Garcia Távora, 2025. "Mapping the Potential to Establish Multifunctional Agrofood Parks to Foster the Food Transition at a Regional Level," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, April.
    15. Élodie Valette & Kerstin Schreiber & Damien Conaré & Veronica Bonomelli & Alison Blay-Palmer & Nicolas Bricas & Denis Sautier & Olivier Lepiller, 2020. "An emerging user-led participatory methodology: Mapping impact pathways of urban food system sustainability innovations [Urbal : une évaluation participative et qualitative de la durabilité des inn," Post-Print hal-03904792, HAL.
    16. Del Prete, Davide & Ghins, Léopold & Magrini, Emiliano & Pauw, Karl, 2019. "Land consolidation, specialization and household diets: Evidence from Rwanda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 139-149.
    17. José Luis Vicente-Vicente & Esther Sanz-Sanz & Claude Napoléone & Michel Moulery & Annette Piorr, 2021. "Foodshed, Agricultural Diversification and Self-Sufficiency Assessment: Beyond the Isotropic Circle Foodshed—A Case Study from Avignon (France)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Andrew Spring & Erin Nelson & Irena Knezevic & Patricia Ballamingie & Alison Blay-Palmer, 2021. "Special Issue “Levering Sustainable Food Systems to Address Climate Change (Pandemics and Other Shocks and Hazards): Possible Transformations”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-6, July.
    19. Pedro Cerrada-Serra & Luca Colombo & Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda & Stefano Grando, 2018. "Access to agricultural land in peri-urban spaces: social mobilisation and institutional frameworks in Rome and Valencia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1325-1336, December.
    20. Abebe, Meseret Birhane & Endale, Kefyalew, 2023. "The Impact of Improved Seed Adoption on Nutrition Outcome: A Panel Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis," EfD Discussion Paper 23-1, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7924-:d:1741253. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.