Research & reports

Angelica Mendoza Beltrán, Roc Padró, María José La Rota-Aguilera, Joan Marull, Matthew J. Eckelman, Jacob Cirera, Annalisa Giocoli, Gara Villalba · The Science of The Total Environment · Spain (Barcelona)

This study implemented an attributional, regionalized, cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess 14 environmental impacts of peri-urban agriculture (peri-UA) in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB). It found that vegetables and greenhouses, the prevalent peri-UA land uses, had the largest assessed impacts among all peri-UA land uses. European NPK mineral fertilizer production to cover nitrogen demand for these crops drives all impacts. For fruit crops, on-site nitrogen emissions drive marine eutrophication impacts, and for irrigated herbaceous crops, phosphate runoff drives freshwater eutrophication impacts.

Giulia Giacchè, Véronique Saint-Gès, Yoann Durrieu, Mélanie Collé, Christine Aubry · Territoire en mouvement · France

A multi-phase method, METH-EXPAU®, is proposed for defining urban agriculture (UA) projects, aiming to help landowners select appropriate UA forms based on territorial characteristics. Applied to three case studies in France—Montrouge, a priority district in Lille, and a new district in Bordeaux—the method revealed its potential and shortcomings. It demonstrated how structural, technical, and social characteristics of spaces and agents can rule out certain UA forms that do not correspond to the territory's current needs.

Eda Ustaoğlu · European Scientific Journal ESJ · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study assessed land suitability for urban agriculture, forest, and natural vegetation in the Pendik district of Istanbul, Turkey. It integrated GIS with a Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) approach, using both deterministic and fuzzy membership methods. Key evaluation criteria included geophysical factors, transport and services accessibility, land cover/use, blue and green amenities, soil properties, geology, and erosion susceptibility.

Celia Martínez Hidalgo, Jesús Ángel Martínez, Germán Camino · Institutional Repository of the University of Granada (University of Granada) · Spain

This is a description of the LIFE Lugo + Biodinámico project in Lugo, Spain, which uses a climate-adaptation urban-planning strategy intended to let Lugo — and, by extension, other mid-sized European cities — adapt resiliently to climate change. Framed around UN environmental objectives for resilient and sustainable cities, the project's actions include establishing an urban forest, designing Spain's first "multi-ecological neighborhood," constructing Spain's first public building built with Galician timber, and compiling a catalog of sustainable urban design solutions intended for export to other European cities. Among its 28 interrelated actions, the urban-agriculture component involves creating ground-level and vertical vegetable-garden zones within the neighborhood as spaces for both social interaction and food production, and a pilot initiative called "Impulso Verde" examines construction and planning measures intended to contribute to passive carbon sequestration.

Luís Loures, Ana Pereira, Rui Alexandre Castanho · WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT · Europe

Using urban agriculture in Porto (Oporto), Portugal, as a guiding case study, this article works to recover and re-establish a continuous productive urban landscape. It expands existing urban planning policy and proposes new policy for protecting and inserting this continuous productive landscape into urban design while accounting for the urban/agricultural dichotomy and its processes, flows, and systems. Drawing on research focused on recovering Oporto's ancient rural ring, the article defines urban agriculture as a method for reliably integrating it into urban space planning, concluding with a newly defined urban farming network for Oporto that connects rural areas within the city to rural areas outside it.

Jan Eelco Jansma, Sigrid C. O. Wertheim-Heck · Land Use Policy · Netherlands

A paper (Land Use Policy, vol. 117, 2022, article 106104) analysing the peri-urban development of Oosterwold in Almere, the Netherlands, where 51% of the planning area is allocated to agriculture and left to residents' self-organisation. It classifies Northwest European peri-urban agriculture into three types and examines how new residents shaped the planning process, finding that agricultural practice in Oosterwold developed toward 'hobby garden farming'.

Ambrogio Zanzi, Valentina Vaglia, Roberto Spigarolo, Stefano Bocchi · Land · Italy (Milan)

This study assessed the sustainability of eight agri-food start-ups in a peri-urban area of Milan, Italy, using the FAO's Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA) framework. The application of SAFA indicators revealed positive aspects but also some limitations typical of unstructured enterprises.

Luca Colombo, Stefano Grando, Giacomo Lepri · · Italy (Rome)

A desk-based analysis on urban agriculture in peri-urban Rome scrutinized policy documents, mass media articles, online news, and internal organizational documents pertinent to land access and urban agriculture. This study was conducted against the backdrop of competition over farmland use, control, and function in Europe, and how land value trends in Italy are conditioned by the land's potential.

Sònia Callau-Berenguer, Anna Roca-Torrent, Josep Montasell-Dorda, Sandra Ricart · Investigaciones Geográficas · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed the food system behavior in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Spain, during the initial stage of the Covid-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). Semi-structured interviews with 11 peri-urban entities and institutions revealed shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system. Findings also indicated complicity between local producers and urban consumers, the role of peri-urban agricultural areas in food supply, and a need for cooperation among food system agents.

Ambrogio 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.

Enrico 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.

Simone 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.

Felipe Parada, Mireia Ercilla‐Montserrat, Verónica Arcas‐Pilz, Elisa López‐Capél, N. Carazo, J.I. Montero, Xavier Gabarrell, Gara Villalba, Joan Rieradevall, Pere Muñoz · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture · Spain (Barcelona)

In spring and summer 2018, in a rooftop greenhouse near Barcelona, coir, vegetable compost from urban organic waste, perlite, and a mixture of compost and perlite substrates were evaluated over three consecutive crop cycles of lettuce. This study aimed to assess the use of substrates made from local materials as an alternative for urban agriculture during periods of water supply cuts. Results showed that compost and the mixture yielded similarly to perlite, and organic substrates increased crop resilience to water restriction.

İrem YURDAY, Ceren Yağcı, Fatih İŞCAN · Türkiye Arazi Yönetimi Dergisi · Turkey

This study explains the definitions, contributions, and benefits of urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture. It notes that there is no clear policy framework for urban and peri-urban agriculture in Turkey, although urban interfaces are subject to planners and policymakers. The transformation of villages in big cities into communities under Law No. 6360 is presented from a utilitarian perspective. Urban agriculture has been adopted as a profitable production method in urban and peri-urban areas, and suggestions for its development in Turkey are provided.

Joanna Wiśniewska-Paluszak, Grzegorz Paluszak · Agriculture · Poland

This study investigated how nine urban and peri-urban farms (UPFs) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, formed business relationships in food networks, surveying managers and owners in 2019 and 2020. The research identified UPF business relationships and key features of their networks, leading to the development of a conceptual relational UPF model. This model indicates that diversification of activities, competitiveness of resources, and formality of organizational structures form the basis of farm businesses, while integration of activities, sharing of resources, and collaboration among actors form the basis of relationships.

Melanie Jans-Singh, Rebecca Ward, Ruchi Choudhary · Journal of Building Performance Simulation · United Kingdom

A study addressing the lack of quantification of combined building-integrated greenhouse performance developed a building energy simulation (BES) of an archetype school building in EnergyPlus, co-simulated with a validated greenhouse energy simulator (GES), for school buildings in London, UK. Different greenhouse-building coupling configurations were evaluated via sensitivity analysis and a parametric study to estimate potential crop growth, heat recovery, and reduction in ventilation demand. A 250 m2 greenhouse on the top floor of the school could produce 6 t of lettuce with half the energy demand of an equivalent standalone greenhouse. Trade-offs among increased humidity, yields, and energy efficiency show that modeling is needed to ensure optimal designs.

Andrea L’Erario · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Italy (Milan)

This paper describes the application of a multi-methodological decision-making support tool for concerted management policies (Public bodies/farmers) in peri-urban agricultural areas. The proposal is guided by three principles: conservation of the historical landscape as heritage, valorization of the social potentials of the landscape in the peri-urban context, and sustainable management with a public-private partnership perspective. Peri-urban agricultural landscapes possess potential social value linked to agricultural area use, in addition to their agricultural-productive value.

Remigio Paradelo, Cecilia Herbón, María Teresa Barral · Journal of Environmental Quality · Spain (Santiago de Compostela)

This study analyzed 56 urban soil samples (0–20 cm) from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, across various parent materials and land uses, to characterize their physicochemical properties. The soils were found to be coarse textured (sandy loam), acidic (pH 4.7–6.9), with moderate to high organic matter (13–137 g organic C kg−1). Unlike many urban soils, they did not exhibit alkalinity, high bulk density, or large amounts of artifacts, showing similarity to natural regional soils.

J.E. Jansma, Sidrig Wertheim-Heck · · Netherlands

This paper explores how urban planning practices can integrate urban agriculture in peri-urban zones, despite its current marginalization in such areas. It analyzes the planning practices of Almere, a Dutch city that has fully integrated urban agriculture into its new urban area, Oosterwold. The study reflects on how cities can sustainably feed urban populations.

Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, Jan Vávra, Martina Artmann, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Italy (Bologna)

This study compared perceptions of urban agriculture (UA) ecosystem services (ESs) among different societal groups in Bologna, Italy, namely UA project leaders, stakeholders, and the general public, with 406 individuals evaluating 25 ESs via a standardized Likert-scale survey. Statistical analysis indicated that the general public and UA stakeholders agreed on the high relevance of socio-cultural ESs, while provisioning ESs were considered less significant. This study reveals a lower perception of provisioning ESs from urban agriculture.

Rosalia Filippini, Sylvie Lardon, Stefano Corsi · · Italy

This chapter designs an inter- and transdisciplinary, multiscale, and mixed-method framework for analyzing Smart Agriculture (SA) in urban-rural relationships across Italian case studies. It proposes SA as an experimental field for cooperation among decision-makers, civil society, and academia to improve urban-rural links in metropolitan regions. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture and rural-urban links is central to this approach.

Andrea Colantoni, Gianluca Egidi, Giovanni Quaranta, R. D’Alessandro, Sabato Vinci, Rosario Turco, Luca Salvati · Land · Europe

Using statistical data analysis and a literature review covering 1961-2017, a regional study in Greece examined the relationship between wildfire frequency/extent and the decline of nomadic livestock (mainly sheep and goats), comparing Attica — the peri-urban region that includes the capital Athens — with the rest of the country. Attica showed a markedly faster decline in nomadic livestock than the rest of Greece, a decline associated with higher wildfire risk in that region. The findings indicate that nomadic livestock grazing helps prevent fuel (biomass) accumulation in forests and unmanaged natural land, contributing to sustainable management of peri-urban land.

Małgorzata Ćwieląg‐Drabek, Agata Piekut, Klaudia Gut, Mateusz Grabowski · Scientific Reports · Europe

A study of family allotment gardens (FAGs) in Silesia Province, one of the most polluted regions in Poland, analyzed 219 soil samples and 64 edible plant samples to link the geochemical disturbance caused by past mining and smelting activity to consumer exposure to toxic and carcinogenic metallic trace elements. Contents of these elements in topsoil were spatially diverse and depended primarily on the location of industrial pollution sources. Average cadmium (0.52 mg/kg fresh weight) and lead (0.57 mg/kg fresh weight) content in vegetables exceeded maximum permissible concentrations under European quality standards. A human health risk assessment based on three dietary exposure scenarios found that, in every scenario, potatoes — a staple of the Polish diet — carried the highest average daily dose for all three elements. The study concludes that consuming vegetables grown in Silesia Province's family allotment gardens may pose a significant health risk to consumers.

Graciela Arosemena Díaz · · Spain

Focused on Spain, this text situates the current urban food supply system — reliant on agrochemicals, crop and animal production, processing, storage, and complex global transport networks with serious environmental impacts from fossil fuel use — as context for arguing that urban and peri-urban agriculture can reduce the food system's environmental impact and fossil fuel dependence while improving food security against economic and climatic vulnerability (2020). It notes that environmental justice is socially and politically complex, with groups of lower socio-economic status typically bearing a greater burden of environmental impacts, and cites as an example a city Council for the Protection of Nature that preserves the agricultural area along the Llobregat River and its agro-economic activity through an agricultural park.

Anna Margenat, Víctor Matamoros, Sergi Dı́ez, Núria Cañameras, Jordi Comas, Josep M. Bayona · Environment International · Spain (Barcelona)

A study assessed 16 trace elements and 33 organic microcontaminants in lettuce, tomato, cauliflower, and broad beans from peri-urban farms near Barcelona, Spain, and a rural site. Concentrations ranged from non-detectable to 17.4 mg/kg for trace elements and non-detectable to 256 μg/kg for organic microcontaminants, with tomatoes showing the highest levels. Risk assessment indicated a low human health risk from consuming these vegetables in the peri-urban area, comparable to the rural site.