Engineering for Intensive Cropping Indoor-Vertical Farming: Consistent further development of protected cultivation

Climate change and increasing global urbanization accelerate the expansion of protected cultivation systems. However, certain dependences to external weather conditions remain even in modern greenhouses. Indoor vertical farming, on the other hand, pursues complete independence from external weather conditions with the aim for highly accurate control of all crop parameters. Particularly with regard to the advancing climate change and the need for sustainable resource consumption, there are clear advantages due to the year-round and independent cultivation of plants and raw materials under optimal conditions. The complexity in the optimal networking of the plant-technology systems offers intensive development opportunities for digitization and interdisciplinary collaboration.