Project Director

Quinlan, Catherine Meeks

Department Examiner

Schultz, Lucy; Tucker, John

Department

Brock Scholars Program

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

On April 3, 2025, Chattanooga, Tennessee became the first National Park City (NPC) in North America. With a long, industrial history, Chattanooga has made quite the pivot from being widely renowned for its low air quality and particulate pollution to being recognized as the Best Outdoor City in the US by Outdoor magazine. The goals emphasized by the National Park City campaign are creating a city-wide common interest of community-led sustainability efforts. While the initiative highlights many important initiatives to make the city more sustainable and resilient, community gardens are noticeably left out of the conversation. This paper argues that community gardens act as an important contribution to our local landscape, providing an array of benefits to the local community including physical, mental, and social well-being of residents, economic stability, and ecological flourishing. In analyzing urban agricultural spaces throughout Chattanooga, this paper poses that community gardens are a critical element of a thriving National Park City. The project begins with a literature review summarizing the historical significance and modern-day functions of community gardens in the U.S. as well as the many benefits they provide. This data is then compared with the existing community-supported agricultural spaces throughout Chattanooga, detailing the various roles they play in the local community. An accompanying ArcGIS web map created using GIS technologies showcases the locations of the gardens throughout the city alongside previously existing census tract data depicting socio-economic variables such as percentage of households below the poverty level, receiving SNAP benefits, owning zero vehicles, and average yearly spending on fresh produce. Other data layers includes previously instated community gardens that are now defunct, major grocery stores throughout the city, and neighborhoods listed under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Southside Chattanooga Lead Superfund Site to understand the landscape within which these gardens operate as well as the needs they seek to fulfill. The information in both the written and visual portions of this thesis has been combined and used to create a digital StoryMap so that members of the local community can easily understand, access, and utilize this data.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my thesis director Catherine Meeks Quinlan for all of her guidance throughout this process. I would also like to thank my other committee members Dr. Lucy Schultz and John Tucker as well as Nyssa Hunt for all of their support. To all of the members involved in Chattanooga's community gardens, thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your efforts, and I'm so excited to see these spaces bloom and grow for years to come!

Degree

B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Date

5-2026

Subject

Community gardens--Tennessee--Chattanooga; Urban agriculture--Tennessee; Sustainable development--Tennessee--Chattanooga

Keyword

Community gardens; urban agriculture; food forest; National Park City; GIS; food security

Discipline

Urban, Community and Regional Planning

Document Type

Theses

Extent

i, 72 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Download

Share

COinS