Typology of Urban Agriculture and its Role in Urban Sustainable Development of Zanjan Province

Urban agriculture with major goals such as the preservation and optimal use of natural resources, the production of healthy and organic products, and the enrichment of leisure time, if implemented correctly, will be emerged as one of the strategies for sustainable urban development. This study first, describes the typology indices of urban agriculture including susceptible locations, potential executives and partners, educational needs, communication channels, and susceptible plants. It, then, analyzes the role of education in urban agriculture development and its influence on sustainable urban development using a causal-relational method. The present study was carried out by means of a survey method in Zanjan province. The target population of the study is about 367 experts of Zanjan Jihad-e-Agriculture Organization. The number of samples was determined using Krejcie and Morgan table. Sampling was done by cluster random sampling and from the total of eight counties, three counties were selected randomly, in addition to Provincial Headquarters of Zanjan Jihad-e-Agriculture Organization. The research tool was a questionnaire whose face, content, and convergent validity was evaluated and confirmed. The reliability of the instrument was confirmed using Cronbach's Alpha test and the combined reliability, with the value above 0.7. Data analysis was performed using SPSS24 and AMOS24 software. The research findings showed that education has a significant influence on urban agriculture development, and urban agriculture development plays a considerable role in sustainable urban development. Furthermore, education along with urban agriculture development explained 30% of variability in sustainable urban development.  Therefore, cultural development and education are suggested for urban agriculture development.