Research & reports

Rachael Walshe, Lisa Law · Cities · Global

This paper presents a novel research method combining the "walking interview" method with a "free listing technique," applied with teachers at a north Queensland primary school in a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood, as part of a larger project exploring the barriers and opportunities of incorporating community gardens -- as important green spaces -- into schools. It reflectively analyses how simple factors such as weather, noise and interruptions shaped 20 minutes of a teacher's day, and considers how conditioned and situational temporalities and more-than-human influences affect the knowledge produced in such rapid walking interviews.

Madhvi Chulet, Sahil Fadia, Shweta Suhane · · Singapore

A paper on future master planning for the Punggol District in Singapore, revisited every 25 years, structured around five systems: green, water, public spaces, energy, and food. Set against Singapore's sustainable-architecture policies for climate mitigation and the way COVID-19 reshaped design at the urban and building scale, the paper argues that a systems-thinking approach produces positive outcomes for architectural form and site planning, and it synthesizes guidelines for blue-green infrastructure in the Punggol District.

Luiza Vigne Bennedetti, Paulo Antônio de Almeida Sinisgalli, Maurí­cio Lamano Ferreira, Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global

Following the PRISMA protocol, a 2023 systematic review evaluated 26 studies on the interplay between urban agriculture (UA) and sustainability surveyed on Web of Science. While UA is increasingly recognized as an action to promote urban sustainability and inform public health policy for urban populations, the review confirms that its implementation still presents challenges in countries across both the Global North and Global South. The review identified numerous key challenges to UA adoption, including air and soil contamination, availability of green areas, layout of urban infrastructure, and food distribution, among others. Given the many socio-economic and environmental contextual factors involved — especially when comparing Global North and Global South realities — the review concludes there is a need to develop a model adaptable to these different contexts. It further concludes that the concept of sustainability lacks a universal understanding, and that one of the most important remaining gaps is addressing social issues in relation to environmental ones.

Prof. Dr. Hasan YILMAZ · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This 2023 paper introduces the concept of Biodiversity Friendly Cities (Biofriendly City) as a response to climate change. Citing a UN development report projecting that nearly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050, it argues this trend is driving rapid loss of urban green spaces and agricultural land, alongside environmental problems including transportation, infrastructure, energy, health and nutrition issues, air pollution, visual pollution and solid waste. Inadequate open and green spaces, obstruction of wind corridors, misguided urban planning, and light reflection from glass and shiny surfaces are described as contributing to urban heat island formation, while insufficient attention to natural and ecological thresholds leaves cities with difficult-to-reverse ecosystem damage and greater vulnerability to disasters. Urbanization is described as degrading productive landscapes such as urban green spaces and agricultural land, fragmenting habitats and increasing pressure on urban biodiversity, even as cities also create new habitats and species — with vascular plant and bird diversity in some temperate cities reported to surpass that of the surrounding landscape. Citing the IPCC, the paper notes global temperatures have already risen by 1.1°C, progressing toward 1.5°C.

The Urban More-than-Human Collective, Sonja Dümpelmann, Robert Gioielli, Stephan Pauleit, Anindya Sinha, Kate Wright, Amy Zhang · Global Environment · Global

Scholars from history, anthropology, animal studies, and landscape planning and management discuss various forms of urban and urbanizing infrastructure and their political entanglements. The volume addresses topics ranging from the black soldier fly — used as biotechnological infrastructure for waste management — to other nonhumans such as macaques developing and negotiating their own urbanisms, to plants and community gardens used as green infrastructure providing shade and food and as social infrastructure for endurance and resistance, to transportation infrastructure that both divides and unites people. Through case studies from across the world, it presents different conceptualizations of infrastructure as complex human-nonhuman co-productions that shape the modern city.

Lukas Egli, Judith Rüschhoff, Joerg A. Priess · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A systematic review of quantitative empirical research on the sustainability effects of community-supported agriculture (CSA) covered 39 studies. Fewer than 30% of the studies assessed ecological sustainability aspects, but where CSA farms were compared to reference systems, they mostly performed better on resource use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies assessed social aspects; many showed that CSA still fails to reach low-income households, so members do not represent the average population, while CSA membership was associated with improved health and sustainability behavior. Economic variables were assessed in more than half of the studies, but knowledge of CSA's relative economic performance remains scarce, though early studies indicate high economic viability. The review calls for more research on ecological aspects specifically, comparisons across farming and marketing systems, and integration of knowledge from theses and practical sources in multiple languages.

Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, Juergen Breuste, Ayaz Ahmad, Asad Aziz, Ali Aldosari · Sustainability · Global

A study of how urbanization affects urban agriculture and food security in the megacity of Lahore, Pakistan. Regression and statistical analysis used food consumption and food quality as independent variables and local residents' monthly income as the dependent variable, yielding a food security assessment with R = 0.857 and adjusted R² = 0.728. The results show extensive change in food security and land use driven by urbanization, large-scale loss of agricultural land, and biodiversity loss, as natural land is converted to built-up areas that threaten food security.

Daniela S. Gómez-López · ECORFAN Journal Republic of El Salvador · Global

A paper providing a comprehensive analysis of the state of convergence between the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and sustainability, covering 2009 to 2023, using a combined heuristic and hermeneutic literature review methodology. SSE, built on principles of cooperation, equity and citizen participation, is presented as a key tool for addressing inequality and promoting decent employment, while sustainability is framed as improving living conditions without compromising the future. The paper argues that SSE promotes sustainable economic practices aligned with the 2030 Agenda, and illustrates SSE's application through regional case studies spanning urban agriculture, circular economy, recycling cooperatives, and socioeconomic development projects.

Maulana Andinata Dalimunthe, Noviawan Rasyid Ohorella, Nabila Fahira Nasution · Journal of Peasants’ Rights · Global

This bibliometric literature review analyzed research using the keyword "urban farming" published between 2010 and 2023 to map the field's development. The reviewed literature characterizes urban farming as a way to improve food security and economic conditions in urban areas with potential positive impacts across economic, social, and environmental dimensions, and as commodity production it is concerned with distribution, marketing, and land area; the review itself does not report primary data from a specific location or population.

Katie Jane Tollan, Mike Ross, Ocean Mercier, Bianca Elkington, Rebecca Kiddle, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Amanda Thomas, Jennie Smeaton · MAI Journal A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship · New Zealand

This study analyzed 40 public entries submitted to the 2017 Imagining Decolonised Cities (IDC) competition in Porirua, New Zealand, organized by Ngāti Toa Rangatira, to explore how participants understood decolonization enacted in an urban setting. It identified two overarching themes linked to Corntassel's theory of sustainable self-determination: food security, expressed through designs for community gardens, seafood harvesting stations, and larger food transportation systems, and "re-storytelling," centering Māori identities and stories.

Ngoc Mai Nga To · Izvestiya vuzov Investitsii Stroitelstvo Nedvizhimost · Global

An article (Izvestiya vuzov Investitsii Stroitelstvo Nedvizhimost, 2023) proposes zoning criteria and methods for assessing existing areas of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, by their distinctive characteristics and capacity for urban agriculture development. It presents this zoning framework as a basis for later applying area-specific urban agriculture design models, without reporting empirical measurements or numeric results for specific zones.

Amy Hui‐Mei Lin, Andrea Gómez‐Maqueo · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A review paper (2023) examines the challenge of strengthening food security — especially production of staple food carbohydrates — in places with limited or unavailable land and natural resources, using the city-state of Singapore as its case. Unlike some alternative foods such as cultured meat, producing carbohydrate foods through conventional agri-food approaches requires substantial natural resources unavailable in regions like Singapore, so the paper argues for developing new, sustainable methods to increase the quantity and nutritional quality of carbohydrate-rich foods. It reviews technology developments such as indoor vertical farming and urban farming used to improve crop quality and production, and recommends exploring underutilized and unconventional resilient, nutrient-dense crops, identifying hidden resources in local ecosystems such as revalorizing agri-food processing byproducts, and producing alternative carbohydrates including microbial and synthetic sources, suggesting Singapore's experience and approaches may serve as an example and inspire creativity for other regions.

Maria Korkou, Ari K.M. Tarigan, Hans Martin Hanslin · Urban forestry & urban greening · Global

A systematic literature review examines the multifunctionality concept in urban green infrastructure planning, identifying a knowledge gap in the planning literature regarding multiple ecosystem functions and a lack of methods for quantifying and monitoring ecological services and biodiversity at different spatial scales. The reviewed literature clustered into five main themes — planning methods for urban green infrastructure, assessment approaches, ecosystem services and their benefits, sustainability and climate adaptation, and urban agriculture — which the review found were interconnected. It identifies a knowledge gap in incorporating multifunctional green infrastructure into planning principles and proposes five critical elements for ensuring multiple functions: spatial distribution, optimal distance, integrated network, accessibility, and public participation and engagement.

P. Post, H. Hengsdijk · · Global

This study inventoried and characterized food production systems in Rincon, Bonaire, combining literature review and online key-informant interviews with biophysical analysis and calculations of land and water requirements for several production scales, and applying a SWOT analysis to multiple production systems. It found that increasing year-round fruit and vegetable production in Rincon, and Bonaire more broadly, is challenging and may not be feasible without support, given limited and irregular water availability, an unsupportive business environment, and harsh conditions from pests, diseases, and weather; without sufficient support to expand water availability, local agricultural knowledge, and a suitable business environment, neither capital-intensive nor small-scale crop production is likely to improve the availability of healthy food or employment opportunities.

Joe Nasr, Matthew Potteiger · Land · Global

Situating the proliferation of urban agriculture within a historical dialogue among foundational figures in urban and regional planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, this theoretical paper identifies fundamental strategies for designing and planning the "productive city" as a response to perceived failures in contemporary food systems. Drawing on a growing body of theory and practice for integrating urban agriculture into urban design and planning, it identifies three approaches: spatial design strategies that identify new territories for food production, systems design linking individual production spaces to broader food-system networks, and infrastructure design addressing flows of soils, water, and nutrients.

Laura Ospina, Paula Parra · Pensamiento udecino · Colombia

A documentary literature review examines the importance of urban agriculture, urbanization and community participation in the context of community gardens in Colombia. It draws on high-quality scientific texts from portals including Scielo, Publindex and Scopus, plus undergraduate, master's and doctoral theses, along with a review of statistical data for each variable studied. The results point to social, economic and environmental implications and the importance of participation in these spaces. The review concludes that urban gardens are a strategy that can offset negative externalities of the current capitalist urban model -- environmental degradation, pollution, poverty, inequality -- and can positively affect residents' quality of life, becoming consolidated as spaces linking social and environmental concerns and enabling new territorial configurations.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) · FAO · Global

Using FAO's newly developed Urban Rural Catchment Areas (URCA) dataset, the report analyzes household survey data from 11 African countries. It finds reliance on purchased food is high even in rural areas 1-2 hours (56%) and over 2 hours (52%) from an urban centre, with own production covering only 33-37% of consumption value in low- and high-food-budget countries respectively. Processed food penetration extends even to remote rural areas, and the report concludes that affordability of healthy diets is a critical issue across the entire rural-urban continuum, not just in cities.

Eileen Bogweh Nchanji, Takemore Chagomoka, Imogen Bellwood-Howard, Axel Drescher, Nikolaus Schareika, Johannes Schlesinger · Land Use Policy · Ghana (Tamale)

A study of how land access and food access are linked in Tamale and its surroundings in Northern Region, Ghana, based on an ethnographic study and a food and nutrition insecurity survey conducted between October 2013 and November 2014. Shortage of land for agriculture was reported by 20% of households in urban areas, against 1.3% in peri-urban and 0% in rural areas, as infrastructural development and agriculture compete for the same ground. Food-insecure households were significantly more likely to name lack of land, rather than anything else, as the primary reason they could not grow crops (Fisher's exact probability = 0.040). Residents cope with the constraints of the communal tenure system through strategies such as urban–peri-urban–rural migrant farming and cultivation of buffer zones. Women, who carry the role of providing nutritious soups, use various mechanisms to circumvent their lack of access to land, so that the link between land and food is constituted by interacting political, economic and cultural elements.

The Rockefeller Foundation · The Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio Bulletin, From the Archives) · Global

An archive piece from the Rockefeller Foundation recounting how meetings at its Bellagio Center in October 2007 and June 2008 defined 'impact investing' — using profit-seeking investment to generate social and environmental good — and led to the founding of the GIIN in 2009. The Obama administration committed over $2.3 billion to impact investing initiatives from 2009, and the G8 hosted its first Social Impact Investing Forum in 2013, the same year the Foundation closed its own impact investing programme. By 2013 more than 40 funds and 15 investors managing nearly $3 billion worked with GIIRS, and the total impact capital tracked by the GIIN stands at $1.164 trillion.

Corporación de Promoción Económica CONQUITO · CONQUITO · Ecuador

CONQUITO's 2023 annual accountability report. It confirms the corporation's founding under Quito Metropolitan Council Resolution No. C 0193 (March 28, 2003), and reports that the AGRUPAR urban agriculture project's 2023 target of training 20,000 people in production techniques and food security was exceeded, reaching 20,808 people (104.04% of goal), with a month-by-month breakdown of participants trained.

Urban Sustainability Exchange (Metropolis) · Urban Sustainability Exchange (Metropolis) · Colombia

A case study on Bogotá's expansion of urban and peri-urban agriculture as a response to COVID-19 and the climate crisis. With technical support from the Bogotá Botanical Garden, 14,266 people received basic urban-agriculture training and 31,926 received technical assistance between the second half of 2020 and February 2022, while 11,970 vegetable gardens were supplied with inputs. In April 2022 the city launched the AUPA mobile app for real-time data collection and updates.

FAO, Rikolto, RUAF · Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rikolto & RUAF · Global

A comprehensive guide co-published by FAO, Rikolto and RUAF for local decision-makers, urban planners and practitioners. It frames urban and peri-urban agriculture from production through to urban food systems and policy, promoting reduced food loss via short supply chains, biodiversity protection, social inclusion, and urban-rural linkages.

Shimpo N. · 学芸出版社 (Gakugei Shuppan), ISBN 978-4-7615-2821-8, 208pp · Global

Shimpo's single-authored book on 'urban-type gardens' that activate underused spaces scattered through cities—suburban abandoned farmland, corners of urban parks, commercial-building rooftops, housing-estate grounds. Drawing on advanced cases and practitioner interviews from Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Japan, it shows how such gardens address vacant-land use, community revitalisation, greening and food/environmental education.

Greater London Authority, Arup · Greater London Authority (GLA) · Global

A GLA report institutionalising 'meanwhile use' of vacant land/units awaiting development, presenting support via competitions, guidance, land provision and time-limited change-of-use permissions for interim community uses including gardens.

· Systemic Practice and Action Research · Portugal (Lisbon)

A study examining, through a systemic urbanism lens, how COVID-19 brought new attention to urban agriculture in Lisbon, exploring how participatory urban farming can be co-created and embedded in sustainable city-making.