Research & reports

Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Jordi Oliver‐Solà, J.I. Montero, Joan Rieradevall · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Europe

This paper presents an interdisciplinary scheme to evaluate the sustainability of urban rooftop agriculture (URA), investigating its quantitative and qualitative potential, and environmental and economic impacts. Using Barcelona, Spain, and Bologna, Italy, as case studies, four interdisciplinary methods were combined: qualitative research, geographic information systems (GIS), life cycle assessment (LCA), and life cycle costing (LCC). Results indicate that a combined GIS-LCA tool is useful for evaluating URA implementation and its environmental benefits at the city scale, with soil cultivation using compost in open-air rooftop gardens being the most eco-efficient option.

Marta Sylla, Julia Olszewska, Małgorzata Świąder · Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development · Poland

This article analyzes the current state of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Poland, focusing on farm characteristics, spatial distribution of producers and consumers, and operational principles of CSA groups. Based on survey data from telephone interviews, the analysis indicates a rapid increase in CSA groups, which primarily operate in large cities. A common operational principle is that consumers prepay for organic, high-quality produce at the beginning of the growing season.

Viviana Ferrario · TERRITORIO · Italy (Padova)

This paper examines the renewed general interest in agriculture as a food producer, possibly due to conditions posed by the crisis of the late 2000s. It uses the recent case of a large agricultural area in the southwest quadrant of Padova, known as 'Basso Isonzo', to update territorial interpretations and design strategies in light of the increasing importance of food production, transformation, and consumption.

Michael Schläppi · Metropolitan Universities · United States (Milwaukee)

This paper discusses the Sustainable Research and Economic Development model, which involves undergraduate students in interdisciplinary community-based research. Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, supports community efforts to bring healthy food to urban environments through interactions with the Cooperative of the Institute of Urban Agriculture and Nutrition (CIUAN). The model explores pathways for urban agriculture and urban farmers' markets to convert blighted properties into productive spaces as part of metropolitan economic development.

Bernd Pölling, Marcus Mergenthaler · Sustainability · Germany (Ruhr Metropolis)

This empirical study investigates determinants of diversification strategies among 123 urban farmers in Germany's Ruhr Metropolis using binary logit models. "Deepening" strategies (e.g., direct sales) are encouraged by larger farm sizes, high-value production, organic farming, and livestock. "Broadening" strategies (e.g., tourism, care farming) are prevalent on smaller farms with horses and higher grassland shares. Proximity to the city increases the likelihood of both diversification types.

Alessandro Scuderi, Luisa Sturiale, Claudio Bellia, Vera Teresa Foti, Giuseppe Timpanaro · RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA · Italy (Catania)

This study addresses the proposal by the Municipality of Catania to create one of Europe's largest urban gardens in a marginalized, socio-economically degraded area of the city. Starting from an analysis of urban agriculture at the European level, the work aims to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this new form of urban green space through a participatory SWOT analysis.

Sarah Kumnig · transcript Verlag eBooks · Europe

This study, titled "Between green image production, participatory politics, and growth pressure: urban agriculture and gardens in the context of neoliberal urban development in Vienna," was published in Umkämpftes Grün on page 139.

Elena Domene Gómez, Francesc Coll, Marta Garcia-Sierra · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Barcelona)

Informal vegetable gardens have proliferated in Barcelona's urban periphery since the 1980s, serving as leisure spaces and food sources, and are a relevant form of agriculture. However, these "unregulated" spaces are not considered in urban and peri-urban agriculture promotion policies. A GIS methodology mapped these gardens in the Barcelona metropolitan area for 2009 and 2015, showing an increase in occupied surface during the recent economic crisis. The study evaluates contradictions leading municipal managers to eliminate or regulate these informal spaces, attributing them partly to the subjectivity of the urban and peri-urban agriculture concept and its supposed multifunctionality.

Ana Espinosa Seguí, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Marit Rosol · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Spain

This article, based on a study of allotment gardens in Alicante province, Spain, explains their specific histories which differ from North American and Northern European contexts. It shows how urban allotments provide insight into economic, land-use, and urban-rural changes during crises. Initially for leisure and greening, these projects shifted after the 2009 economic recession to target people at risk of poverty, focusing on productive, therapeutic, and educational functions, though land speculation remains a concern.

Isabel Miralles, Domenico Dentoni, Stefano Pascucci · Agriculture and Human Values · Spain (Valencia)

This study investigated the organization of sharing economy initiatives in agri-food systems by conducting a comparative case study across 18 alternative food networks (AFNs) in Valencia. It compared AFN organization in terms of leadership, bureaucracy, shared resources, and participants’ engagement, identifying five sharing economy models: consumer groups, commercial community gardens, and network-based, privately owned, and publicly owned self-consumption community gardens. These models displayed notable differences in their origins, participants’ goals, and constraints.

Nerea Morán Alonso, Ícaro Obeso Muñiz, Agustín Hernández Aja, Felipe Fernández García · Moravian Geographical Reports · Spain

This paper analyzed the evolution of peri-urban agriculture in Spain's Madrid and Oviedo metropolitan areas to identify revitalization opportunities. Using aerial images and cartographic bases, the study found that peri-urban agriculture has suffered from urban occupation and internal changes in crops and agricultural uses, experiencing a process of decline. Innovative initiatives are explored as potential revitalization opportunities.

Delgado, Cecília · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Europe

This study analyzed a set of gardens in Vienna and Lisbon, plus 29 relevant experiences in Portugal, to verify the argument that women are protagonists in urban agriculture. The results demonstrate a favorable evolution towards a greater presence of women in gardens, women's hegemony as process managers and facilitators, and their emergence in social entrepreneurship projects.

E. Kaufmane, M. Skrīvele, L. Ikase · Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Section B Natural Exact and Applied Sciences · Europe

This article traces the historical development of fruit-growing in Latvia, from fruit trees gaining market value after 19th-century land ownership reform, through rapid expansion during the first independent republic (1919-1940), imported planting material from Western Europe, massive orchard losses from unsuitable cultivar and rootstock choices during severe winters, Soviet-era support for large 200-300 ha orchards unsuited to Latvian climate and terrain after World War II, the rapid increase of allotment gardens whose produce was also sold on the market, and the renewed interest in fresh fruit and berry production for market and processing after independence was regained. It states that development of the fruit industry is currently hindered by a shortage of qualified specialists preventing an adequate consulting system, slow development of grower cooperation for marketing, insufficient economic and market research to balance demand with planting area, and a lack of continuous long-term support for horticultural science. Outcomes credited to the Institute of Horticulture include new locally bred fruit cultivars recommended for commercial orchards, regional variety and growing-technology trials, monitoring of harmful and beneficial organisms with a prognosis and control system, and dissemination of research results.

Andrea Colantoni, Silvia Pili, Enrico Maria Mosconi, Stefano Poponi, Massimo Cecchini, Doria Paola, Luca Salvati · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Europe

A study describing relevant experiences of peri-urban farming in six Southern European metropolitan regions — Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Athens and Istanbul — representative of different socioeconomic contexts. It frames the recent development of peri-urban agriculture as reflecting a crisis-driven process of "coming back to land," in which new land has been extensively cultivated and new relations formed between farmers, communities and territories, and outlines strengths and weaknesses in using fringe land for cropping along with implications for urban sustainability.

Stephanie Stephanie Kartika Lestari · · Europe

A case study of two urban farming organizations in the Netherlands developed a set of indicators to assess factors hampering the diffusion of radical innovation. Urban farming is characterized here as a radical innovation aiming for fresh and sustainable food supply in urban areas that has yet to achieve large-scale diffusion, and the study proposes a non-static conceptual model that lets commercial firms rationally assess barriers to diffusion and revisit their niche strategies as internal and external conditions change.

Katharina Witterhold · · Germany

A book chapter drawing on the empirical study "Consumer Netizens," carried out at the University of Siegen, Germany, between October 2011 and August 2015. It examined the shift toward lifestyle-related forms of political participation, showing that everyday food consumption practices in the private sphere are directly interwoven with (semi-)public social media practices addressing political concerns and self-identity. It argues that "food activism" becomes a strong symbol for other political issues, serving as a starting point for social movements as varied as the Slow Food Movement, Fair Trade, and Community Supported Agriculture.

Social Finance · Social Finance UK · United Kingdom

A project page published on 15 February 2017 and updated 21 May 2026. In 2010 Social Finance structured the world's first Social Impact Bond, raising £5 million to cut reoffending among short-sentenced prisoners leaving Peterborough prison. It covered two cohorts of 1,000, 2,000 people in all, against a pre-intervention reoffending rate of 60 per cent among short-sentenced prisoners. The result was a 9 per cent reduction against a 7.5 per cent target, and investors were paid a return of 3 per cent a year; by 2025 the model had spread to 320 SIBs in 35 countries raising over $861 million.

Tracy Palandjian · Social Finance · United Kingdom

Published 1 August 2017 after the Peterborough Social Impact Bond cut reoffending among short-sentenced offenders by 9 per cent, beating its 7.5 per cent target. Seventeen investors took part and earned a return of just over 3 per cent a year. Seven years on from the 2010 launch, and six years into US market-building, the piece reports 17 American projects mobilising over $200 million across Massachusetts, South Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, California and Connecticut.

Specht K., Weith T., Swoboda K., Siebert R. · Agronomy for Sustainable Development 36:17 · Europe

Examines the social acceptance of commercial urban agriculture businesses, drawing on Berlin stakeholder research to identify conditions and challenges for corporate urban farms to gain societal legitimacy.

Pölling B., Mergenthaler M., Lorleberg W. · Land Use Policy · Germany (Ruhr)

Analyzes professional urban agriculture in Germany's Ruhr metropolis, identifying characteristic business models—'low-cost specialization', 'differentiation' and 'diversification'—and finding city-adjusted farms perform better economically.

Daniela Gasperi, Giuseppina Pennisi, Niccolò Rizzati, F. Magrefi, Giovanni Giorgio Bazzocchi, Umberto Mezzacapo, Monique Centrone Stefani, Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)

This paper analyzed current practices in the requalification of vacant areas as urban gardens in Bologna, Italy, using six case studies across four types of vacant areas. For most cases, urban horticulture improved the image and quality of the areas and provided social benefits like improved life quality, food access, and social interaction. Strong differences were found between top-down and bottom-up initiatives, with bottom-up approaches being preferable for citizen engagement.

Malin Gustafsson, Matilda Olsson · · Netherlands (Schiedam)

This thesis focuses on a design proposal for a multifunctional foodscape in a peri-urban area on the city edge of Schiedam, in the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands. The proposal includes food production, education, and recreation, aiming to transform peri-urban areas into multifunctional zones and exemplify their role as transition zones between urban and rural landscapes. An empirical pre-study was conducted, focusing on urban farming in Rotterdam, dairy farming in Midden-Delfland, and greenhouse horticulture in Westland.

Nazila Keshavarz, Simon Bell, Andis Zīlāns, Andrew Hursthouse, Annette Voigt, Ans Hobbelink, Antoine Zammit, Ari Jokinen, Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Bruno Notteboom, Byron Ioannou, Chiara Certomà, Eva Schwab, Ivana Sentić, Johan Barstad, Krista Willman, Laura Calvet‐Mir, Ligita Baležentienė, Malou Weirich, Maria Partalidou, Martin Sondermann, M. Latkowska, Nerea Morán, Ole Pihl, Sara Uršić, Simone Tappert, Sophia Meeres, Susan Noori, Theodosia Anthopoulou, Tim Delshammar, Werner Heidemann, Zuzana Gogová · · Europe

This article outlined the diverse history of urban gardens, including allotments and community gardens, in Europe. History shows many similarities and differences in the reasons for their formation, with urban gardens gaining renewed recognition during the two world wars as a reliable way of producing food. Changes in urban demography, environmental and social movements, and people's attitudes in recent decades have also shaped the history of urban gardens.

Ladina Knapp, E.J. Veen, H. Renting, J.S.C. Wiskerke, J.C.J. Groot · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe

This study assessed criteria for the successful establishment and continuity of 29 small-scale, bottom-up urban agriculture (UA) initiatives in the Netherlands and Switzerland, using a vulnerability analysis framework. Biophysical and socio-institutional criteria were analyzed through interviews with project leaders. Findings revealed that the vulnerability of UA systems strongly depends on local circumstances, with the main perturbations and causes of vulnerability originating from social-institutional and human conditions, such as the institutional sphere, local authority assistance, and project leaders' determination.

José Antônio Segrelles Serrano · Revistes Científiques de la University of Barcelona (University of Barcelona) · Spain

This study discusses peri-urban agriculture, Agricultural Natural Parks, and local markets in Spain as a response to the subordination of rural areas to urban expansion. Peri-urban areas suffer negative impacts from urban functions, marginalizing family farming, yet peri-urban agriculture generates valuable environmental and cultural heritage. Agricultural Natural Parks are presented as a means to ensure sustainable agricultural activity and promote efficient, profitable farming with high added value in these areas, supporting local and seasonal food consumption and increased food security.