Although cities are important developments for human activity, urbanization creates challenges for human well-being and ecosystem functioning, including loss of productive farmland, ecosystem fragmentation, and biodiversity loss. These trends are associated with loss of ecosystem services. 

Considering urban agriculture as a type of green infrastructure may frame such land uses as a means of addressing challenges associated with urbanization. To inform the leasing of public land for urban agriculture in Austin, Texas, this study builds on prior studies by considering multiple ecosystem services provisioned by urban agriculture at both city block and neighbor scales while also creating policy-relevant prioritization of specific urban lots. Site suitability criteria modeled were ponding pressure, vegetation structure, built cover, parkland overlap, transportation infrastructure, and political feasibility. Ecosystem services needs modeled were water quality improvement, urban heat island mitigation, healthy food access, community organic waste composting, and green space. 

A candidate tract dataset was populated with metrics for 603 blocks and 434 neighborhoods. Priority ranks were assigned to tracts for four agriculture scenarios to aid decisions on leasing of tracts. All metrics but canopy cover exhibited trends across a longitudinal gradient, and ponding pressure, built cover, and composting need tended to decrease with tract size. Pairwise correlations between metrics across blocks demonstrated trends between site suitability criteria and synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem service needs. 

Although our approach was limited by many simplifying assumptions and coarse models, we present a methodology for land use optimization based on site characteristics and ecosystem service needs that can be expanded to include addition site suitability criteria, ecosystem service needs, and management scenarios.

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