Nao was introduced to me by a family friend in Tokyo. She had recently completed her M.Sc. in Sustainable Urbanism, at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London and her valuable dissertation on urban agriculture is so relevant to large cities worldwide – not least Birmingham – that it will be posted on our website after peer review and publication. Ms. Takeuchi studied sustainable architecture and rural planning whilst working for her B.Sc. in Environmental and Agricultural Engineering, Nihon University.
Later, as a landscape designer in Tokyo, she was mainly involved in planning for the conservation of biodiversity and the local natural environment in park design and city development.
Both her academic and professional experiences have inspired a strong desire to create sustainable cities. In particular, she would like to explore the possibilities of urban agriculture as a mainstay of sustainable cities from the perspective of food supply systems, efficient composting, environmental education and green employment. There is more information on Linkedin. She is currently a contract researcher for the Mitsubishi Research Institute,Inc in Tokyo.
In her ‘hard-headed’ dissertation she presents a cost-benefit analysis of the environmental benefits of urban agriculture, estimating the potential of the conservation and promotion of urban agriculture, with Tokyo as a case study.
The introduction summarises the social, economic and environmental benefits of sustainable urban agriculture and her study focusses on evaluating the economic value of the ecosystem services of urban agriculture in Tokyo, such as storm water retention, groundwater recharge and heat island mitigation, and comparing these with the lower returns from the current property tax and inheritance tax.
New Era Network 