Research & reports

Tatiane de Jesus Marques Souza, Mamen Cuéllar Padilla · RACO (Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert) (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) · Spain

Food crises directly influence children's development across different social contexts, and school gardens are proposed as one response to this issue. This study presents an analysis tool for the innovative contributions a school garden can make by combining educational processes with social inclusion in impoverished contexts. Developed through a thorough review of the scientific literature, the tool was applied to a case study to demonstrate its usefulness. The main conclusion is that while school gardens per se have high innovative potential as an educational tool, whether that potential is realized depends on the garden's origin, its design, and the development process that accompanies it.

Aleksandra Płonka, Ewa Heczko-Hylowa, Wojciech Sroka · EUROPEAN RESEARCH STUDIES JOURNAL · Europe

This paper examines French solutions to identify the role spatial planning plays in the restitution and development of urban agriculture and in shaping the sustainable development of metropolitan areas. Its methodology is a descriptive case study using qualitative research, with an empirical basis consisting mainly of the urban plans of two French cities, Paris and Lyon, together with related literature and legislative acts.

Ines Peper · University of Vienna · Europe

A paper on Eisenheim, a company housing settlement founded in 1844 near Oberhausen in Germany's Ruhr region by the mining company Gutehoffnungshütte, historically situates today's discourse on urban agriculture. It examines urban gardening and agricultural facilities at Eisenheim, then places the case within the broader development of urban agriculture from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, comparing it to four other "model villages" — including those of Krupp, BASF, and Farbwerke Höchst — with differing ideological and socio-economic backgrounds. The analysis centers on how access to land was organized and what property regimes affected long-term preservation of agricultural land use, how subsistence agriculture affected residents' food resilience, diet quality, and household income formation, and how subsistence gardening and settlements' green-space layout contributed to residents' community life.

Carolina Neto Henriques, Teresa Costa Pinto, Pedro Costa, Teresa Marat-Mendes · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Europe

A study of initiatives transforming the food system at both municipal and civil-society level in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, aimed to characterize these initiatives, examine how they are proposing new food planning agendas, and draw lessons for future planning policy. Its method compared a scenario from a 2014 questionnaire of planning officials with the discourses of 80 public- and civil-society-sector initiatives surveyed in 2019, using an analytical framework grounded in the FAO and RUAF (Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security) recommendations.

Alicja Kolasa-Więcek, Dariusz Suszanowicz · Environmental Science and Pollution Research · Europe

This study conducted field tests on model roofs and GIS-based building potential analysis in two districts of Opole, Poland, proposing a methodology to forecast reduction in rainwater drainage load from green roof deployment. Rainfall up to 5 mm/day is completely retained by both intensive and extensive roofs, and about 44% of torrential rainfall is retained. The runoff reduction coefficient is 0.63 for extensive roofs and 0.74 for intensive roofs; installing green roofs on 25% of suitable buildings is estimated to reduce drainage load enough to prevent localized flooding.

Daniels B., Jedamski J., Ottermanns R., Ross-Nickoll M. · PLOS ONE, 15(7):e0235492 · Europe

A study of pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces in Germany. Urban community gardens hosted significantly higher pollinator abundance than other park types, comparable to rural reference sites, showing that near-natural design and management, floral diversity, and even small green patches can make cities pollinator habitat.

Staudenmaier P. · German Studies Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 271–290 · Germany

Reexamines the ostensibly green facets of Nazism through the 'landscape advocates' led by Alwin Seifert from 1934 to 1945, assessing environmental concerns in regime public works and their ideological limits.

Theodorou P., Radzevičiūtė R., Lentendu G., Kahnt B., Husemann M., Bleidorn C., Settele J., Schweiger O., Grosse I., Wubet T., Murray T.E., Paxton R.J. · Nature Communications, 11:576 · Germany

A replicated experiment contrasting Central European cities with neighbouring rural sites, finding cities have lower overall insect richness (e.g. flies, butterflies) but higher bee species richness, flower-visitation rates and pollination than the countryside. It shows urban floral resources support bees while cautioning that not all insects benefit, informing the design of pollinator conservation in urban green spaces and gardens.

David R Beam, Aniko Szabo, Jared Olson, Lawrence Hoffman, Kirsten M M Beyer · Injury Prevention · United States (Milwaukee)

Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design, this study compared 53 vacant lots converted into community gardens with 159 matched control lots to assess effects on police-reported theft, violent, and nuisance crime in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It found violent and nuisance crime rates were lower near the garden-conversion lots, with the most consistent reductions in violent crime within 250 m (about 3.7%–6.4%), while no substantial effect was seen for theft.

Artmann M., Sartison K., Vávra J. · Journal of Cleaner Production · Germany

Proposes a conceptual multi-dimensional framework positioning the edible city as a nature-based solution for sustainability transformation, tested on a German case study.

Sartison K., Artmann M. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · Germany

An explorative study of urban food production in German cities, examining edible cities as a nature-based solution and the drivers and constraints of implementation.

Sieveking A., Schomerus C.-T. · Natur und Recht · Germany

Discusses the establishment of food policy councils (Ernährungsräte) in Germany as an advisory-council instrument for a food-system transition.

· Sustainability · New Zealand; Germany

Using case studies in New Zealand and Germany, this study systematically analyzes the factors that support or obstruct the development of urban community gardens as placemaking.

Fattibene D., Recanati F., Dembska K., Antonelli M. · Resources · Europe (40 cities across 16 countries)

Presents a framework to assess urban food waste policies and initiatives across 40 cities in 16 European countries, linking policy types, intervention areas, and actors to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dobson M., Edmondson J., Warren P. · Landscape and Urban Planning · United Kingdom

A GIS analysis of historic maps shows UK allotment land declined by about 65% from its peak to 2016. The loss is inequitable: the most deprived urban areas experienced eight times the level of allotment loss as the least deprived areas.

· Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · London, UK

In London, allotments comprise the largest area of urban agriculture yet provision is under threat and fails to meet demand. Despite well-documented benefits, the opportunity for urban food growing is declining under development pressure while demand rises.

Panagiota Kotsila, Isabelle Anguelovski, Francesc Baró, Johannes Langemeyer, Filka Sekulova, James J. Connolly · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Spain (Barcelona)

This paper analyzes nature-based solutions (NBS) as discursive tools that create an inviting space for nature's neoliberalization processes, examining two city-initiated projects in Barcelona, Spain: the Passeig de Sant Joan green corridor and the Espai Germanetes community garden. The study found that urban nature can serve elite economic players at the expense of widespread socio-ecological benefits. It also noted that outcomes regarding neoliberalism and its contestation were very distinct between the two projects due to different forms of governance.

Christine Aubry, Anne Cécile Daniel, Baptiste Grard, Agnès Lelièvre, Nathalie Frascaria‐Lacoste, Claire Chenu · · France

Urban micro-farms in France are intermediate forms between community gardens and recognized vegetable farms, limited in number and too heterogeneous for a unique typology. This study developed an original reading grid, inspired by agricultural sustainability assessment tools, to understand their functioning. The 18-month participatory research included numerous producer surveys, follow-ups, and field data collection on production, costs, revenue, and working time.

Remedios Larrubia Vargas, Juan José Natera Rivas, David Carruana-Herrera · Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles · Spain

This research investigated urban gardens in the city of Málaga as a strategy for urban transition towards sustainability. It identified 19 urban gardens promoted by both public and private entities and analyzed them based on interviews with their promoters regarding their operation, users' socioeconomic characteristics, management, motivations, and existing typology. The results highlight the diversity of projects and the benefits they provide for users' personal development, family economy, and the urban environment.

Andrea L’Erario · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Italy (Milan)

This paper describes the application of a multi-methodological decision-making support tool for concerted management policies (Public bodies/farmers) in peri-urban agricultural areas. The proposal is guided by three principles: conservation of the historical landscape as heritage, valorization of the social potentials of the landscape in the peri-urban context, and sustainable management with a public-private partnership perspective. Peri-urban agricultural landscapes possess potential social value linked to agricultural area use, in addition to their agricultural-productive value.

احمد حسنی رضوان, احمد عبد الغنی مرسی · مجلة العمارة والفنون والعلوم الإنسانية · Germany (Berlin)

This research examines former airports as urban voids and their potential reuse as urban commons. Two case studies, Tempelhofer Feld Airport in Berlin, Germany, and Imbaba Airport in Giza, Egypt, are analyzed, recognizing the cultural, historical, political, economic, and urban complexities involved in each city and country. Tempelhofer Feld is cited as an example already providing space for urban gardening, culture, sports, and recreation.

David Goode, Ian Douglas, Mark J. McDonnell, Amy K. Hahs, Ian MacGregor‐Fors · · Europe

This chapter explores the evolution of urban ecology through eight historical events or stages. Urban allotment gardens as a source of vegetables and fruits were an important issue across Europe for the greater part of the twentieth century. The three paradigms 'in', 'of', and 'for' urban ecology are viewed as progressively more complex in the range of topics involved, from traditional ecological studies to multi-dimensional issues of urban sustainability.

Paola Clerino, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre · Sustainability · France

This study used a participatory approach with French urban agriculture stakeholders to identify sustainability objectives and 21 criteria for professional intra-urban farms. Six objectives were established, and agro-environmental and socio-territorial criteria were deemed more important than economic ones, with food production not being mentioned. A critical finding was that decision-makers focused more on projects' external sustainability and urban farmers' agricultural background, suggesting a reliance on farmers for internal sustainability rather than direct assessment.

Sarah Kumnig, Marit Rosol · · Europe

This chapter discusses two strategies for commoning land access in Europe, challenging private property and profit maximization amidst rising land prices since 2008. It presents two case studies: German cooperatives purchasing agricultural land for organic farmers, and the urban agriculture collective SoliLa squatting land in Vienna, Austria. Both cases aim to organize agriculture and food production collectively, differing in their engagement with formal markets and state but sharing the goal of enabling and preserving land access.

Mosen Farhangi, Margherita Turvani, Arnold van der Valk, G.J. Carsjens · Sustainability · Netherlands (Amsterdam)

An ethnographic study in Amsterdam, Netherlands, analyzed barriers to the integration of high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA) into urban planning processes. The research revealed a lacking connection between planning actors and HTUA technology developers.