ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Urban food insecurity is a major challenge associated with the phenomenon of global urbanization. Several such multi-scale socioecological challenges have necessitated the re-emergence of the concept of urban metabolism, which essentially deals with the flow of energy and materials into and out of the city. In cities, the production and processing of food, though being away from the consumers, its consumption and disposal are still with them, which shows there is an obvious rift in the urban metabolism in terms of the food flow. The authors, with the help of the emergy model establish a strong link between urban food systems and urban land use pattern, highlighting the importance of sustainable urban planning that is also sustainable from social, economic and ecological perspectives. This model envisages a city that produces its own food and nutrition as well as distributes, consumes and disposes of it by virtue of the efficient systems generated by the urban resources.
