Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
974 results(3 / 39)
Supporting the transformation of urban food systems: The food network of the city of Dortmund
2025Leimkühler · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Germany (Dortmund)
Examines the food network of the city of Dortmund and how it can support the transformation of urban food systems.
PolicyCommunityProducing Bokashi Compost from Vegetable and Fruit Wastes and Characteristics of Compost
2025· Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology · Turkey
Produces bokashi compost by fermenting vegetable and fruit wastes with lacto serum and bran in vacuum buckets for 28 days, then characterizes the resulting compost.
DIYCompostFood losspicoSMMS: Development and Validation of a Low-Cost and Open-Source Soil Moisture Monitoring Station
2025Kootanoor Sheshadrivasan V., Langhammer J., Scheiffele L., Terschlüsen J., Francke T. · Sensors · Germany
Develops an open-source, off-grid, low-cost soil moisture monitoring station (picoSMMS) built from consumer electronics and programmed in MicroPython, and performs unit-specific calibration of a popular low-cost capacitive sensor (DFRobot SEN0193).
DIYEconomicsGreen Social Prescribing: A Before and After Evaluation of a Novel Community-Based Intervention for Adults Experiencing Mental Health Problems
2025Darcy · Health & Social Care in the Community · England, United Kingdom
A before-and-after cohort evaluation of nature-based interventions delivered via green social prescribing referral across English 'test and learn' sites, comparing participants' mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
HealthWelfareCommunityUrban Harvesting: Building Resilience Through Circular Agriculture
2025· Sustainability · Barcelona, Spain
A systematic review integrating circular economy principles with urban agriculture to build resilient, low-emission urban food systems, using metropolitan Barcelona as a case, discussing zero-waste strategies including redistribution of surplus food.
Food lossOrganic cycleCommunityClosing the nutrient loop between urban and rural areas: a case study analyzing the technical potential of recycling fertilizers from urban biorefineries
2025Trenkner M., Kiesel A., Bauerle A., Lewandowski I. · Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining · Stuttgart, Germany
Analyses the technical potential of urban biorefinery concepts for recycling plant nutrients from waste streams and wastewater in a German metropolitan region to close the urban-rural nutrient loop.
Organic cycleFood lossPolicyA Comparative LCA of Field Grown Lettuce Versus Vertically Farmed Lettuce
2025Gargaro M., Harris Z. · Food and Energy Security · United Kingdom
Even on renewable electricity, vertically farmed lettuce emitted about 0.93 kg CO2e/kg versus about 0.57 for UK field farms, with higher impacts in all but one category (water) and roughly twice the land footprint.
EconomicsPolicySupporting the small market gardening sector in France: Comparison of two policy options
2025Lecole P., Preget R., Thoyer S. · Ecological Economics · France
Premised on the economic fragility of small market gardens and their need for public support, the study compares France's coupled aid program with a small-farmers subsidy scheme, reflecting that the sector struggles to be self-sustaining without policy support.
EconomicsPolicyUrban Allotment Gardens with Turf Reduce Biodiversity and Provide Limited Regulatory Ecosystem Services
2025· Sustainability · Warsaw, Poland
A survey of 44 plots in Warsaw finds turf-dominated allotments have the lowest plant species diversity (lowest Shannon index among use types) and provide only limited regulatory ecosystem services such as cooling and PM2.5 retention, showing garden management choices can undercut ecological function.
BiodiversityCultivating Well-Being: An Exploratory Analysis of the Integral Benefits of Urban Gardens in the Promotion of Active Ageing
2025Noelia Fernández-Salido, Alfonso Gallego-Valadés, Carlos Serra-Castells, Jorge Garcés-Ferrer · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Spain
Analyzes comprehensive benefits of urban gardens for senior active aging. Demonstrates impact on addressing multimorbidity, disability, frailty, and improving mental well-being and social participation.
HealthWelfareElderlyCommunityUrban garden communities' social capital as a support for climate change adaptations – a case study of Warsaw
2025Warsaw Urban Resilience Research Institute · Management and Organizations: Research and Development · Poland
Examines social capital (information sharing, coordinated activities, collective decision-making) in Warsaw garden communities as support for climate adaptation. Documents social bond strengthening through gardening.
CommunityAssessing Citizens' Perceptions of Urban Agriculture and Its Contribution to Food Security—Worldwide Analysis and Specific Case Studies in Spain
2025· MDPI · Spain / Worldwide
Worldwide survey and case studies in Spain (Valladolid and Segovia) analyzing citizens' perceptions of urban agriculture and its contribution to food security. Collected over 250 responses from nearly all continents.
CommunityPolicyA Participatory Analytic Hierarchy Framework for Evaluating Urban Agriculture in Compact Cities: Implications for Sustainable Urban Development and Smart-City Governance
2025Pierluigi Siano, Isam Shahrour, Silvano Vergura · Journal of Urban Development and Smart Cities · Germany
This study presents a participatory Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework for evaluating urban agriculture in compact cities, based on a two-stage German case design. A European expert survey (35 responses) identified priority sub-criteria, and a German stakeholder survey (141 responses) weighted these criteria. The AHP structure prioritized the environmental dimension (42%), with biodiversity receiving the highest priority and food quality and safety the lowest.
PolicyEconomicsBiodiversityCommunityFrom Crisis to Opportunity
2025Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Michael Hardman, Paul Milbourne, Mina Samangooei, Victoria Schoen · · United Kingdom
This chapter provides a narrative review of how urban food growing in the UK responded to past crises and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the positive impacts of urban food growing on individual, household, and community resilience, well-being, environment, and local food systems during the pandemic. The chapter suggests that further recognition and support for urban food growing would improve its ability to respond to future crises.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeHomegarden (forest garden) systems and Food Forests: High Productivity on Small Areas
2025Daniel Fischer · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Europe
Homegardens, also known as forest gardens or food forests, are a diverse and sustainable agroforestry model that mimics natural ecosystems by combining trees, shrubs, and other useful plants or small livestock. These systems are gaining popularity in Europe, particularly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland, due to their high productivity and the wide range of benefits they offer on limited space. The FAO defines these systems as agrisilvopasture.
DIYCommunityBiodiversityInfrastructuring for caring food practices: learnings from an Alpine community academy
2025Bianca Elzenbaumer, Flora Mammana, Carmen Gonzalez Miranda, Irene Manfrini · Local Environment · Italy
This paper explores grassroots infrastructuring supporting communal learning projects focused on caring food practices, from the perspective of practitioners at La Foresta community academy in the Italian Alps. It presents four interdependent activities—a community garden, a participatory drinks initiative, a mobile bread oven, and a forest school—demonstrating how food fosters community economies and empowers eco-social transformation.
CommunityFood educationEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceTransUrba. L’urbanisme transitoire au service des transitions écologique, économique et sociale des territoires
2025Sandra Mallet, Baptiste Colin, Thomas Zanetti, Marc G. Dumont, Annette, Groux · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France (Bordeaux)
The TransUrba project investigates how different temporalities of action in urban space can be articulated by studying temporary urbanism initiatives. Through an analysis of three areas in France (Bordeaux, Lyon, and Lille metropolitan area), the project aims to understand how temporary urbanism is implemented, its innovative features, its impact on urban space, and how local public action can strengthen transitional urbanism.
Urban–rural linkageClimate changeCommunityPolicyDetermining the Cooling Effect of Urban Agricultural Areas Through Remote Sensing-Based LST and Spatial Analyses
2025Nihat Karakuş · Journal of Agricultural Production · Turkey (Antalya)
This study quantitatively assessed the cooling effect of an urban agricultural area (a citrus orchard) in Antalya, Turkey, using Land Surface Temperature (LST) data from Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS satellite imagery on July 30, 2024. The mean surface temperature of the urban agricultural zone was 42.69 ± 1.26 °C, which was, on average, 1.46 °C colder than adjacent urban districts within a 600 m buffer zone. The cooling impact extended effectively up to 270 meters from its boundary, with effects ranging from 0.06 °C to 1.65 °C, diminishing statistically significantly with distance (p < 0.001; R² = 0.93).
Climate changeUrban–rural linkageA Question of Collaboration: Scaling the Commons Through Networking
2025Bernd Bonfert · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · Europe
This article investigates the role of 'commons networks' in organizing and scaling a commons-based economy, focusing on community-supported agriculture and energy communities in the UK, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Data was collected from qualitative case studies using interviews, observation, and document analyses. The study reveals a trend towards centralization in network governance, different scaling approaches between the food and energy sectors, and challenges of commodification and institutionalization.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityPolicyEconomicsA Switch to Commons: The Evolution of the Regulation of Urban Agriculture in Rome, Italy
2025Micol Sonnino, Simona Zollet · Urban Planning · Italy (Rome)
This article investigates how framing urban agriculture as a "common good" shapes governance and fosters participatory processes in Rome, Italy. In October 2024, the City of Rome approved a new regulation on urban agriculture, marking an evolution in its legal framework. Field research, including interviews and archival data analysis, found that urban agriculture practices in Rome exemplify collaborative governance, enabling cooperation between citizens and local government.
PolicyCommunityHolistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of community supported agriculture: A case study of school catering in Leipzig, Germany
2025Madeleine Pries, Walther Zeug, Daniela Thrän · Cleaner and Responsible Consumption · Germany (Leipzig)
A Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (HILCSA) was applied to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative in Leipzig, Germany, supplying seven fruits and vegetables to schools, comparing it to a conventional food market. Based on 82 indicators, the CSA showed 63% fewer sustainability risks and a positive contribution to SDGs, with replacing conventional supply for 200 pupils avoiding 1 ton of CO2 equivalents annually. However, the CSA had significantly lower yields than conventional production, despite similar water, land, and energy uses per hectare, and spent mushroom substrate caused the highest upstream impacts.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsClimate changeRestoration of Urban Gardening Practices in Lviv and Their Significance for the Unification of the City’s Community
2025Yaryna Onufriv, Halyna Lukashchuk · Środowisko Mieszkaniowe · Ukraine (Lviv)
In Lviv, Ukraine, urban gardening practices have a historical presence, with the "Nursery" project recently initiated by NGO 'Plato' at the historic Zalizna Voda Park nursery. Despite this, a portion of the historical greenhouses remains dilapidated. Students and teachers from Lviv Polytechnic National University developed a project to restore these greenhouses, aiming to create a modern ecological space. The development of urban gardening, involving the city community and internally displaced persons, is considered important for unification, psychological rehabilitation, and adaptation, requiring specific landscape architecture techniques and evidentiary studies.
CommunityPolicyExamining inclusive governance of community gardens: lessons from European cities
2025Patricia Abrantes, Luís Moreno, Maria Lucinda Fonseca, Burcu Borhan Türeli, Christos Stergiadis, Gábor Szüdi, Martin Felix Gajdusek, Carolin V. Zorell · City and Environment Interactions · Europe
This study examined how governance influences inclusion and long-term viability in seven community gardens in Portugal, Türkiye, Austria, Hungary, and Greece. Using a qualitative comparative design with 65 semi-structured interviews and policy analysis, findings showed that community gardens with stronger relational and procedural governance demonstrate higher levels of inclusion, particularly for women, migrants, and low-income residents. However, weak vertical policy integration across local, national, and European levels in most cases limits their broader systemic impact.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareAsyl, Gemüse und Nachhaltigkeit: Urban Gardening in einer Unterkunft für geflüchtete Menschen
2025Juliane Forßmann, Simon Goebel · Zeitschrift für Flüchtlingsforschung · Germany
An urban gardening project in a residential facility for up to 230 refugees in Germany aims to counteract precarious living conditions. While the garden offers a low-threshold space for knowledge exchange on resource-saving cultivation, biodiversity, and health promotion, this paper also reflects on the project's limits.
Limited or null effectCommunityWelfareHealthBiodiversityFood educationClimate changeEstrategias de alimentación sostenible de los mercados de Madrid. Implicaciones urbanas
2025María Antonia Fernández Nieto, Jose Rodriguez, Jorge Gallego Sánchez-Torija · ZARCH · Spain (Madrid)
This article examines how Madrid's municipal markets are adopting new strategies linked to sustainable food systems in response to competition from supermarkets and online commerce. It highlights how citizen movements and municipal policies, including urban gardens and agroecological cooperatives, are fostering circular economies, responsible consumption, and urban resilience. The research positions markets as social mediators that connect diverse actors and balance economic interests with collective benefits, serving as instruments for regenerative urbanism and food equity.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomics