Research & reports

Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana · Diari Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) / BOE · Spain

A decree-law issued by the Consell (Valencian regional government) on 4 February 2025, published 5 February 2025, amending the 2018 Huerta law and its implementing plan (Decreto 219/2018) to simplify administrative procedures for reconstruction following the 29 October 2024 DANA flooding. It abolishes the Huerta Council and chapters on agrarian development planning and farm inventories, and relaxes urban-planning parameters for agricultural buildings.

· Wikipedia (italiano) · Italy

An Italian Wikipedia article on marcite, a traditional Lombard irrigated-meadow technique combining supply and drainage channels on gently and evenly sloped land to keep grass growing through winter under a thin flowing water layer. While ordinary meadows are cut 4-5 times a year, marcite could be harvested 7 or more times, often 9, with the third cutting in late May (maggengo) alone accounting for roughly 25% of annual yield. Origins are uncertain, though Cistercian monks from France are credited with spreading the technique in northern Italy; it was largely replaced by maize cultivation in the 20th century, and today 41 marcite are protected within Parco Agricolo Sud Milano.

· Wikipedia (Italian) · Italy

Parco Nord Milano is a roughly 640-hectare regional park spanning seven municipalities north of Milan, recognized as a regional park by the Lombardy Region in 1975. It contains over 350 hectares of green space with more than 100 tree species and diverse wildlife, managed by a consortium of the participating municipalities. It serves as an example of large-scale peri-urban green infrastructure.

· Wikipedia (Italian) · Italy

Cascina Linterno originated as a 12th-century monastic rural settlement and is a 13th-century Lombard closed-courtyard farmhouse now owned by the City of Milan and run by the Associazione amici della Cascina Linterno for cultural and historical activities. It is traditionally identified as the poet Petrarch's residence during his time in Milan (1353-1361) and is protected under both monumental and landscape preservation decrees.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

This EEA indicator page defines water scarcity as river sub-basins where the water exploitation index plus (WEI+) exceeds 20% for at least a quarter of the year, tracking conditions across the EU27 from 2000 to 2023. The data combines EEA water quality monitoring, Eurostat abstraction and population statistics, and JRC river flow and climate data.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

According to this EEA indicator, 2020-2023 EU water abstraction breaks down into power cooling (33%), agriculture/irrigation (31%), public water supply (21%), and manufacturing (14%), with total EU27 freshwater abstraction falling 14% from 224 billion m3 in the 2000s to 192.6 billion m3 in 2020-2023. However, groundwater abstraction by the agricultural sector rose 52%, from 11 to 16.5 billion m3.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

This EEA briefing from the 2025 Europe's environment report states that water stress affects roughly 30% of Europe's land area and 34% of its population every year, and that EU water abstraction fell 19% between 2000 and 2022. It also reports that flooding caused average annual economic losses of EUR 6.5 billion between 1980 and 2023, and 5,582 direct deaths between 1980 and 2022.

Eurostat · Eurostat · Europe

Published around World Water Day, this Eurostat article reports the EU's overall water exploitation index plus (WEI+) reached 5.8% in 2022, the highest since data collection began and up 0.9 percentage points from 2000. Cyprus stood at an unsustainable 71.0% and Malta at 34.1%, with values above 20% generally considered a sign of water scarcity and above 40% severe water scarcity.

Bellini, A., Savo, V., Caneva, G., D'Amico, E., Casalini, R., Bartoli, F. · Plants (Basel) · Italy

This study analyzed vegetation on an unmaintained green roof in Rome. Spontaneous colonization produced 62 species across 18 families, with Asteraceae (19 species, 31%) and Poaceae (10 species, 16%) most represented. Therophytes (annuals) dominated the life-form spectrum at 35 species (56%). Geographically, cosmopolitan species made up 25%, Mediterranean species 38%, and alien species 15%. Some originally planted species, such as Thymus, thrived through summer without irrigation.

· Wikipedia (de) · Germany

Carl Rabitz (1823–1891) was a German master mason and builder. In 1867 he published a pamphlet titled 'Natural Roofs with Volcanic Cement,' promoting greened flat roofs as garden roofs, and exhibited a greened flat roof at the Paris World's Fair the same year. In 1864 he invented a fire-resistant plaster ceiling technique for use under wooden beams, and in 1878 he patented the Rabitz wall (a lath-and-plaster wall construction method).

Ville de Paris · Ville de Paris · France

Official Ville de Paris page defining shared gardens as green spaces cultivated and run by residents, intended as places of intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. About 15 educational gardens host children from 28 Paris educational facilities (nurseries, primary schools, after-school centers). Residents wishing to open a new garden must form an association and contact the city's 'Main Verte' team.

European Commission · European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment · Europe

The European Commission's official page on the EU Pollinators Initiative (adopted 2018, revised 2023). It reports that 1 in 3 European bee, butterfly and hoverfly species is in decline and 1 in 10 bee and butterfly species is threatened with extinction, while around 4 out of 5 crop and wild flowering plant species depend on animal pollination. Under Article 10 of the Nature Restoration Regulation (in force since 19 August 2024), Member States face a legally binding target to reverse pollinator decline by 2030. A delegated regulation establishing the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS) was adopted on 19 September 2025, to be implemented by Member States by 16 December 2026 at the latest.

Global Generation · Global Generation · United Kingdom

An article by Global Generation reflecting on a decade of the Skip Garden — a mobile garden built from reused waste skips — in King's Cross, London, describing how it grew from six or seven skips into a space with rooftop planters, a polytunnel, and areas for herbs, vegetables, fruit trees, and composting.

NCVO · National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) · United Kingdom

Recommendations published on 30 April 2025 by NCVO as part of its Power of Small project on small charities. It asks funders to increase multi-year core funding, simplify application processes in line with IVAR's principles, support capacity-building, ensure equitable distribution of funding, and foster sector-wide collaboration, with transparency through published data. On grant length, it proposes moving from twelve-month terms to at least twenty-four or thirty-six months, and ideally five years or more.

Chmielewski J., Wszelaczyńska E., Pobereżny J., Florek-Łuszczki M., Gworek B. · Sustainability · Poland

The study sampled 112 items — 72 vegetable and 40 fruit — from 16 allotment gardens in Warsaw and measured Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd. Vegetables accumulated markedly more heavy metals than fruits, and leafy vegetables grown near high-traffic roads carried the highest Pb, Cd and Zn. Lead exceeded permissible limits by six to twelve times and cadmium by one to thirteen, leading the authors to advise against growing tomatoes in urban settings. Only trace amounts appeared in fruits, and the Hazard Index rated the fruits alone as safe. The paper calls for continuous monitoring of urban garden soils, remediation of contaminated ground and safer growing practices.

Jansma · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe

Proposes a new typology of the diverse forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Europe, moving beyond the conventional 'urban farm vs community garden' divide and offering a framework for situating citizen-driven initiatives.

Raggi L., Spataro G., Tiranti D., Negri V. · Biodiversity and Conservation 33:2709-2738 · Europe

Reviews the status of on-farm landrace conservation in the EU, including the materials conserved, who maintains them and why, and EU policies governing the commercialization of landrace seeds.

Bartezzaghi G., Garrone P., Rizzuni A., Melacini M., Perego A. · Business & Society · Italy

A longitudinal action-research study of a cross-sector partnership delivering urban food assistance, showing how resource orchestration by public, corporate, and nonprofit actors spurs phases of systemic change in the urban food system.

· Springer (book chapter) · Germany

A book chapter framing urban farming in Germany as an innovation and application environment for an agile start-up mindset, discussing entrepreneurial urban agriculture ventures.

· Planning Practice & Research · Germany

Investigates citizen participation and acceptance around regional garden shows (Landesgartenschauen) in Germany as recurring urban greening and event-driven planning instruments.

Pernat N., Buchholz S., Schirmel J. · Insect Conservation and Diversity · Germany (Berlin)

Sampled 42 dry grasslands in Berlin along urbanisation and connectivity gradients, finding urbanisation the main driver reducing Orthoptera richness and functional diversity and filtering communities toward mobile species.

· Urban Ecosystems · Germany (Dresden)

A case study based on two transition experiments in Dresden, analyzing how edible cities are initiated, innovated, and accelerated.

· Land · Germany

Presents a national ecosystem-service indicator for Germany to assess and monitor local climate regulation provided by urban green infrastructure.

Mager · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Germany (Southern Germany)

A longitudinal-spatial case study mapping municipal food supply in Southern Germany.

· PhysOrg (Research Report) · Multi-regional (France, Germany, Poland, UK, USA)

International citizen science study recruiting farmers and gardeners at urban agriculture sites in France, Germany, Poland, UK, and USA. Participants recorded daily diary entries of inputs and harvests. Found that urban farms may have higher carbon footprints due to intensive inputs, suggesting need for optimization of composting and organic waste utilization to reduce environmental impact.