Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
1022 results(17 / 41)
„da draußen weiter horrorvideo“
2021Friederike Reents · Publication Server of the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) · Germany
This paper analyzes Thomas Kling’s poem „geschrebertes idyll, für mike feser“ as an "allotment garden idyll" within 'new nature poetry'. While Kling skillfully engages with the idyll genre and offers ecological, social, medial, and historical critique, the study finds that he presents a decidedly patriarchal self-image, which contemporary readers would likely find less acceptable.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyClimate changeDoes visiting a community garden enhance social relations? Evidence from an East European city
2021Petra Hencelová, František Križan, Kristína Bilková, Michala Sládeková Madajová · Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography · Europe
This study aimed to identify the impact of visit frequency to community gardens in Slovakia on members' perception of membership importance, satisfaction with community relations, perceived improvement in social relations, and influence on quality of life. A mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, was used. The analysis did not confirm a dependence between visit frequency and the gardens' impact on members' communities, and found no statistical relationships between the variables in the analyzed data set. However, members positively rated relationships within those communities.
Limited or null effectCommunityHealthSDG Implementation through Technology? Governing Food-Water-Technology Nexus Challenges in Urban Agriculture
2021Sandra 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.
Governance failureDigital agriculturePolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceThe Heuristic Method applied to Design for Sustainability in Urban Agriculture
2021Mariana Schmitz Gonçalves, Aguinaldo dos Santos · e-Revista LOGO · Netherlands (Rotterdam), Switzerland (Geneva)
This study aims to identify heuristics that allow for expanding social cohesion in urban agriculture initiatives. Two ex-post-facto case studies were conducted in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Geneva, Switzerland. Another objective of the research is to reflect on the use of these heuristics in Service Design and Design for Social Innovation. The research's contribution lies in proposing meta-actions for converting the ten identified heuristics into Design actions.
CommunityPolicyMilan's private Vertical Forests vs. horizontal urban greening
2021Lucia Di Paola · · Italy
This paper examines Milan's Porta Nuova re-urbanization project (2004-2015), which features Vertical Forest skyscrapers as symbols of urban greening. Activists and resident groups strongly opposed the project, criticizing the privatization of a public park and high rents, arguing it represents a top-down privatization leading to exclusion and gentrification. In response, these groups developed a public community garden in the same neighborhood as an alternative model for democratic horizontal urban greening.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsCan urban agriculture be used to improve green infrastructure and social well-being? The urban garden in the Ponticelli neighbourhood of Naples
2021Fabio Amato, Lucia Simonetti · Journal of urban regeneration and renewal · Italy (Naples)
This paper focuses on the social urban garden in the Ponticelli neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Naples, Italy, an area facing significant social and cultural problems including high unemployment and crime rates. The urban garden demonstrates how social cohesion can be built through urban agriculture and contribute to sustainability. However, the initiative risks remaining isolated and providing limited benefit to regional environmental sustainability efforts if not framed within an overall metropolitan strategy.
Limited or null effectCommunityHealthClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceSustaining Collective Action in Urban Community Gardens
2021Arthur Feinberg, Elena Hooijschuur, Nicole Rogge, Amineh Ghorbani, Paulien Herder · Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation · Europe
This paper presents an agent-based model to explore conditions for sustained participation in urban community gardening projects in Europe, validated with data from Germany and the Netherlands. The study found that not all of Ostrom's Design Principles for collective action lead to higher participation; instead, participation depends on specific combinations of these principles. It also highlights that sanctioning mechanisms are not always beneficial and can be counter-productive in certain contexts for volunteer participation.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyPotential Toxic Elements Accumulation in Several Food Species Grown in Urban and Rural Gardens Subjected to Different Conditions
2021Sabina Rossini Oliva, Rafael López Núñez · Agronomy · Spain
This study investigated potential toxic element contamination in food and soils from urban and rural gardens in Seville, Spain, including urban gardens in a mining area. Soils from mining gardens were the most contaminated. While arsenic, cadmium, and lead concentrations in studied vegetables did not exceed legal maximum levels, high levels of barium (up to 42 mg kg−1) and zinc (up to 123 mg kg−1) were found in leafy green vegetables like chard and lettuce, indicating a need for further study on associated human health risks.
Contamination & food safetyHealthUrban–rural linkageHeavy metals and metalloids concentrations across UK urban horticultural soils and the factors influencing their bioavailability to food crops
2021Marta Crispo, Miriam C. Dobson, Roscoe S. Blevins, William Meredith, Janice A. Lake, Jill L. Edmondson · Environmental Pollution · United Kingdom
Heavy metal (HM) and metalloid concentrations were assessed in 200 urban horticultural soils across ten UK cities. HM were found to be widespread, with most concentrations below UK soil screening values (C4SLs). However, 83% of lead (Pb) concentrations exceeded C4SLs, which is a significant concern. Bioavailable HM concentrations represented a small fraction (0.01–1.8%) of total concentrations, and black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) were suggested to contribute to HM immobilization.
Contamination & food safetyHealthCommunityBiodiversityLes infrastructures vertes comme outils d’adaptation au changement climatique et de reconquête de la biodiversité
2021Emmanuelle Virey, Tolga Coskun · Cahiers ESPI2R · Europe
Green infrastructure refers to an interconnected network of natural or semi-natural areas whose proper functioning generates benefits for human societies and strengthens their resilience. It can simultaneously produce multiple benefits such as improved stormwater management, creation of cool islands and species habitats, job creation in urban agriculture, economic valuation of real estate, and new nature experiences. Green infrastructure allows for the reinvention of urban landscapes and a reconsideration of our intimate relationship with living things.
Climate changeBiodiversityEconomicsHealthFood education and food for life
2021Gurpinder Singh Lalli · · United Kingdom
This chapter reflects on food education and school gardening programs in England, drawing on ethnographic techniques employed since 2012. It discusses the food curriculum and the impact of engaging with school gardens, which are termed 'school farms' in this context. The work highlights how these spaces, including curriculum and school grounds, play a key role in shaping future thinking for children and young people and support their wellbeing.
Food educationCommunityHealthIncredible Edible Todmorden: Impacts on Community Building, Education, and Local Culture. A Case for the Operationalization of a Sustainability-led Discourse
2021Michelle Brener Mizrahi · European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy · Europe
This paper analyzes how Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET), a community-led project, operated notions of sustainability through permaculture and urban farming to focus on community building and its impacts on education and local culture. The paper puts forth the argument that the discursive operationalization of sustainability can produce important effects in community building, education, and local culture at a local level.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cycleFood sovereignty & justiceIs ‘Growing Better’ ripe for development? Creating an urban farm for social impact
2021Peter Gittins, Leigh Morland · The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation · United Kingdom
This case study explored the business model and growth challenges of 'Growing Better', a micro-social enterprise urban farming facility in the Leeds City Region, UK, which provides a supportive working environment for people with mental health issues. Findings suggested that the potential for growth lies with the social entrepreneur's ability to harness external stakeholder support. However, any venture development should also inform the effective utilization of resources through operations management.
WelfareCommunityEconomicsImplementation and Impacts of Edible Cities : a Nature-Based Solution for Societal Challenges of Urbanization?
2021Martina Artmann, Katharina Sartison · RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) · Germany
This study investigated the implementation and impact potential of edible cities in three German case studies (Andernach, Haar, Munich) as part of a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Edible cities are a concept that utilizes public spaces to provide free food and urban gardening opportunities for citizens.
CommunityPolicyClimate changeDifferences in the Content of Zn Fractions in the Profiles of Soils from Allotment and Domestic Gardens in South-Eastern Poland
2021Iwona Makuch-Pietraś, A. Wójcikowska-Kapusta · Land · Poland
This research investigated the distribution, bioavailability, and total forms of zinc (Zn) in soils from domestic and family allotment gardens across six cities in south-eastern Poland. It found that horticultural treatments had a greater impact on sandy soils, and higher Zn contents were present in humus horizons. High values of concentration and Igeo indices indicated significant Zn pollution in these soils, with bioavailable zinc forms being notably high.
Contamination & food safetyHealthCommunityTwo Experiences of Urban Agriculture in Medieval Piedmont
2021Roberto Leggero, Mirella Montanari · University of Vienna · Italy
This investigation compared urban agriculture in the proto-city of Chieri and Novara in medieval Piedmont, Italy, finding that urban agriculture was influenced by the city's network and environmental relationship. Chieri's arid clay soils and water scarcity led to specialized wine production and in-city processing areas. Novara's Roman urban model and surrounding countryside facilitated vegetable gardens and peri-urban crops, demonstrating how different urban structures and territories generated diverse forms of urban agriculture.
CommunityPolicyForecasting Agroforestry Ecosystem Services Provision in Urban Regeneration Projects: Experiences and Perspectives from Milan
2021Ambrogio Zanzi, Federico Andreotti, Valentina Vaglia, Sumer Alali, Francesca Orlando, Stefano Bocchi · Sustainability · Italy (Milan)
This study aimed to assess the benefits of an agroecological requalification of a dismissed peri-urban area in the South Milan Agricultural Regional Park, Italy. Using I-Tree Eco software, the provision of ecosystem services from planting new hedgerows was simulated over 30 years, showing that the planted area becomes an essential supplier of regulating ecosystem services for neighborhoods, increasing carbon storage and air pollution removal. A notable increase in carbon sequestration was observed at the end of the simulation, demonstrating a replicable methodology and techniques for assessing ecosystem services in urban and peri-urban environments.
Peri-urban agricultureBiodiversityClimate changeOrganic cycleINNOVATIVE URBAN FARMING TECHNIQUES FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF CITIES: FROM FARM TO FORK – CASE OF THE CITY LANUVIO, ROME, ITALY
2021Sangodoyin Olakunle. M, Shehata Mariam, D’Aprile Andrea, Calore Giuseppe, Lorianne Ginot, Correrella Maia, Elian Mariam, Aly Nada, Aboughanema Salma, Ali Sohaila, Aboulnaga Mohsen · International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology · Italy (Rome)
The "Green Symphony" project in Lanuvio, a municipality near Rome, Italy, transformed a vacant ARES site into a smart and sustainable urban farm. The project integrated aquaponic systems, permaculture, vertical farming, and energy harvesting technologies. The developed farm is projected to generate 7 tons of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and fish annually, create 3 stable jobs, and recoup investment costs within a maximum of 5 years.
DIYCommunityClimate changeFood educationHow are allotment gardens managed? A comparative study of usage and development in contemporary urban space in Germany and Poland
2021Magdalena Szczepańska, Ewa Kacprzak, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Lidia Poniży · Moravian Geographical Reports · Germany; Poland
A comparative study analyzed the use and development of allotment gardens (AGs) in Westphalia and Lippe (Germany) and Wielkopolska (Poland). AGs in Westphalia and Lippe are accessible and harmoniously integrated into the landscape, while AGs in Wielkopolska are less accessible, prioritize internal users, and do not always blend with their surroundings. The considerable freedom enjoyed by Polish plot-holders leads to a gradual marginalization of edible-plant growing.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyBiodiversityUrban–rural linkagePlanning Peri-Urban Open Spaces: Methods and Tools for Interpretation and Classification
2021Enrico Gottero, Claudia Cassatella, Federica Larcher · Land · Italy (Turin)
This research developed a holistic method and map-based indices for interpreting and classifying peri-urban landscapes, focusing on open spaces to understand their complexity and identify homogeneous units. The method was applied to the peri-urban area of Turin, Italy, generating maps of spatial and functional classification at the landscape unit level, as well as a map of critical areas for improvement. Despite some minor limitations, the proposed method and tools appear to have a range of applications in the context of global challenges and from a landscape perspective.
Peri-urban agriculturePolicyClimate changeBiodiversityUrban–rural linkageEcological Connectivity in Agricultural Green Infrastructure: Suggested Criteria for Fine Scale Assessment and Planning
2021Simone Valeri, Laura Zavattero, Giulia Capotorti · Land · Italy
This study addresses knowledge gaps in selecting plant species and understanding landscape heterogeneity's role in dispersal success for Green Infrastructure (GI) planning. It suggests a methodological approach for fine-scale assessment in peri-urban agricultural landscapes, using a case study in the Metropolitan City of Rome. The approach involved stratifying the area, defining GI components, characterizing the area with Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis, assessing connectivity, and prioritizing conservation measures. Despite recognized limits, the approach proved functional for the context and detail level.
BiodiversityPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeAgriculture urbaine et biodiversité intégrées au bâti : des réalisations concrètes, vivantes et fonctionnelles
2021Frédéric Madre · Cahiers ESPI2R · France (Paris)
In June 2012, an experimental urban vegetable garden was established on the rooftops of AgroParisTech in Paris, France, marking the integration of urban agriculture into cities. This initiative coincided with the "Gardens in the City" exhibition, organized by the Museum of the Living and the League of Education. Since then, other urban agriculture projects have emerged, particularly in the capital.
CommunityBiodiversityAlternative = transformative? Investigating drivers of transformation in alternative food networks in Germany
2021Felix Zoll, Kathrin Specht, Rosemarie Siebert · Sociologia Ruralis · Germany
To investigate drivers of transformation in alternative food networks (AFNs) in Germany, interviews were conducted with producers and consumers in three AFN models: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), food co-operatives, and self-harvest gardens, followed by qualitative content analysis. Participants in CSA and food co-ops reported a strong reconnection between producers and consumers, indicating transformative potential, while self-harvest gardeners primarily sought individual capacity building and access to their own garden. AFN participation was suggested to foster incremental transformation towards more sustainable food practices and a respective value system.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceOptimizing irrigation in urban agriculture for tomato crops in rooftop greenhouses
2021Felipe Parada, Xavier Gabarrell, Martí Rufí-Salís, Verónica Arcas‐Pilz, Pere Muñoz, Gara Villalba · The Science of The Total Environment · Spain (Barcelona)
This study investigated the agronomic performance and environmental life cycle impacts of three different fertigation management practices (open, 30% recirculation, and recirculation with a further 15% fresh water reduction) for tomato crops in a rooftop greenhouse in Barcelona. All three practices resulted in similar yields, but the recirculation with reduced fresh water input was the most water-efficient, requiring 48.7 liters per kg of tomato. In terms of environmental performance, the recirculation practice showed the best performance in most impact categories, particularly in marine and freshwater eutrophication, with 44% and 93% fewer impacts than the open management.
Climate changeDIYOrganic cyclePotentially Toxic Trace Elements in the Urban Soils of Santiago de Compostela (Northwestern Spain)
2021Cecilia Herbón, María Teresa Barral, Remigio Paradelo · Applied Sciences · Spain (Santiago de Compostela)
The concentrations of trace elements Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cr, and As were investigated in 55 urban soils in Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain. While most soils showed higher trace element concentrations than regional backgrounds, they were not classified as contaminated according to Spanish regulations. However, geoaccumulation index values indicated low to moderate pollution levels in most soils, with Cu, Pb, and Zn highest in city center green areas, and Cr and Ni linked to parent material lithology.
Contamination & food safetyHealthOrganic cycleCommunity