Research & reports

Nate Millington · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · United States

This article analyzes representations of urban nature in Detroit, Michigan, focusing on journalistic and photographic work over the past 5 years. These representations, part of a discourse on Detroit's decline, ultimately reflect dominant conceptual divisions between the city and nature. Journalists and commentators perceive nature in the city as a reflection of the city's absence rather than its materiality, suggesting an ambivalence about emergent urban ecologies.

Gerald Forkuor, Olufunke Cofie · International Journal of Remote Sensing · Sierra Leone (Freetown)

A land-use and land-cover (LULC) change mapping exercise in Freetown, Sierra Leone, used multi-temporal Landsat data from 1974, 1986, and 2000 to map nine LULC classes. Built-up areas increased by at least 140% between 1974 and 2000, and 882 ha (27%) of agricultural lands in 1986 were converted to residential purposes by 2000. These conversions indicate a strong link between urbanization, agriculture, and deforestation, negatively impacting agricultural land availability.

Luc Hippolyte Dossa, Andreas Buerkert, Eva Schlecht · Human Ecology · Sub-Saharan Africa

A study surveyed 700 randomly selected households across Kano (Nigeria), Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso), and Sikasso (Mali) to explore the relationship between household socioeconomic status (SES) and participation in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). The results showed no significant differences in UPA participation rates across socioeconomic groups. Instead, UPA participation was significantly and positively related to household size.

Christophe Antonio‐Nkondjio, Billy Tene‐Fossog, Cyrille Ndo, Benjamin Menze Djantio, Serge Zebaze Togouet, Parfait Awono‐Ambene, Carlo Costantini, Charles S. Wondji, Hilary Ranson · Malaria Journal · Cameroon

This study assessed the influence of urban pollution and agriculture on malaria vector distribution and insecticide susceptibility in Douala and Yaoundé, Cameroon, from October 2009 to December 2010. Researchers sampled 1,546 anopheline larval breeding sites and analyzed water parameters. Findings showed mosquitoes from cultivated urban areas exhibited the highest insecticide resistance levels, with urban agriculture, rather than pollution, suggested as the major factor driving resistance.

Hong‐Yi Chen · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

This article discusses the vulnerability of urban agriculture, identifying its performance in human resources, land resources, capital flows, and the ecological environment. The primary reason for this vulnerability is the unreasonable flow of human, financial, and material production factors, driven by opportunity costs, amidst rapid urbanization. Strategies for healthy development include enhancing protection awareness, promoting orderly rural labor flow, improving investment, and strengthening land resource protection.

Bertrand Foe, Salou Zoulkilf · · Benin

A transverse case study conducted from January to June 2011 in Cotonou, Benin, with 50 truck farmers, investigated adaptation strategies for water access in urban agriculture. The study found that increased temperatures and irregular rains reduce available water, making truck farming difficult and painful. Despite increased working time, production decreased by about 50%, indicating a negative economic impact.

Saloua Toumi, Roland Vidal · Projets de paysage · Europe, Africa

Urban agriculture is expanding in various metropolitan areas, but its agro-economic and socio-spatial logic differs by context. Tunisia's urban agriculture is threatened by increasing urban expansion and is not yet integrated into territorial projects. Issues related to land value appreciation are dominant, and its landscape and environmental benefits could be compromised in the relatively short term if it does not find its place in urban development plans.

胡永林 · 浙江现代农业 · China (Yuhang)

This paper examines the development of modern urban agriculture in Yuhang District, China, driven by an urbanization strategy. It notes that the provincial initiative in 2010 to establish "two zones" (modern agricultural demonstration zones and grain production functional zones) provides a clear direction and strong framework for advancing modern urban agriculture, necessitating in-depth research and practical implementation.

Inge Wagemakers, Oracle Makangu Diki · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Congo (Kinshasa)

In rapidly growing African cities, particularly Kinshasa, urban agriculture is crucial for food provision, yet land available for agriculture decreases as cities expand. This study points out that in Kinshasa, population growth and a lack of empty land are pushing agriculture towards the city's periphery, threatening urban agricultural space. This situation highlights a conflict between the need to produce food and the need for living space.

José Luis Galdeano Tostado · Creatividad y sociedad: revista de la Asociación para la Creatividad · Global

This paper observes an increasing awareness of environmental issues and neighborhood action in city centers, with concepts like urban gardens and self-managed spaces becoming more familiar. It suggests that vacant lands and unused building sites in cities offer significant potential for citizens' creative initiatives. The abstract does not present any specific findings on governance challenges or critical interventions.

H.S. Geyer, Bennie Schloms, Danie du Plessis, Amanda van Eeden · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · South Africa (Cape Town)

An analysis of agricultural land consumption within the Cape Town urban edge between 2002 and 2007 revealed that low-density residential development is the primary consumer of high-potential agricultural land. Commercial, industrial, and informal residential developments had minimal impact on agricultural land loss. High-potential agricultural land is not adequately protected, and urban agriculture is constrained by competition with more profitable land uses like residential development.

幸治 江口 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

The Santome Area in Saitama Prefecture has practiced circular urban agriculture utilizing plain woods for 300 years, but urbanization, particularly in Kawagoe City and Tokorozawa City, is causing a significant decline in farmland and plain woods. While the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Saitama Prefecture promote urban agriculture and plain wood preservation, the plain-wood-utilizing circular urban agriculture in Santome Area faces specific problems. This paper identifies land systems, including taxation, as a central issue among these problems and examines the possibility of integrated preservation for farmland and plain woods.

Héctor Ávila-Sánchez · Norois · Mexico

This paper discusses socio-territorial changes in peri-urban food production spaces in Central Mexico, focusing on the impacts of urbanization on old rural areas. It highlights that peri-urban poor populations often face marginalization, degradation of their agricultural activities, and conflict over space with other social groups. The development of peri-urban agriculture has led to significant transformations in land use, production structures, and social and cultural aspects.

Ari Jokinen, Ville Viljanen, Krista Willman · Alue ja Ympäristö · Finland (Tampere)

This article analyzes the social and ecological significance of the Pispala allotment area in Tampere, Finland, where nearly 300 plots are used for urban farming, despite city plans for building purposes. A mixed-method analysis, using field observation, planning documents, biological surveys, and questionnaires, found that farming practices make the place visible, foster social interaction, and link the site ecologically to rare plant species. However, these crucial features of urban diversity are frequently disregarded by local administrative bodies in planning.

Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne · Journal of Southern African Studies · Southern Africa

This article reviews urban food sources in Southern African cities, focusing on supermarket expansion, its impact on informal food suppliers, and the relative insignificance of urban agriculture for poor urban households. Findings from an eleven-city survey by AFSUN are presented, highlighting that urban agriculture has limited significance in addressing urban food insecurity in the region.

Liu Xiang, Na Fu, Liu, Xiang, Fu, Na · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China

This study analyzed the current situation of rural industrialization in the process of rural-urban integration in Binhai New Area using reference and field research methods. It identified problems such as difficulties in breaking the dual economic structure in urban and rural areas, imbalanced economic development, and inadequate development of the third industry. Countermeasures proposed include optimizing agricultural industrial structure to form an urban agricultural model focusing on facility, park, and high-end agriculture to achieve intensive agricultural growth.

知弘 岡田, 大介 小山 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper is part of a special issue on the "Possibility and problem of 'coexistence of agriculture and housing' in suburban agricultural region of big city," presenting an overview of the urbanization process and contemporary challenges of town planning in the Kuga-Hatsukashi area of Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City.

I Kibona, SL Mkoma, IC Mjemah · International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences · Tanzania (Morogoro)

Groundwater samples were collected from 20 wells in six wards of Morogoro municipality, Tanzania, during March-April 2010, and nitrate concentrations were measured. Nitrate levels ranged from 1.4 mg/L to 32.5 mg/L, with an average of 7.76 mg/L. These concentrations were below the upper limits set by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards and the World Health Organization.

Nyumbaiza Tambwe, Michael Rudolph, Ran Greenstein · Africa · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)

A study was conducted in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, from November 2004 to March 2005, on 100 farming households that adopted urban agriculture as an alternative livelihood after the collapse of a mining company. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, in-depth questions, and observation revealed that despite practicing urban agriculture, the living conditions of 75% of households declined, and 20% stabilized their living conditions but could not completely alleviate poverty. Only 5% of farmers achieved food security.

Catherine J. LaCroix · Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons (Case Western Reserve University) · United States (Cleveland)

This paper explores legal challenges faced by shrinking cities, using Cleveland, Ohio as an example. It specifically examines issues related to downzoning urban property for urban agriculture and other green uses, focusing on takings law, fairness, and the limitations of current legal structures for Brownfield revitalization when traditional redevelopment is improbable. The study identifies significant legal constraints and challenges in implementing such land use changes.

Barbara Matthys, Benjamin G. Koudou, Eliézer K. N’Goran, Penelope Vounatsou, Laura Gosoniu, Moussa Koné, G. Gissé, Jürg Utzinger · Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology · Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan)

Two surveys were conducted in market gardens of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, during the rainy and dry seasons to identify mosquito breeding habitats. The study found that urban agriculture areas may lead to higher densities of mosquito breeding sites, with "agricultural trenches" between seedbeds being the most likely sites to be positive for Anopheles larvae and mosquito pupae.

Mohammed Murtala Ruma, Abdullahi Usman Sheikh · African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology · Nigeria (Katsina)

This paper investigated the status of wastewater reuse in urban farming in Katsina, Nigeria, by interviewing 120 households out of 250 registered with the Katsina Urban Planning Authority. It was found that wastewater reuse in urban farming is a full-time, sole income earner for many households and is indispensable for this semi-arid city. However, the urban planning process has not officially recognized or given attention to this important activity.

Zhou Pei · · China (Shanghai)

A study from July to September 2009 in an orchard village, Nanhui District, Shanghai, investigated the characteristics of non-point source nitrogen pollution in groundwater. Total nitrogen and its three forms (NO3-N, NH4-N, NO2-N) were monitored, revealing NO3-N as the main form (average 1.43-13.71 mg/L). Nitrogen pollution in groundwater depended on land use, with NH4-N pollution most serious under residential areas (average 0.074-0.457 mg/L). Total nitrogen pollution near the river and orchard (average 33.67-62.57 mg/L and 33.05-65.04 mg/L) was more severe than under residential areas.

沈建华, 储健 · 江苏农村经济 · China (Nanjing)

In recent years, Nanjing, China, has promoted the development of urban agriculture amidst rapid urbanization, contributing to increased farmer income and enriched urban life. However, the urban-rural divide remains relatively obvious. A key challenge is how to narrow this urban-rural gap and accelerate integrated development during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period.

É. Thys, André Mfoukou-Ntsakala, G. Nkouika-Dinghani-Nkita, Guido Van Huylenbroeck, Niko Speybroeck · Outlook on Agriculture · Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

This paper analyzed the impact of armed conflicts on urban livestock keeping, particularly small ruminant keeping, in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. Two surveys, one before 1993 and one after 2002, indicated that the 1997 conflict had a negative impact on livestock keeping, as most livestock keepers lost their animals. Financial resources were an important factor in rebuilding the flock after 1997.