Research & reports

Elena Bertrán Arroyo · · Spain (Córdoba)

This study states that cities are socio-biological systems where social and natural aspects are interconnected through the provision and consumption of ecosystem services.

Hanife Vardi Topal · · Turkey (Izmir)

Community gardening was evaluated as a tool for sustainable urban development in the Izmir Metropolitan area, Turkey. The potential of existing community gardens was investigated at two case study sites in Bornova and Buca, focusing on the social, economic, and environmental qualities of the region. A mixed method approach, incorporating historical research, interviews, and diagramming, was used. After evaluating findings from site observations, open discussions, and interviews, the data was used to illustrate a conceptual community garden network in Izmir.

Aurora Cavallo, Benedetta Di Donato, Rossella Guadagno, Davide Marino · RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA · Italy (Rome)

This paper examines the characteristics and dynamics of urban agriculture in Rome, Italy, aiming to propose a taxonomy of urban agriculture types. It presents a preliminary analysis using criteria to classify the functional and relational features of agricultural activities within the urban phenomenon. The study attempts to reconstruct causal relationships between agricultural production models and their spatial and functional forms in the urban dimension.

Michael J. Roth, Miryam Frixen, Carlos Tobisch, Thomas Scholle · · Germany (Dortmund)

This study analyzed how urban agriculture can stimulate and support urban renewal in an economically declined neighborhood in Dortmund-Hörde, Germany, using a case study. A project path was developed using participatory action research to involve residents and stakeholder groups, fostering collective stewardship for urban agriculture forms. The research concluded that synchronously combining research, planning, design, and implementation with intense feedback loops can achieve synergies for academic knowledge on urban agriculture's potential performance in sustainable development, as well as benefits for the case-study area and individual urban gardeners.

Alan Hallsworth, Alfred Wong · International journal on food system dynamics · United Kingdom (Portsmouth)

This empirical case study examined the potential for urban gardening to contribute to individual food security. Focusing on Portsmouth, England, the study found that prevailing economic and social structures hamper the likelihood that urban gardening can offer much greater food security. Realistically, contemporary urban gardening most closely resembles a middle-class pursuit for personal enjoyment, rather than a significant contributor to food security.

Greg Keeffe · Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) · United Kingdom

This chapter focuses on developing sustainable growing infrastructure at two scales: a large-scale city-wide fuel-productive landscape using algae arrays in Liverpool and a hyper-localized neighborhood food production system in Salford, UK, utilizing a closed-cycle aquaponic system. The author proposes a three-part model for urban agriculture implementation—hardware, software, and interface—concluding that urban agriculture should be viewed as a process rather than a static design, with benefits extending beyond physical outputs like energy and food.

Jeanne Pourias, Éric Duchemin, Christine Aubry · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Canada (Montreal); France (Paris)

This paper investigates the food function of collective gardens (CGs) in Paris, France, and Montreal, Canada, where their numbers have rapidly increased. Researchers conducted interviews, quantified production, and monitored plots to understand the quantities and types of fruits and vegetables produced, their destination, and space use. The results indicate a wide diversity of practices concerning CGs' food function, which should be considered alongside their multifunctionality.

Wojciech Sroka, Bernd Pölling · Zeszyty Naukowe SGGW w Warszawie - Problemy Rolnictwa Światowego · Europe

This paper evaluated the potential and importance of agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis and the Upper Silesian Metropolis, two large European metropolitan areas. Urban agriculture was shown to be an important spatial component, with almost 40% of these areas consisting of agricultural land. Analysis revealed that their agricultural potential is comparable to the overall regions in terms of average farm size, employment ratio, and intensity of animal and plant production. The study concluded that agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis has significantly higher production potential than in the Upper Silesian Metropolis, despite similar natural environments.

Emanuele Blasi, Clara Cicatiello, Barbara Pancino, Silvio Franco · Agricultural and Food Economics · Italy

Peri-urban agriculture is exposed to pressures toward diversification and multifunctionality, developing differently depending on territorial features. A paper studies the case of Trentino, an Italian Alpine region where the ratio of urban to rural domain is heavily skewed toward the latter and farms face environmental problems that jeopardize their competitiveness in mainstream markets, comparing the development of alternative food chains there with other Italian peri-urban areas. The mountain environment makes it difficult for farms to standardize products to large retailers' requirements, but alternative food chains endorse and communicate to the market the typicality of products and farmers' savoir-faire, the two main factors of added value. Survey data from short food chain consumers show they are inherently more attentive to these product cues, as a result of a lifestyle more attached to identity and origins, and prouder of their territory. These findings confirm that, given its structural and cultural traits, alternative food markets in the Trentino area are meaningful for the survival and development of the local agricultural sector.

Flavio Lupia, Giuseppe Pulighe · Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia · Italy

Using a 2014 Italian Institute of Agricultural Economics (INEA) inventory of roughly 2,700 residential kitchen-garden parcels around Rome, Italy, mapped by photointerpretation of high-resolution Google Earth imagery and field validation, this study estimated irrigation water demand for the April-September growing season under different land uses and two irrigation systems, using average climatic data from 1950-2000, and evaluated a rainwater-harvesting scenario as an alternative or supplement to current water sources, which in Rome include municipal supply as well as legal and illegal well, canal and river abstraction.

Louiza M. Boukharaeva, Marcel Marloie · Revue d’ethnoécologie · Europe

The Brundtland Report, in its chapter on "The Urban Challenge," recommended developing urban agriculture. Subsequent research has emphasized urban agriculture's contribution to food production, poverty reduction, and improved soil, air and water quality, but it appears as a marginal activity involving only a small fraction of middle- or low-income populations. The experiences of Russia and other European countries reveal a larger-scale phenomenon that can involve most city dwellers. Individual plots of 300 to 1,000 square meters within garden and dacha collectives involve roughly a quarter of Russia's urban population, with smaller proportions in other countries; the right to build a small house for weekend and holiday stays extends their multifunctionality. This non-market, extra-professional activity was a social achievement under the Soviet regime and constitutes an alternative to the polluting, soil-destroying detached-housing model. It cushioned the systemic crisis of the 1990s by helping populations cope with stress and avoid famine. Contrary to the view, dominant since 1929, that individual gardening carries a "petit-bourgeois" spirit, it is described as enabling lifestyles more compatible with people's existential needs, with this family-based urban agriculture serving as a means of building a more autonomous, social and ecological urban society, necessary for the resilience of individuals, families and society.

Dražen Šimleša, Jelena Puđak, Filip Majetić, Anita Bušljeta Tonković · · Europe

This paper sets out a qualitative case-study framework for examining the solidarity economy in Split, Croatia's second-largest city, focused on the association MoST (The Bridge), one of Croatia's designated "Centres of Knowledge" for social development, specializing in social inclusion work with homeless people and at-risk youth. It poses as its research questions the inner potentials, strengths, obstacles, and disadvantages for solidarity economy development in Split at the point when MoST and other local actors were just beginning to promote a "Solidarity City Split" concept; the text as given does not report study findings.

National Audit Office · National Audit Office (NAO) · United Kingdom

An investigation published by the UK National Audit Office on 29 October 2015. The children's charity Kids Company received at least £46 million of public funding over fifteen years, £28 million of it from the Department for Education. In 2008 it took 20 per cent of the funding available under one programme, and in 2011 it received over twice the amount given to any other grant recipient. Officials raised sustainability concerns in six separate briefings between 2002 and 2015, yet funding continued outside competitive processes; the charity closed insolvent on 5 August 2015 and around 1,900 cases were passed to local authorities.

Georgia Graham · Channel 4 News · United Kingdom

A fact-check on Kids Company, the charity founded in 1996 that operated in London and Bristol. It claimed to reach 36,000 children by 2015 and had received £46 million of public money over fifteen years — £44 million from central government, £28 million of that from the Department for Education. Its 2013 annual income was £23 million, 20 per cent from government and 77 per cent from private donations. The piece notes that government oversight relied on the charity's own self-assessments, with no independent verification of outcomes or beneficiary numbers.

Banerjee C., Adenaeuer L. · Journal of Agricultural Studies 2(1):40-60 · Europe

Engineering and economic simulation of a 37-floor commercial vertical farm in Berlin, quantifying capital investment, operating costs, and profitability challenges of for-profit indoor food production.

Bitella G. · Sensors · Italy

Presents a low-cost open-hardware platform based on an open-source Arduino microcontroller board and inexpensive high-frequency dielectric probes to monitor soil water content at multiple depths plus air and soil temperatures.

Inmaculada Marques-Pérez, Baldomero Segura García del Río, Concepción Maroto · Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research · Spain (Valencia)

This paper presented a descriptive approach to the multifunctionality of agricultural systems and described a methodological approach to evaluate social preferences for multifunctional peri-urban agriculture. This approach is based on a review of scientific literature focused on multifunctionality and the goods and services of agricultural systems. The proposed methodology was applied to the "Huerta de Valencia," a rich peri-urban agricultural system with diverse resources, yielding results useful for enriching the political-institutional debate on defining its protection scheme.

S. Mecca B. Özel · · Italy (Pisa)

Rapid urbanization has led to negative consequences such as urban poor, primarily formed in suburbs. The physical expansion of cities occurs more in suburbs, causing "urban sprawl" into rural areas beyond their boundaries, resulting in the loss of agricultural lands and stress on the surrounding natural environment.

Rosalia Filippini, Elisa Marraccini, Sylvie Lardon, Enrico Bonari · Italian Journal of Agronomy · Italy (Pisa)

This study developed a method to assess food production capacity in periurban areas, applying it to beef and lamb production in Pisa, Italy. The potential meat supply was estimated to meet 16% of beef demand and 62% of lamb demand. On-farm data indicated that the current lamb supply decreased to 37%, while beef remained at 14%. The actual supply was 70% and 10% of the current supply for beef and lamb, respectively. Gaps between these estimates, particularly for lamb production, suggest constraints in production and commercialization.

E.J. Veen, P.H.M. Derkzen, A.J. de Visser · Food and Foodways · Netherlands

This article compares food acquisition habits among participants in four Dutch urban food-growing initiatives: two allotments and two Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Allotment gardeners integrate gardening into daily routines and easily use harvests, while AFN members, who primarily engage in shopping, struggle to regularly consume urban-grown food due to competition with supermarkets. The study concludes that involvement in shopping versus growing significantly impacts urban-grown food consumption, indicating a limited effect of motivations to change the food system when confronted with everyday routines.

Annabelle Schaffner · · France

Based on 2010 census data, this study analyzed agricultural holdings in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. Nearly 25,000 out of 39,000 agricultural holdings were located in rural communes, but their proportion is decreasing due to urban expansion. Structural differences between rural and urban farms are minor, mainly related to geographical location or production type. However, their economic weight differs significantly: agricultural employment accounts for over 10% of total employment in rural areas, compared to only 1% in urban areas.

Mike Nichols · Practical Hydroponics and Greenhouses · United Kingdom

The International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture was held at the University of Nottingham, England, on September 9-10, 2014. This event gathered scientists, engineers, industrialists, and policymakers to discuss current ideas, technologies, commercial applications, and research opportunities in vertical farming and urban agriculture. It served as a forum to evaluate benefits, opportunities, risks, and challenges, and to foster collaboration between academic and commercial sectors.

Anna Gaviglio, Alberto Pirani, Mattia Bertocchi · Advanced engineering forum · Italy (Milan)

This study assessed the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of farms within the South Milan Agricultural Park (PASM), based on interactions between the Milan metropolitan area and surrounding agricultural activities. The survey was conducted using an indicator-based tool to compare farms, with data collected from various sources. Results indicated that PASM's efforts provided valid economic tools for large multifunctional farms, deeply tied to the local context through services like direct sales, short chains, and agritourism, contributing to improved environmental conditions and landscape. However, large and small specialized farms lacking these income sources did not receive equal contribution.

Sandrine Costa, Lydia Zepeda, Lucie Sirieix · International Journal of Consumer Studies · France

A qualitative study in Montpellier, France, with 20 participants across four group interviews, investigated the social value of organic food. The study found that organic food holds social value for participants, which varies depending on the purchase venue (community-supported agriculture, market, or supermarket) and whether consumers or producers demonstrate additional green behaviors. The findings suggest the utility of a quantitative study for a larger sample.

Roberto Henke, Francesco Vanni · · Italy

This study aimed to explore the multifunctional role of peri-urban agriculture in Italy through a comparative analysis of three metropolitan areas: Milan, Rome, and Naples. Market-oriented farms in these three urban areas were selected and classified into three categories: traditional, adaptive, and reactive farms.