Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
974 results(2 / 39)
DACHA AS A SOCIO-SPATIAL PHENOMENON
2026Olha Liubitseva, Іryna Kоchetkova · GEOGRAPHY AND TOURISM · Europe
This article aims to elaborate the concept of "dacha" as a scientific category with a socio-spatial essence and to demonstrate the role of dacha practices as micro-scale nature use and a specific form of urban population spatial behavior. Based on the study of the genesis and axiology of dachas as a social phenomenon, various forms of active recreational activity of the urban population, combining leisure in a natural environment with agricultural activities (including urban allotments, community gardens, dachas, and "second homes"), were identified. Essential differences between these forms were established through the application of theories such as everyday life, spatial identity, and the appropriation of space.
CommunityUrban–rural linkageWhere have all the farmers gone? Spatial–temporal transformations of peri-urban agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
2026Johannes Langemeyer, Gabriele Gervasi, Sergi Ventura Caballé, Gara Villalba Méndez · Ecology and Society · Spain (Barcelona)
This study examined the spatial-temporal transformations of peri-urban agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona from 2003 to 2015, combining spatial analysis of land use changes with qualitative insights from stakeholder interviews and workshops. Results reveal that the significant decline of peri-urban agriculture is driven by a complex interplay of real-estate speculation, land fragmentation, infrastructure development, evolving land use policies, and ecological pressures from land abandonment and environmental protection. Despite efforts to preserve agricultural spaces, the decline of peri-urban farming remains significant.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceWings over the city: avian and butterfly diversity across a gradient of anthropogenic disturbance
2026Della Rocca Francesca, Musiani Marco, Taioli Domitilla, Nardelli Edoardo, Milanesi Pietro · Biodiversity and Conservation · Italy (Bologna)
In Bologna, Italy, data on bird and butterfly communities were analyzed across an anthropogenic disturbance gradient encompassing urban, agricultural, and semi-natural contexts. The study found the highest species richness and diversity in peri-urban areas with natural and semi-natural habitats, while dense built-up areas supported fewer, mostly generalist species. Agricultural areas favored birds but not butterflies, and continuous urban cover, discontinuous high-density urban areas, distance to streets, and wood coverage were identified as main drivers of diversity.
BiodiversityPollinatorsInsect Biodiversity: Drawing with Children as Approach to the World of Garden Insects
2026Marcia Eugenio-Gozalbo, Inés Ortega-Cubero, Rafael Suárez-López · International explorations in outdoor and environmental education · Spain (Soria)
This chapter describes an educational project conducted with 8-year-old children in the Organic Learning Garden of the Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Spain. The project aimed to promote detailed observation and learning about insect morphology and diversity through scientific drawing. The use of school gardens is proposed to foster children's knowledge and appreciation of insect biodiversity.
Food educationBiodiversityPollinatorsUrban Farming Microinterventions: Design-Led Case Studies from Poland
2026Aleksandra Nowysz, Łukasz Szczepanowicz · Sustainability · Poland
This paper examines the effectiveness of urban farming microinterventions through three design-led case studies in Poland. The cases include "Blooming Structure" (2018, Warsaw), a temporary hydroponic installation; "Micro-cultivation" (2018, Warsaw), a shopfront vertical demonstration farm; and "Micro-cultivation 2" (2019), modular cultivation furniture. The analysis combined project documentation with practice-based observations, applying five interpretive dimensions: spatial fit, technical feasibility, communicative legibility, replicability, and social programming. Findings indicate that successful microinterventions align legible cultivation infrastructure with high visibility, accessibility, and participatory formats that support skills transfer and copying-based scaling. Limitations of this study include the small sample size and its concentration on projects from Poland.
DIYCommunityFood educationDigital agricultureGrowing food and radical hope in Glasgow: A review of The Practice of Collective Escape
2026Rose Jennings · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom (Glasgow)
Helen Traill's book, "The Practice of Collective Escape," presents ethnographic work over six years in Glasgow, Scotland, following two community growing sites. The book critically examines urban agriculture projects as "Petri dishes for individual and community transformation," exploring concepts of inclusion, individual escape, and political activism, and highlighting social complexities and issues of inclusion and exclusion.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyHealthFood sovereignty & justiceUrban Agriculture and Participatory Budgeting for Sustainable Cities: Evidence from Vegetable-Related Projects in Warsaw
2026Kinga Kimic, Magdalena Błaszczyk · Sustainability · Poland (Warsaw)
This study identified and assessed vegetable cultivation projects submitted to the Warsaw Participatory Budget (WPB) between 2015 and 2023. The research classified projects into six types and evaluated them across social, functional, ecological, and economic dimensions. The results showed that vegetable-related projects in the WPB were decidedly niche, with only 101 initiatives submitted and 31 implemented, primarily focusing on education for children rather than direct food access.
Limited or null effectPolicyCommunityEconomicsClimate changeGreen Islands in the City: Allotment Gardens as Urban Biofilters and Cooling Spaces in Warsaw, Poland
2026Marta Melon, Tomasz Dzieduszyński, Piotr Sikorski, Beata Joanna Gawryszewska, Maciej Lasocki, Arkadiusz Przybysz · Sustainability · Poland (Warsaw)
The capacity of Family Allotment Gardens (FAGs) in Warsaw, Poland, to provide air-pollution filtration and microclimate regulation was quantified. Particulate matter, air temperature, and relative humidity were measured inside and outside three allotment complexes in autumn 2023. Results showed a moderate reduction in PM concentrations inside gardens (by about 2 µg/m³) and slightly higher humidity (2.1%). However, the cooling effect was weak (less than 0.3 °C), indicating a limited spatial range under autumn conditions.
Limited or null effectClimate changeCommunityBiodiversityJaparé. Il était un jardin…
2026Pascale Darras, Henri Santiago Sanz · VST - Vie sociale et traitements · France (Toulouse)
Since 2014, the "Japaré" shared garden at the Gérard Marchant psychiatric hospital in Toulouse, France, has served as a unique third place. It welcomes a diverse group of volunteers, including patients, professionals, children, and families, offering a space for voluntary market gardening or simply relaxation, without specific programs or obligations.
CommunityHealthWelfareFood educationPhytoremediation potential of selected herbaceous species in vertical gardens for urban air pollution mitigation and integration with the EU Emissions Trading System
2026Agnieszka Klucznik-Tӧrő · Economics and Environment · Europe
This research investigated whether vertical gardens can effectively reduce urban air pollution, using Cracow as an example. Field experimentation, biochemical and laboratory studies, statistical analysis, and quantitative techniques were applied using plant species such as fennel spike, lemon balm, thyme, chives, dill, and common ivy. The analysis proved that a significant level of phytoremediation of air pollutants can be achieved with vertical gardens.
BiodiversityHealthClimate changeEquity-oriented GIS-MCDA mapping of urban rooftops for green roofs and photovoltaic systems: competition and synergies in Padua, Italy
2026Abdullah Ahmadi, Daniele Codato, Francesca Peroni, Massimo De Marchi · Urban Climate · Italy (Padua)
The Rooftops for Equity and Sustainability (RT4ES) model, a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis, was applied to Padua, Italy, to map suitable urban rooftops for green roofs and photovoltaic systems. The model identified 11.67 km² of suitable rooftops across 29,493 buildings, with rooftop greening offering 10.94 km² of additional vegetated surfaces and rooftop PVs potentially generating 302% of municipal household electricity. RT4ES prioritizes underserved neighborhoods by integrating social and environmental vulnerability.
CommunityClimate changeBiodiversityPolicy“It’s Only Really When I Put My Hands in the Soil That I Feel at Home”
2026Lucy C. Michaels, María Puig de la Bellacasa · Environmental Humanities · United Kingdom
This article explores how soil care practices in urban gardening contribute to a sense of ecological belonging, focusing on diverse communities of urban growers from uprooted and migrant backgrounds in a city of the British East Midlands. Based on interviews and fieldwork, it shows how material, affective, and ethical relations in soil care may offer a distinct opening to more-than-human relations of belonging to/with land. Growers repair and nourish soil, connect to pasts and futures of urban land, and navigate affective and ethical ambivalences, reconfiguring place, identity, and more-than-human community.
CommunityOrganic cycleHealthAlternative to what? Reassessing Northern AFNs through a Southern Lens
2026Carla Galán-Guevara, Francesca Forno · Agriculture and Human Values · Italy (Trentino)
This qualitative study in Trentino, northern Italy, examined how alterity is conceptualized and enacted across nine Alternative Food Network (AFN) initiatives, using a decolonial analytical lens. Findings indicate that AFNs create meaningful opportunities for collective organization, ecological learning, participatory governance, and solidarity-based exchange, yet are simultaneously shaped and constrained by regulatory frameworks, certification regimes, economic pressures, and uneven organizational capacities. The study interprets AFNs in the Global North as spaces where partial openings and socio-ecological experimentation coexist with broader structures of coloniality, capitalist market relations, and institutional constraint.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsDeveloping approaches to promote uptake of nutritionally optimised hyper local living greens for Alder Hey Children's Hospital patients.
2026Beth Myers · University of Liverpool · United Kingdom
This thesis investigates how fresh greens from controlled environment urban agriculture can support children and families at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The study used an action research approach, including observations and playful interventions like recipe cards and tasting events, to understand engagement barriers and promote nutritious food. Evaluation based on fieldnotes, distribution counts, and informal feedback indicated that small, low-cost materials can improve the atmosphere of clinical spaces and facilitate conversations about food.
HealthFood educationBiodiversity Monitoring in Food Forests
2026Jana Marion Böhme · PubData · Europe
This study investigated the current state and professionality of biodiversity monitoring in food forest projects and influencing social-ecological factors through an online survey and interviews with German and Dutch experts. It found heterogeneous characteristics and professionality levels in monitoring activities, primarily due to context factors like actors, governance systems, and socio-economic settings. The professionality of monitoring depended on volunteer and expert availability and funding, indicating a lack of integrated, standardized, and systematic monitoring concepts and institutionalization.
Governance failureBiodiversityCommunityPolicyEconomicsIntroducing Agroforestry into Urban Planning: A Procedural Approach for Italian Cities
2026Marco Focacci, Isabella De Meo, Alessandro Paletto, Francesca Ugolini, Fabio Salbitano · Land · Italy
A study developed a procedural approach to introduce agroforestry into urban planning and tested it in Sesto Fiorentino, Central Italy, involving 170 stakeholders in a questionnaire survey. Respondents preferred gradually introducing agroforestry into green infrastructure, with educational food forests and alley cropping being favored. While decision-makers incorporated agroforestry into city technical standards, urban planners were reluctant to include it at the strategic level in the city development plan.
PolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageFood educationThe potential use of behavioural bioassays as a first-tier approach for screening urban soil biodiversity: a pilot study
2026Lorenzo Federico, Valeria Tatangelo, Francesca Pittino, Claudia Russo, Emanuele Vegini, Sandra Citterio, Andrea Franzetti, Sara Villa · Urban Ecosystems · Europe
This pilot study investigated the use of behavioral bioassays as screening indicators for invertebrate and bacterial biodiversity in three urban soils in Europe. While model organisms' behavioral responses consistently aligned with reductions in invertebrate biodiversity, these changes did not emerge from microbial analysis. The findings support behavioral bioassays combined with faunal diversity assessments as a first-tier screening tool for urban soil health, but suggest further investigation is needed for links with microbial diversity.
BiodiversityClimate changeAgronomic and organizational aspects of Barcelona's community gardens
2025· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Spain (Barcelona)
A study analysing both the agronomic and the organisational dimensions of Barcelona's community gardens, examining empirically how citizen-led urban gardens are managed and run.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cycleFrom seed to profit: a comparative economic study of two Italian vertical farms
2025Amici A. S., Appicciutoli D., Bentivoglio D., Staffolani G., Chiaraluce G., Mogetta M., Finco A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 9:1584778 · Italy
Assesses the profitability of two microgreen-producing vertical farms in northern Italy using semi-structured interviews, applying operational margin and cost-revenue ratios to show these systems are economically profitable under current Italian conditions.
EconomicsGlobal Health as Vector for Agroecology in Collective Gardens in Toulouse Region (France)
2025Wilkens J., Mombo S., Dumat C. · Urban Science · France (Toulouse)
Examines 11 years of collective urban gardens in the Toulouse region through the lens of global health—encompassing human well-being, soil health, and interspecies interactions—as a driver of agroecological transitions among gardeners.
CommunityHealthBiodiversityOrganic cycleAgronomic Use of Urban Composts from Decentralized Composting Scenarios: Implications for a Horticultural Crop and Soil Properties
2025Irigoyen I., López M., Orden L., Moral R., Nogués I., Bustamante M.Á. · Agronomy · Europe (urban agriculture focus)
June 2025 study examining how decentralized and community composting are emerging as novel scenarios favoring localized management and valorization of organic waste streams. Supports organic waste reduction at community level and nutrient cycling for urban agriculture fertilization, offering alternatives to centralized composting.
CompostOrganic cycleFood educationUrban pollinator communities are structured by local-scale garden features, not landscape context
2025· Landscape Ecology · Germany (Berlin, Munich)
Recorded pollinators and garden features across 33 community gardens in Berlin and Munich over two summers, finding local-scale garden features—rather than landscape context—predominantly structured urban pollinator communities.
PollinatorsBiodiversityEnvironmental factors influence airborne microplastic deposition in the soil of urban allotment gardens
2025Amato-Lourenço L., Bertoldi C., van Praagh M., Rillig M. · Environmental Pollution · Germany (Berlin)
Investigated vertical distribution of microplastics over 90 days in three Berlin allotment gardens; fibers dominated and peaked in surface layers, with deposition increasing with precipitation and PM2.5 and decreasing with wind velocity.
HealthWild Plants Drive Biotic Differentiation Across Urban Gardens
2025Sexton A., Conitz F., Sturm U., Egerer M. · Ecology and Evolution · Germany (Berlin, Munich)
Using four years of plant community data from 30+ community gardens in Berlin and Munich, found no support for urban biotic homogenization—wild plant species instead showed increased biotic differentiation with urbanization.
BiodiversityHow Democratic Is Just Enough? Critical Reflections on the Transformative Potential of the Berlin Food Policy Council
2025· Urban Planning · Germany (Berlin)
Critically reflects on the transformative potential and democratic character of the Berlin Food Policy Council (Ernährungsrat).
PolicyCommunity