Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
701 results(3 / 29)
Agroforestry systems in Italian urban planning
2025Marco Focacci, Isabella De Meo, Alessandro Paletto, Fabio Salbitano · Agroforestry Systems · Italy
A study analyzed urban plans, national laws, and regional legislation in Italy, along with interviews with decision-makers, to examine the occurrence of Urban and Peri-urban Agroforestry (UPAF). Findings showed that 4 out of 140 Italian cities intentionally included agroforestry in voluntary green plans, and 12 cities had incidental UPAF elements in compulsory documents. This indicates agroforestry is present but not widely incorporated, with grass-root organizations and knowledge hubs being crucial for its promotion.
PolicyPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeCommunityRITUALS FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL Immersive Performance, Collective Creation, and Environmental Storytelling
2025Roy Hanney · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United Kingdom
This project report documents the development, presentation, and evaluation of "Rituals for Earthly Survival," a Butoh-inspired immersive audiovisual performance presented in Portsmouth, UK, in November 2024. It details the creative process, artistic approach, audience experience, and methodologies, including composting and collective creation, used to explore environmental crisis and renewal. The report serves as supporting documentation for ongoing creative practice research.
CommunityCompostClimate changeTurin Living Lab
2025Silvia Barbero, Federica Larcher · · Italy (Turin)
This chapter explores the role of the Turin Living Lab in testing nature-based solutions (NBS) in the Mirafiori Sud district of Italy. Local schools play a significant role in testing these solutions. Seven NBS types have been implemented, including new soil, urban horticulture, aquaponics, green roofs and walls, and green corridors.
CommunityBiodiversityPollinatorsPolicyFood educationInvest & investigate
2025Curnier, Sonia, Berrada, Reda · ArODES (HES-SO (https://www.hes-so.ch/)) · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
This chapter stated that creating special places in landscape architecture requires investment and investigation. It presented a spectrum of special projects, ranging from the private rooftop garden Groenmarkt in the historic center of Amsterdam, Netherlands, to the public outdoor pool Järvabadet in the multiethnic suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden.
DIYCommunityPolicyProefGroen (Taste Green/Test Green):A healthy diet can also be tasty and sustainable
2025Coosje Dijkstra, Jutka Halberstadt, Jaap Seidell, Arnoud Verhoefff · VU Research Portal · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
In a school garden in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, children were amazed when their teacher pulled a radish from the ground and ate it. Most children followed suit and discovered that their self-harvested salad was tasty without dressing.
Food educationHealthCommunitySmall but connected: assessing the contribution of civic-led hedgerow planting on landscape connectivity in periurban Paris
2025Hugo Rochard, Céline Clauzel, Nathalie Blanc · Urban Ecosystems · France (Paris)
The impact of civic-led hedgerow planting on landscape connectivity was assessed in the southern Paris periurban context. A graph modeling methodology was applied to 94 hedgerow sites, revealing that these sites strengthen landscape connectivity. This quantitative assessment was coupled with qualitative data collected from local civic leaders regarding their perception of social-ecological functions associated with hedgerow planting.
BiodiversityPollinatorsCommunityPeri-urban agricultureEvaluation at Simon's Cross, Wickham Market, Suffolk
2025Rory Coduri · Archaeology Data Service · United Kingdom
An archaeological evaluation at Simon's Cross, Wickham Market, Suffolk, involved excavating 12 trial trenches ahead of housing construction. The evaluation revealed several undated ditches and pits across the site. While historical maps described the land as "arable," later 20th-century mapping shows the site as allotment gardens, suggesting the features may relate to their layout or drainage, though earlier origins are not ruled out.
CommunityEl fenómeno de los huertos urbanos y sus posibilidades para el Trabajo Social Comunitario
2025Mercedes Muriel Sáiz · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Madrid)
This article examines the phenomenon of urban gardens from a socio-community perspective, based on a methodology combining a literature review and participant observation in the community garden Ensancha el huerto (Alcorcón, Madrid). The analysis shows that urban gardens operate as micro-ecosystems of mutual support and learning, but the study also highlights risks associated with institutionalization, commodification, and legal insecurity surrounding such initiatives.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationPolicyWelfareInvestigation of inorganic nutrients and pollutants in private gardens in central Germany using citizen science
2025Christoph Koch, Maria da Glória Arrais Peter · Environmental Challenges · Germany
This citizen science study analyzed inorganic pollutants in private garden soils in central Germany, including front and backyards. Elevated levels of lead and copper were found in one-third of the samples, and zinc in two-thirds. Chromium and nickel concentrations were also elevated in a quarter of the samples, with some readily available substances exceeding limit values.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityHealthCooling benefits of Urban agriculture to inhabitants—mapping cooling potential of allotments in European functional urban areas
2025Grzegorz Budzik, Marta Sylla, Catharina J.E. Schulp · Journal of Environmental Management · Europe
The cooling potential of allotments across European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) was assessed. Allotments provide cooling services to 4.1 million people within FUAs, including 1.7 million in Germany. Each square kilometer of allotments cools an average of 8,221 people, with the cooled area being, on average, 2.8 times larger than the allotment size. Urban agriculture was 23% more efficient than peri-urban agriculture, but only 5% of allotments cooled areas with the highest heat risk.
Climate changeCommunityHealthFair food futures UK: Protocol for a mixed methods study exploring what approaches adopted by community food organisations are more likely to prevent the need for emergency food in two multicultural communities in Northern and Southern England
2025Laura Sheard, Giorgia Previdoli, Wendy Burton, Rachel Benchekroun, Maddy Power, Bob Doherty, Philip Hadley, Ariadne Beatrice Kapetanaki, Shahid Islam, Sairah Mirza, Claire Cameron, Kate E. Pickett, Angela Hutton, Charlotte Edwards, Maria Bryant · PLoS ONE · United Kingdom
This research protocol describes a mixed-methods study aiming to understand which approaches adopted by community food organizations are most likely to prevent the need for emergency food in two multicultural communities in Bradford and Tower Hamlets, England. The study will create a typology of community food organization approaches through surveys, system mapping workshops, and stakeholder interviews, and will conduct a 12-month ethnographic study in up to 10 organizations and longitudinal qualitative research with up to 35 families.
CommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceHealthNBS for social innovation
2025Mais Jafari, Rolf Morgenstern, Jonas Runte · · Germany
This chapter analyzed the co-creation pathway of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in the Dortmund Living Lab, focusing on urban gardening, food forests, and biodiversity. It critically illustrated missing dimensions that hinder innovation, such as business opportunities, legal frameworks, and planning conditions. These identified gaps indicate challenges in governance and implementation for social innovation through NBS.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyBiodiversityClimate changeHow do Spanish consumers perceive different lettuce cultivation systems? Insights from explicit and implicit methods
2025Juan Diego Torres, Sara R. Jaeger, Patricia Puerta, Amparo Tárrega · Applied Food Research · Spain
This study investigated Spanish consumers' perceptions of five lettuce cultivation systems using explicit and implicit methods with 105 participants. Local/small agriculture was most favorably regarded, while urban community gardens were perceived as less safe for lettuce production. High-tech greenhouses were considered safer but less sustainable, and vertical indoor farming elicited a surprise reaction due to low familiarity.
Limited or null effectCommunityHealthEconomicsViolation of land use regulations for allotment gardens: The case of Warsaw, Poland
2025Grażyna Wiejak-Roy, Jaideep Roy, D. Andrew · Land Use Policy · Poland (Warsaw)
This study examined the market for allotment gardens in Warsaw, Poland, using a mixed-method approach including thematic archival analysis of regulations and hedonic regression modeling on posted offers. The findings indicate a poor transaction framework, pricing sensitive to legal and illegal private investments, and prevalent illegal rent-seeking on land. Additionally, increasing investment in allotment gardens was found to reduce biodiversity.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsKrajobraz jadalny w prozie polskiej XXI wieku – próba typologii
2025Magdalena Roszczynialska · Przestrzenie Teorii · Poland
This article characterizes the edible landscape, a non-visual approach to landscape, by identifying landscapes where the cultural component is weakened in favor of the environmental one. The author develops a typology of edible landscapes in 21st-century Polish prose, including consumption landscapes, edible mnemotopos, terroir, and urban gardens, interpreting them as practices of "hacking the Anthropocene" and interventions for socio-environmental justice. The edible landscape is presented as a way of literary manifestation of nature and a means of survival in the face of ecological catastrophe.
CommunityBiodiversityUrban–rural linkageFrom crisis to opportunity: exploring urban food growing in the UK during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
2025Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Michael Hardman, Paul Milbourne, Victoria Schoen · Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) · United Kingdom
This chapter examines the impact of urban food growing on individual, household, and community resilience, well-being, environment, and local food systems in the UK during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on survey and research data. It discusses the potential role of urban food growing in post-pandemic food security, environment, health, and society, and considers how "crisis gardening" experiences are leading to calls for new approaches to urban food growing in the UK.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeDeveloping Sustainable Urban Agriculture in Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy to Implement the Quintuple Helix
2025Ana María Bartolomé Sualdea, Teresa Briz, Beatriz Urbano · Sustainable Development · Europe
This study analyzed socio-economic variables from 100 European regions to understand how urban agriculture (UA) development within Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) benefits regions. A binary logistic regression found that a 1% increase in the population over 65 could lead to a 72.75% increase in UA. ANOVA results indicated that regions benefit from UA in RIS3 through active aging, diversification, alleviating urbanization pressure, technology development, and improved governance and social capital.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityElderlyFood banks, food diversion, and other responses
2025Dennis Raphael · Policy Press eBooks · Canada; United Kingdom
This chapter documents the growth of charitable non-governmental responses to food insecurity in Canada and the UK, including food banks, food diversion schemes, and community gardens. It is shown that these responses are problematic as they fail to address the economic and political causes of food insecurity. Further failures associated with charitable responses include the experience of stigma and degradation by food bank users and the promulgation of the belief that food insecurity is being addressed.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePolicyGreening for meaning: Sense of place in green citizen initiatives in the Netherlands
2025Mellany N.C. van Bommel, Marthe L. Derkzen, Lenneke Vaandrager · Wellbeing Space and Society · Europe
This mixed-methods study aimed to understand the meanings attributed to green citizen initiatives in the Netherlands by using the concept of sense of place and to investigate which factors predict this sense of place. Surveys (n=130) were used alongside interviews with 38 participants from ten green citizen initiatives. Findings demonstrate a strong sense of place among participants, which was significantly predicted by meaningful experiences, a sense of safety within the initiative, and length of involvement. Participation in green citizen initiatives appears to create meaning across place attachment, place identity, place dependence, and a broader societal meaning of place.
CommunityHealthEl Aprendizaje Servicio a través de los ecohuertos escolares de la Universidad de Salamanca: una herramienta innovadora del siglo XXI al alcance de la Agenda 2030
2025David Caballero Franco, Judith Martín Lucas, Parra Nieto, Gabriel · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Salamanca)
This work describes the Community School Gardens Network (HecoUSAL) project, a Service-Learning program launched in 2013 at the University of Salamanca, Spain. The program aims to improve university education quality, strengthen social commitment, expand sustainability culture, and develop sustainability skills among students. It proposes new teaching-learning models that integrate sustainability skills through multi-sensory, nature-based educational experiences within school environments.
Food educationCommunityClimate change30+ Innovations in Urban Agriculture
2025University of Liège, Reframe.food, ASTREDHOR · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Europe
This catalogue presents over 30 innovative Urban Agriculture initiatives from across Europe. These projects were selected for their originality, relevance, maturity, and potential to address urban challenges, demonstrating several years of successful operation. It provides an comprehensive overview of diverse urban farming systems and their potential to transform cities into more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient places.
CommunityUrban–rural linkageClimate changeA Tale of Soft Spaces and Seeds Under the Snow
2025Francesca Gotti, Yona Catrina Schreyer · field · Italy (Bergamo)
This essay describes two alternative spatial practices implemented in Bergamo, Italy: "Software-ing Spaces," a living-designing-building residency in a former monastery, and "Seeds Under the Snow," an experimental laboratory for knowledge exchange and innovative methods within Bergamo's social gardens. Both projects aim to challenge systemic procedures in the construction sector and develop spatial ideas based on empathy, synchronizing place, resources, users, and builders.
CommunityDigital agricultureFood educationNordplus project “Healing greenery” – Green care education for a changing environment
2025Kadri Maikov · Vytautas Magnus University · Europe
The Nordplus project "Healing greenery" has fostered interdisciplinary collaboration since 2018, bringing together international students and lecturers to design healing green spaces. Educational projects serve as a research foundation to raise awareness of environmental risks and the importance of green spaces for mental health, addressing the new generation's disconnect from nature. Participants in annual projects (2021-2024, 19-26 participants each year) highlighted environmental risks including insufficient green spaces and limited awareness of nature’s impact on health.
CommunityHealthFood educationCare About Well-Being in the Urban Habitat—Family Allotment Gardens in Warsaw
2025Maciej Lasocki, Kinga Zinowiec-Cieplik, Piotr Majewski, Maja Radziemska, Renata Giedych, Damian Derewońko, Maria Kaczorowska, Anna Szczeblewska, Marta Melon, B J Gawryszewska · Sustainability · Poland (Warsaw)
This study examined family allotment gardens in Warsaw, Poland, as a means of enhancing urban living environments and promoting residents' well-being. The research employed a literature review, qualitative data analysis from individual in-depth and focus group interviews, and a matrix analysis. Findings identified well-being features associated with allotment gardens, including recreation, leisure, impact on physical and mental health, formation of social relationships, and self-production of healthy, affordable food. The results also emphasized the importance of accessibility and the acquisition of new competencies as primary contributions.
CommunityHealthWelfareCollaborative governance in urban agriculture: Stakeholder roles, collaborative mechanisms, and power dynamics
2025Svetla Stoeva · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Europe
Stakeholder roles, collaborative mechanisms, and power dynamics were analyzed across 14 urban agriculture case studies in Europe. Public authorities, civil society organizations, NGOs, private businesses, and practitioners were identified as key stakeholders. Effective collaboration depends on inclusivity, shared responsibility, flexibility, and social cohesion, but challenges include power imbalances where public authorities and businesses dominate marginalized stakeholders.
PolicyCommunity