Lisbon – European Green Capital 2020: the allotment gardens contribution

The main objective of this paper is to define the role and the importance of the urban allotment gardens in the consideration of Lisbon as the European Green Capital in 2020. In the first part of the paper, we seek to trace the historical evolution of vegetable gardens in the context of city development. In the second part, one proceeds to its mapping and its identification and characterization considering the multiple functions that allotment gardens play both to improve the quality of the urban environment and to improve the quality of human life. In this sense, the different ecosystem services that allotment gardens provide to the society are addressed, as well as their contribution to the qualification of Lisbon's urban landscape and urban food systems. For this, we used a research methodology that crossed the field work (the survey of the vegetable gardens), with bibliographic and documentary sources. The present diachronic and diatopic study about urban allotment gardens in Lisbon aims to legitimize the historical model of urban development based on the deeply intricate relationships between the city and the agriculture as a strategy to be adopted in the context of the long-term development of both Society and Nature.