Research & reports

HU Xi-feng · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · China

This paper explains the connotation and characteristics of assessing urban agricultural performance in China, summarizing its existing thought and deficiencies. It proposes a corresponding assessment index system tailored to the actual conditions of China's national urban agriculture.

William F. Stewart, James R. Barkley, Andrew Kernis, Katerie Gladdys, Troy D. Glover · Journal of Park and Recreation Administration · United States

This study assessed participants' lived experiences and place meanings in urban-agricultural fringe landscapes in the Chicago metropolitan area and Urbana, Illinois, using an autodriven photo elicitation method (APEC). Participants expressed place meanings that valued human history, tolerated human development, and indicated a need to heal the land. These findings informed two principles for park development: embodying public memories and allowing community-based restoration of ecological and cultural heritage.

Hongxing Huang · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · China (Pearl River Delta)

This paper analyzed the current status of urban agriculture and urban agglomerations of the Pearl River Delta. It combined the functional location of urban agglomerations to conduct a preliminary study on the urban agriculture developmental orientation of the middle, east, and west of the Pearl River Delta.

이민수, 박덕병, 이응철 · 농어촌관광연구 · South Korea

An empirical study of 294 allotment garden users in South Korea revealed gaps between experienced and expected service quality levels. Functional quality appears to be a very important facet of perceived service, and the study concluded that governmental supports should concentrate on facilitating technical service quality, especially for toilets and cafeterias.

N. Hooton, Diana Lee-Smith, Nasinyama, G., D.L. Romney, Gertrude Atukunda, Margaret Azuba, Maria Kaweesa, A. Lubowa, Muwanga, J., Mary Njenga, Young, J. · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Uganda

This working paper analyzes the actors, events, and influences affecting policy changes on urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda, from 1990 to 2006. It reviews how and why these policy and institutional changes occurred, utilizing a combined methodology of episode studies, case study analysis, and outcome mapping.

Alfred Geresom Musamali · · Uganda (Kampala)

The Kampala Urban Agriculture Team networked and toured various project sites during the Third World Urban Forum (WUF3).

Zhang Xue-mang · Journal of Beijing University of Agriculture · China

This paper addresses the slow development of agricultural technology in Wuhan City, China. It states that Wuhan needs to import advanced agricultural technologies, research and disseminate techniques for fish and fowl culture, vegetable growth, and agricultural product processing. The paper emphasizes the necessity to improve modern distribution quality and strengthen government service and management in agricultural technological innovation, highlighting a current governance deficiency.

Lynn A. Staeheli, Donald W. Mitchell · · United States (New York City)

This book explores the complex relationship between power, politics, and public space across various US cities, including Washington, D.C., Santa Fe, San Diego, Syracuse, and New York City. Chapter 5 specifically addresses the struggle for public access and control in New York's community gardens. The work reveals challenges in governance and public access within these urban spaces.

Jyuichi Yamazaki, Takayuki UCHIHIRA · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan (Amagasaki-City)

This study considered the role of urban farmland and the possibility of its maintenance and practical use from the viewpoint of living environment formation and community improvement, through an analysis of a citizen questionnaire conducted in February 2006 in the Sonoda district of Amagasaki-city. The paper particularly focused on male participation in civic agriculture planning awareness and the possibility of civic support for farmland maintenance.

Toure Sylla Mamadou, Mamoudou Diop · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal (Dakar)

This three-year study in Dakar, Senegal, investigated urban food security systems through surveys and interviews with community garden participants. It found that 75% of participants reported increased engagement in urban agriculture, driven by government subsidies for materials and equipment. The study validates previous findings on community garden participation, noting a significant increase due to subsidized resources, and highlights the effectiveness of targeted interventions.

Lai Yong-chao · Guangdong Landscape Architecture · China (Dongguan)

This article introduces the definition, features, and global situation of urban agriculture. It analyzes the dominant position for the development of urban agriculture in Dongguan city and advocates for its development and the construction of an ecological city.

Mark Stenton · Archaeology Data Service · United Kingdom (Sheffield)

This desk-based archaeological assessment of Hanover Works in Sheffield, UK, conducted in July 2007, involved a site visit and documentary research. The area was likely agricultural in the medieval period, becoming small plots by the early 17th century, and developed industrially from the early 19th century. The assessment suggests that 19th-century subsurface archaeological features may remain beneath present-day structures, though their condition is undetermined.

Roxanne Christensen · Sustainability Science Practice and Policy · United States (Philadelphia)

This paper discusses SPIN-Farming as a tool to demonstrate the economic viability of urban agriculture, which was initially advocated in Philadelphia in 1998. While social and environmental benefits are clear, economic proof was needed to motivate policymakers. The author applied entrepreneurial experience to develop SPIN-Farming, aiming to revive the farming profession and enable a scalable, accessible farming concept across economic classes and geographical boundaries, fostering local food systems.

Anna Jørgensen, Marian Tylecote · Landscape Research · Global

This paper explores the origins of ambivalent responses to contemporary urban landscapes, proposing that post-modern wilderness can be found in urban interstices. These include woodlands, abandoned allotments, river corridors, and derelict sites where spontaneous vegetation growth occurs. Such interstitial wilderness landscapes are identified as having important functions and being rich in meaning, with implications for understanding nature-human relationships and for urban landscape planning.

Innocent Nhapi · Water and Environment Journal · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This paper investigated the sustainability of urban water cycle practices in relation to water quantity and quality management in the Chivero catchment, the main water supply for greater Harare, Zimbabwe. Data on population, water supply, water and wastewater treatment, and river flows were collected from urban councils and government departments to assess consumption, wastewater generation, treatment, disposal, river flow trends, raw water abstractions, and demand patterns. Results showed that the current situation is unsustainable, with water quantity soon to be a problem at current consumption levels and water quality already problematic, especially regarding nutrient levels.

장동헌 · 지역사회연구 · South Korea

This South Korean study examines the status of farming activities carried out by farmers in urban and peri-urban regions in order to assess the prospects for urban agriculture's continuation, noting that despite its multifunctional role, urban farming faces difficulties including conflicts with urban residents and concerns over the safety of produce, irrigation water and agricultural labor amid urbanization; the paper aims to provide baseline data for discussing the future relationship between urban regions and agriculture.

Kouji Sawai · 공동 추계학술발표회(2000~) · Japan

A 2007 report introduces the use of sewage treatment plant rooftops as scarce open space in the densely built-up areas of Osaka, Japan, where urbanization began early. Public facilities including a citizens' allotment garden — described as the first rooftop park in Japan — were built on top of the Hanaten Sewage Treatment Plant, and the report states that these facilities have drawn many visitors since opening in April 2005, due largely to the success of the allotment garden.

Rosalía Rodríguez López · Revista General de Derecho Romano - ISSN 1697-3046 · Global

This is a historical and legal study of the garden (hortus) in Rome during the third and second centuries BC, examined in terms of the development of urban building practice. In the "Italic house," the garden formed part of the dwelling's architecture, with the compluvium-impluvium serving as a cistern supplying water to both the house and the garden. The ager publicus assigned to veterans often consisted of such small plots that it was effectively an intensive urban vegetable garden attached to a house. Cato's agronomic treatise distinguishes between the suburban garden and the garden attached to the villa (a farming estate), marking a further step in the development of the concept of the hortus.

Christopher Davis · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · United States

A master's thesis addressing persistent socio-economic inequality and environmental destruction in the contemporary American city, particularly environmental injustice, decaying historic structures, poor health, weak community support systems and gentrification pressure in impoverished urban neighborhoods, proposes urban agriculture as a comprehensive, integrated solution spanning urban revitalization, environmentalism and historic preservation. The research culminates in a project adapting rooftops in impoverished urban neighborhoods into a network of public agricultural gardens intended to beautify and revitalize the area.

Randall Walsh · Journal of Urban Economics 61(2): 319-344 · United States

Uses a locational-equilibrium model that treats both privately held open space and land-conversion decisions as endogenous to evaluate the metropolitan-wide impact of open-space policy. Shows that once endogenous adjustment of private open space is allowed for, expanding public preserves can actually reduce the total quantity of open space across a metropolitan area. Also finds that different strategies for spending the same open-space budget have markedly different land-use and welfare consequences.

Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, University at Buffalo · Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, University at Buffalo · South Africa

A database entry from the University at Buffalo's Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab describing Cape Town's Urban Agriculture Policy, adopted 7 December 2006, aimed at food security and economic development for poor and disadvantaged residents, and noting the city's population as 433,688 (population range 250,000-999,999).

Urban Harvest / Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) · Urban Harvest, Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) · Peru

Urban Harvest, the global urban and peri-urban agriculture initiative coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP), published in 2007 the proceedings and declaration of its Third Inter-institutional Meeting held in Lima on 25-26 August 2006. The report notes that Lima Metropolitana spans the lower basins of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, with the Rímac's average flow of 29 m3/s far exceeding the Chillón (5 m3/s) and Lurín (0.41 m3/s), while bacterial contamination in all three rivers exceeds the vegetable-irrigation limit of 1,000 fecal coliforms per 100ml. In Villa María del Triunfo, a municipal urban agriculture program began in 2001, and by 2006 the municipality had identified 1,926 people engaged in productive urban agriculture.

Tacoli, C. (ed.) · Routledge / IIED · Global

A landmark edited collection on rural-urban interaction in the developing world, analyzing—through many cases—the flows of people, goods, capital and information and the asymmetric power relations between countryside and city.

Stephanie Buechler, Gayathri Devi Mekala, B. Keraita · Victoria University Research Repository (Victoria University) · Global

This 2006 global study from Victoria University discusses wastewater use in urban and peri-urban agriculture for crop production and aquaculture, noting its role in generating livelihoods and providing cheap produce. However, the study emphasizes that clear policy guidelines and careful research are needed to prevent potential negative impacts on human health and the environment from wastewater reuse.

R. van Veenhuizen · Issue Lab (Candid) · Global

This publication defines urban agriculture as growing plants and raising animals for food within and around cities, along with related processing and marketing. It notes increased attention from development organizations and authorities in developing countries due to urban agriculture's role in poverty alleviation, food security, waste management, and greening. The work presents the "state of the art" of sustainable urban agriculture development, indicating progress since earlier major publications.