Research & reports

Luuk Graamans · Architecture and the Built Environment · Global

This research investigated the potential and limitations of plant factories (vertical farming) for urban food production. The STACKED method was developed to assess plant factory performance across multiple scales, from leaf to facility to city, analyzing resource requirements including energy, electricity, water, CO2, and land area use for fresh vegetable production. The study found that while plant factories feature extensive climate control, their necessity, effectiveness, and efficiency remain questionable, and their effects on the urban energy balance were also assessed.

Norma Angélica ÁLVAREZ-TORRES, Omar VELARDE-ANAYA, Mario Balvanedo RODRÍGUEZ-ARENAS, Sara TORRES-ÁLVAREZ · Journal of Technology and Innovation · Global

This project developed a low-cost automated greenhouse prototype, installable on rooftops or gardens, with an electronic control system and user interface for use by children, youth, and adults at the "Manitas que hablan" institution. Through surveys, experiments, and observation, the study demonstrated the feasibility of collaborative work in developing a prototype for seed germination and crop harvesting. It also highlighted the importance of supporting the social sector by promoting urban gardens for the integration of children and young people.

Haryanto Tanuwijaya, A.B Tjandrarini · Surya Abdimas · Indonesia (Surabaya)

The Kelompok Tani Elok Mekar Sari farmer group in Surabaya, Indonesia, experienced a decline in performance during the COVID-19 pandemic because its members lacked the skills to use online applications for their activities. To address this, a community service initiative provided training on the Zoom Meeting Platform, both offline and online. This training successfully enhanced the group's performance by enabling members to conduct various activities remotely while adhering to health protocols.

Valerio Morabito · TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment · Global

This text explores the relationship between ecology and landscape architecture, and urban agriculture and vertical farm experiments through the lens of circular economy and recycling. Urban agriculture plays ecological, social, cultural, and aesthetic roles, evolving into new architectural experiments with vertical farms. Finally, it describes a building envelope patent developed by APS spin-off UNIRC for organizing vertical farms in unfinished buildings.

Paweł Matacz, L. Świątek · Sustainability · Poland (Szczecin)

This article addresses the problematic heritage of Nazi German underground air raid shelters in Szczecin, Poland, by exploring their revitalization for urban agriculture. Through inventory and analysis, a modular hydroponic plant-growing system adapted to these prefabricated spaces was proposed. This solution aims to overcome negative associations, strengthen food sovereignty, initiate bottom-up community activity, and build social ties in residential neighborhoods.

Fernando Almeida, Nuno Miranda, Bruno Vieira · Advances in environmental engineering and green technologies book series · Global

This chapter presents a mobile application designed for farmers to manage municipal urban gardens. The app provides information on crop status, products to grow, and required maintenance, aiming to simplify the production process. It also seeks to enhance the sustainability of urban agriculture activities across economic, social, and logistical dimensions.

Sandra Schwindenhammer, Denise Gonglach · Politics and Governance · Germany

This qualitative and participatory case study in Germany examined the governance implications of an emerging technology in urban agriculture that connects wastewater treatment and agricultural production for urban hydroponics. The analysis found that while this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, it simultaneously creates new sector interlinkages between water and food, leading to policy demands that necessitate more integrated policymaking.

Mary Njoki Mwaura, Sabina Mukoya-Wangia, Japheth Ododa Origa, O.L.E. Mbatia, Evans Chimoita · Journal of Agricultural Extension · Kenya

A study of 149 respondents in Nairobi County examined urban and peri-urban agricultural practices, finding composting and open field farming popular but not the most profitable. More profitable practices like cattle rearing and mushroom farming were unpopular due to expensive inputs and specialized skills. The study indicates that popular practices are less profitable, highlighting a need for transformation towards controlled environment agriculture with policy support.

Maria Elena Peralta-Culcay, Hugo Alberto Cedillo-Tapia, Alfonso Suárez-Tapia · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Ecuador (Cuenca)

This research characterized the technological use among small (500-1000 m2) and medium (1000-3000 m2) peri-urban horticultural producers in San Joaquín, Baños, and Sayausí, Cuenca, Ecuador, using a survey. The survey found that most production is sold in local markets, following an ancestral system with some additional technology. The identified technological efficiency was at a medium level (3 on a scale of 1 to 5), indicating a technological deficit.

Ilham Eka Putra, Wiwin Styorini · ABEC Indonesia · Global

This research developed a Smart Farming Robot (SF-BOT) for urban agriculture, designed for automated watering, seed planting, and plant monitoring using IoT applications. SF-BOT utilizes soil moisture sensors with Arduino and Raspberry Pi, offering real-time monitoring and video streaming via a web server interface. The DHT sensor achieved 98.69% accuracy, and the magnetic sensor achieved 100% accuracy.

Juan-Francisco Álvarez-Herrero, María Encarnación Urrea Solano, Rosabel Martínez-Roig · IJERI International Journal of Educational Research and Innovation · Spain

This study examined the presence and visibility of school gardens on social media in Spain by analyzing the last 100 posts with #huertoescolar on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Educational centers primarily documented school garden activities on Twitter, followed by Facebook and Instagram. School gardens were mainly used for practical application of academic content and fostering environmental awareness, but greater integration with Sustainable Development Goals is still needed.

Per-Anders Langendahl · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · Global

This paper investigates the politics of smart farming expectations in urban environments, conducting exploratory case study research on early smart farming initiatives in Sweden. It explores the politics of knowledge claims at the project level and their performativity in envisioning more sustainable urban futures. The findings suggest that smart farming at the level of individual projects gives the appearance of change, but at the same time, it produces more of the same.

Institut Teknologi Bandung, Ernawati Ernawati, Indratmo Soekarno, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Joko Sıswanto, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Yadi Suryadi, Institut Teknologi Bandung · Jurnal Keteknikan Pertanian Tropis dan Biosistem · Indonesia

This study discusses the need for competent human resources to support urban farming in Indonesia, given limited land and busy urban populations. It notes that only 24% of the community intends to engage in urban farming, and only 2% actually do, resulting in suboptimal outcomes. The research emphasizes that strong cooperation between the government and community is essential for urban farming to contribute to food security.

L.A. Zhuravleva, A. Aldiab · SCIENTIFIC LIFE · Global

This article discusses innovative directions in urban farming and presents the development of an installation for growing agricultural crops at home with an automatic control system based on the Arduino platform. The control system measures illumination, temperature, air humidity, soil moisture, and water level using sensors, automatically maintaining optimal microclimate parameters. The conducted studies demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of this experimental installation.

Marselina Wali, Agustina Pali, Bonaventura Conradus Kelala Huar · International Journal of Community Service Learning · Indonesia

A community-service report introducing hydroponic modern farming as an alternative requiring little land in Potulando sub-district, a densely populated, farmland-scarce area in the town centre of Ende Regency, Indonesia. The method applied was water-culture hydroponics, in which roots are placed in a nutrient-rich solution, and training targeted the village head, sub-district staff, and selected resident representatives. Results showed that hydroponic vegetable cultivation was more efficient than conventional cultivation in terms of land use and productivity, and was found suitable for application as an urban farming system.

Isabel Cristina Carvalho, Raquel Luz Sousa, David Leite Viana · Americanae (AECID Library) · Brazil

The informality of urban agroecological space is examined through methodologies from transdisciplinary border zones, particularly the arts, framing the practice of gardening as an act of creation. Ecosophical, aesthetic and artistic concepts (community eco-art practices and digital eco-art) are integrated with socio-economic-political concepts (strengthening production, citizenship and digital literacy) in the context of informal urban agriculture, sketching an application scenario for inclusive community-resilience methodologies.

Gerelene Jagganath · The Oriental Anthropologist A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man · Africa

Against a backdrop of rising poverty and food insecurity in African cities, this paper offers an overview of urban agriculture's evolving presence in two smart cities, Cape Town, South Africa, and Arusha, Tanzania. The first part sets out conceptual background on smart cities and urban agriculture in the African context, and the second provides an overview of the smart-city development of Cape Town and Arusha specifically.

Mosen Farhangi, Sara Farhangi, Paulien C. H. van de Vlasakker, G.J. Carsjens · Land · Iran

An exploratory case study of Rafsanjan county, Kerman province, Iran—where agriculture, one of the sectors most vulnerable to water scarcity and climate change, is losing pistachio orchards to water shortages—analyzed the actor network behind the rise of high-tech urban agriculture and examined the role of technology in supporting citizen participation in local urban planning. Against a backdrop where modernizing irrigation and transferring water from other regions had failed to succeed, data gathered through observation, document study, and in-depth interviews with farmers, planners, researchers, and policymakers showed that governmental planning bodies such as the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO) and the 10-year greenhouse development plan were the most influential actors in the transition, reconfiguring relationships with the private sector, knowledge institutes, and farmers in ways that strengthened participatory decision-making in local urban planning.

Eun Yu, Yu Bin Yang, Seo Yoon Park, Eun Bin Jeon, Chae Rim Oh · Journal of Basic Design & Art · South Korea

Focusing on public community garden plots along Nowon-gu's Gyeongchun Line Forest Trail in Seoul, South Korea, this study used a Research Through Design methodology to develop a mobile application for integrated garden plot management. Surveying stakeholders, including potential users, connected to garden plots and weekend farms to identify problems and opportunity areas, the project developed service ideas and features including crop-management functions, a farm-tool rental function, and a community function allowing garden-plot users in a given area to communicate and help one another.

M. N. Erokhin, D. M. Skorokhodov, A N Skorokhodova, ALEKSANDR A. ANISIMOV, Roman Potemkin · Agroinženeriâ · Global

This review discusses modern modular plant-cultivation devices for city farming, identifying technological factors, plant parameters, ambient temperature, air humidity and lighting as the main variables governing crop growth under intensive cultivation systems that avoid plant-protection chemicals. It argues that separately developing cultivation technology and equipment for each crop's agrotechnical requirements, and standardizing modular unit design and manufacturing, would reduce design work, shorten design time, improve equipment quality and reliability, and lower production costs when modules are manufactured in series. No experimental data are presented.

Sérgio Manuel Serra da Cruz, Anja Steglich, Pedro Vieira Cruz, Ana Claudia Macedo Vieira · · Global

A book chapter, noting that the world's largest cities continue to grow amid urbanization processes that differ in complexity between developed and developing countries, argues that well-managed urban spaces can offer opportunities for economic and social development. It investigates current challenges and opportunities in urban agriculture (UA) and discusses whether adopting urban computing (UC) and information and communications technologies (ICT) can help urban dwellers, farmers and planners advance UA in global north and global south countries such as Germany and Brazil, also touching on new joint-research possibilities raised at the 8th Brazil-Germany Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium (BRAGFOST).

Giovanni Delnevo, Roberto Girau, Chiara Ceccarini, Catia Prandi · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · Global

This study combines Social Internet of Things sensing (solar radiation, humidity, air temperature, soil moisture) and communication, crowdsourced image collection and classification, and deep learning for plant disease detection, engaging farmers and community garden owners and experts, to build a system that predicts whether a plant will develop a disease with a given degree of precision. It presents the architecture, deep learning model, and a responsive web app, reporting experimental evaluations and usability/engagement tests alongside limitations and future work.

Sanyam Arora, Luv Sethi, Shruti Agarwal, Vimal Kumar · · Global

This book chapter describes how Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can monitor temperature, water, humidity and other parameters to increase food production quality and quantity while reducing manual labor and saving time and resources for urban gardeners. It presents no original data, measurements, or study population.

E. Ramanujam, S. Padmavathi, Nashwa Ahmad Kamal · International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development · India

Rooftop farming is gaining popularity for growing organic vegetables with minimal water use, but is highly vulnerable to pest infestation, and urban residents new to farming often fail to notice pest attacks. Noting that existing image-processing and machine-learning pest identification systems are typically disease-specific with low generalization accuracy and poor usability, this paper proposes a mobile-based pest identification system built on a pretrained convolutional neural network model (AlexNet). Various rooftop pests were evaluated experimentally using different kernel sizes and layer configurations, and the best-performing pretrained model was converted into a mobile application via a REST API to provide pesticide recommendations to novice users.

Singapore Food Agency · Singapore Food Agency (SFA) · Singapore

The SFA's CEO explains Singapore's food security strategy despite importing over 90% of food from about 170 countries and having only 1% of land for farming. Under the "30 by 30" goal, funds such as the Agriculture Productivity Fund, research grants, and the 30x30 Express Grant support farm technology upgrades, with nine urban farm sites on multi-storey carpark rooftops projected to produce about 1,600 tonnes of vegetables annually.