Research & reports

Janmejoy Gupta · · Global

This study discusses the role of urban agriculture in urban greening and sustainability. Examining the Rajendranagar Mandal peri-urban area in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, through a primary survey, it was found that neither the local government nor the majority of building occupants were encouraging any kind of urban agriculture in unused land along road medians or water bodies.

Yi‐Ya Hsu, Hoon Han · Cities · Australia (Sydney)

This paper examines the location and floor space use of urban food system functions in Sydney, Australia, and visualizes 3D foodscapes through spatial and temporal analysis. The research identified eight food functions and their temporal colocation relationships over 10 years. The findings contribute to urban food planning by mapping Sydney's urban food system in 3D and considering its relationship with the socio-economic context.

Ming-Jie Tay, Tuan Hock Ng, Ying-San Lim · Environmental and Sustainability Indicators · Malaysia

To explore farmers' motivations for participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in Malaysia, 15 farmers were interviewed one-on-one at their farms using snowball sampling, with each session lasting 1-2 hours. The findings indicated that CSA not only provides economic benefits for farmers but also promotes eco-friendly food production and distribution, while enhancing social equity within local communities. The three qualitative indicators inherent to CSA serve as essential pillars advocating for the expansion of CSA initiatives and a supportive policy environment for sustainable food production systems.

Samina Raja, Marcia Caton Campbell, Alexandra Judelsohn · Urban agriculture · Global

This chapter highlights urban agriculture's role in promoting equity in cities, proposing "planning as public nurturance." This approach is a value-explicit process centered on an ethic of care, protecting marginalized groups' interests, and building their capacity for co-design and participation. It requires consistent evaluation of progress toward equitable outcomes and attention to structural inequities.

Katinka H. Evensen, Vebjørn Egner Stafseng · ˜The œGeojournal library · Norway (Oslo)

This study explored ways of integrating urban agriculture in public spaces through case studies of eight urban agriculture projects in Oslo from 2018 to 2020. Interviews with project initiators and managers highlighted motivations emphasizing the creation of social meeting places and learning arenas for cultivation and ecological knowledge. Urban agriculture was also used as a tool in local urban space development to improve well-being by activating unused spaces and integrating cultivation into green space management, suggesting that deliberate design could increase the perceived publicness of spaces.

Chiara Tornaghi · ˜The œGeojournal library · Global

This chapter, based on 15 years of research, discusses key issues hindering urban agriculture from reaching its full potential for human and non-human health. It highlights shortcomings in urban planning policy, specifically the failure to recognize urban agriculture as food production, the invisibility of soil and lack of understanding of living soils, and the disregard for the advisory role of soil care and food production specialists in public land design and soil management. The chapter suggests that agroecological considerations can deepen urban agriculture's ambition in public spaces.

Nurzawani Azuwa · INTI JOURNAL. · Malaysia

This study aimed to explore the intention behind community garden participation at Taman Tasik Ilmu. Data was collected using an online questionnaire from 40 participants, gathering information on demographics, gardening knowledge, reasons for participation, and opinions on facilities and garden management. Descriptive analysis indicated that the primary motivation for participants to join the community garden program was to fill their free time.

Caroline Hachem-Vermette · Discover Cities · Global

This study outlines a comprehensive set of resilience strategies aimed at enhancing urban resilience across four key domains: water, food, shelter, and energy. A three-pronged evaluation framework is introduced to assess these strategies, presenting a systematic method to rank them based on six criteria: cost, infrastructure impact, scalability, regulatory and zoning challenges, community acceptance, and maintenance needs. For instance, community gardens and rainwater harvesting systems are highly scalable and accepted, while green roofs require more investment and maintenance.

Deni Ruggeri · ˜The œGeojournal library · Global

This chapter reflects on educational experiences connected to the “Cultivating Public Space” project. Students conceptualized urban agriculture not merely as a collection of physical objects, but as holistic, multifunctional landscapes designed to cultivate biophilia, food justice, public health, and community identity. This approach aimed to celebrate the uniqueness of each locale and co-create new visions of adaptation and transformation.

Christine Aubry, Nicolas Rouget, Giulia Giacchè, Joëlle Salomon Cavin · Territoire en mouvement · Global

This abstract introduces two parallel sessions on urban agriculture held at the IGU colloquium in Paris in July 2022. The sessions explored themes such as the convergence of functions and representations of urban agricultures in the Global South and North, and the integration of agricultural practices into neighborhood development.

Dr.M.K. Ganesh · International Journal for Multidimensional Research Perspectives · Global

This mixed-methods study examined the farm-to-table movement in restaurant food production, identifying benefits like enhanced food freshness and local economic support. However, it also found significant challenges including higher costs, seasonal variability, and complex supply chain logistics. Consumer perceptions were generally positive, but the study emphasized the need for increased consumer education and policy support to overcome barriers.

Inger‐Lise Saglie · ˜The œGeojournal library · Norway

This study investigated the motivations for urban agriculture policies in Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim, Norway, identifying five categories of motivations. These include urban "green" development, food production and alternative food systems, provision of social meeting places and community building, municipal welfare services (work training, integration, health promotion, knowledge sharing), and active citizenship and co-creation of city development. While motivations were similar across cities, their emphasis varied.

Nordregio, Luciane Aguiar Borges, Ana de Jesus · · Global

This report discusses the barriers and drivers of Urban Agriculture (UA) within the framework of the Horizon 2020 project 'SiEUGreen,' across environmental, technological, economic, social/cultural, and regulatory/institutional aspects. Based on insights from five showcases in Norway, Denmark, Turkey, and China, the results suggest that city food provision and UA systems can be designed considering circular economy regenerative cycles. However, key barriers limiting UA uptake include the need for more evidence-based research, further experimentation for innovative technological developments, high investments, difficulties accessing financial support, underdeveloped business cases, limited recognition of UA's benefits, and behavioral/cultural barriers.

Monsuru Adekunle Salisu, Che Rus Ridzwan, Yusuf Opeyemi Oyebamiji, Norhanizan Usaizan, Abiodun Emmanuel Abioye, Idris Fadheelah Biola, Nurudeen Babatunde Bamiro, Ahmed Kayode Omowunmi, Hussain Luqman · AIMS Agriculture and Food · Global

This systematic literature review, incorporating 37 articles, examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global agri-food sector. The pandemic profoundly impacted all facets of the agri-food system. The review identified several measures to mitigate disruptions and enhance resilience, including robust policy, promotion of urban agriculture, support for small-scale farmers, enhancement of the international market, and technological innovations.

Roberta Bulgari, Erdona Demiraj, Calogero Schillaci, Ahlem Tlili, Yushu Xia · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global

This special issue examines urban and peri-urban soil and plant management, highlighting that soil-related factors in urban agricultural systems pose unique challenges. Issues such as soil fertility, soil biodiversity, and soil contamination require further investigation to enhance urban agriculture's contribution to livability. The issue collects studies supporting sustainable soil management and crop diversification, and explores remote sensing and deep learning for soil health monitoring and plant disease detection related to contamination.

Kheir Al‐Kodmany, Madhav Govind, Sharmin Khan, Anita Pinheiro, Chittaranjan Kole · · Global

The issue of urban agriculture's overlooked role in urban sustainability discussions amidst urbanization and climate change is addressed. This book aims to bridge the "brown" agenda, which prioritizes human well-being and social justice, with the "green" agenda, focusing on environmental health and ecosystem protection, within the context of urban agriculture and sustainability.

Ada Górna · · Global

This chapter presents the specific nature of urban agriculture in cities of the Global North and Global South, based on an analysis of published research and the author's field observations. It identifies main problems and common denominators in urban agriculture across different environmental, socioeconomic, and political conditions. The chapter discusses issues in the Global South (Latin America, South, East and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) and the Global North.

María Dolores Sánchez Moya, Araceli Tárraga Guillén · Constelaciones Revista de Arquitectura de la Universidad CEU San Pablo · Denmark

This article traces the thinking of landscape architect Th. Sørensen on public space design, who was involved in major Danish collective social housing programs from the 1930s to 1950s. It studies Sørensen's six most outstanding collective gardens to highlight the design strategies that have consolidated them into spaces of high civic value, still suitable today. The analysis is structured in three approaches based on building spatial patterns and dispersion, examining the use of topography and vegetation to define character, clear spatial order, and reconcile public and human scales.

Ivonne Weichold · · Global

This paper re-conceptualizes infrastructure as hybrid systems where human and ecological elements intersect, merging infrastructure and landscape to create new productive urban spaces. It proposes redesigning infrastructure as complex socio-ecological systems, or "infrastructural ecologies," which can support urban agriculture and food system infrastructure in interstitial urban spaces like vacant lots. The research uses observations of everyday food system activities and interviews in New York and Brazil to inform design scenarios.

Moye Eric Kongnso · International Journal of Environment Agriculture and Biotechnology · Cameroon

A mixed-methods study in the West Region, Cameroon, examined compost use in urban farming through 265 household surveys, 11 in-depth interviews, and one focus group. While compost availability and technical assistance favor its use, small-scale farmers face significant technical, knowledge, financial, institutional, and policy constraints. State extension services prioritize mineral fertilizers over compost, and the current regulatory framework does not encourage compost use, leading to the persistence of traditional practices.

Maicol Negrello · TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment · Global

This paper outlines the state of the art in technological innovation and how it, along with design, has reshaped norms in indoor urban agriculture, driven by the need to reconfigure supply models for future climate and demographic scenarios. Technological acceleration over the past decade has led to the emergence of new urban architectures and metabolisms, often created within regulatory gaps and constraints from obsolete zoning plans or building regulations.

MVV Satyaveni · South Asian Journal of Agricultural Sciences · Global

This article explores how AI technologies are reshaping urban green infrastructure and optimizing horticultural planning to address challenges from urbanization and climate change. Using a mixed-methods approach including a literature review (2010-2024), meta-analysis, and case studies, the research found that AI integration improves plant health monitoring, precision irrigation, predictive biodiversity modeling, and spatial planning of green zones. AI also enables real-time responses to climatic shifts, strengthening ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and cooling effects.

Olabimpe Banke Akintuyi · Open Access Research Journal of Biology and Pharmacy · Global

This paper reviews the architectural integration of vertical farming systems in urban environments and their impact on food security. It explores design strategies like green walls and modular systems, emphasizing the role of technology such as AI and robotics in enhancing efficiency and scalability. Vertical farming is presented as a method to reduce reliance on long-distance transportation and mitigate climate variability, contributing to stable food production in urban centers.

Silvius Stanciu, Simona Beatrice MANOLACHE, Mihaela Pila · Communications of International Proceedings · Romania

This paper analyzes the evolution of urban green spaces in Romania, using open-access articles and data from the National Institute of Statistics. The research indicates that while cities like Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and Timișoara have seen significant progress through investments in expanding parks, creating green corridors, and promoting community gardens and green roofs, many localities face constraints. These constraints include high population density, rapid urban infrastructure development, and a lack of coherent, well-funded environmental policies, leading to difficulties in maintaining and expanding green areas despite growing awareness of their importance.

Daniel Löschenbrand, Vanessa Giolai, Angelika Psenner · · Austria (Vienna)

The "Food Atlas Vienna" project was realized in the context of the Vienna Biennale 2021. This project aims to question the discipline of urban planning regarding the existing urban food system and regional cycles, combining spatial mapping with innovative design possibilities for a sustainable metropolitan region. Working with inhabitants at four different locations in Vienna, the project developed a new mindset and methods to make connections between food and urban morphology visible.