Research & reports

Vidhyashree H, Harshita D · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This paper investigates the relationship between open spaces and mental well-being, focusing on the psychological, social, environmental, and physiological impacts of access in urban settings. Through analysis of existing literature, case studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives, findings suggest that open spaces significantly improve mental well-being by reducing anxiety, depression, mental fatigue, and social alienation while promoting community engagement, physical activity, and emotional resilience.

Shannon Bull, Hailey Gunther, Jessie Pilarcek, Natalie Maurer · Fisher Digital Publications (St. John Fisher College) · Global

This synthesis project, developed from the Cardinal Experience course, explores connecting people to nature through the lens of food. It examines four key areas: food insecurity, sustainability and stewardship, community gardens, and the cultural and social dimensions of food. The project's final deliverable is a comprehensive informational brochure illustrating how these themes intersect to foster a stronger connection between people and nature.

Carolyn Schuyler, Dorothy Ibes · · Global

This chapter explores ecotherapy as a therapeutic intervention to promote mental wellness, emphasizing emotional regulation and neuroplasticity. It presents evidence-based practices such as grounding exercises, sensory immersion, nature art, visualization techniques, and biophilic design strategies that may activate the parasympathetic nervous system and support brain health. The content integrates research on nature connectedness with practical applications for classroom settings, clinical treatment plans, workplace wellness programs, and neighborhood initiatives. Activities require minimal equipment and adapt to solo or group formats.

Claudio Marcelo Doratto · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Argentina

This article proposes school neurolandscaping as a salutogenic care infrastructure model for neurodiversity within the Argentine educational system. Based on fourteen years of teaching experience, it argues that the crisis in contemporary classrooms stems from the design of "concrete classrooms." The study analyzes how transforming schoolyards, integrating cognitive accessibility and biophilic design, can promote educational justice, concluding that school gardens and soil microbiota preservation are vital for inclusive education in Argentina.

Emma L. Sharp, Cavadino Alana, Kah Melanie · Wellbeing Space and Society · New Zealand

An online survey of 266 food gardeners in New Zealand investigated changes in food gardening experiences during the Covid-19 lockdown. Approximately two-thirds of participants reported gardening for mental or physical wellbeing during lockdown, prioritizing wellbeing over healthy food production compared to before lockdown. Growing culturally relevant food increased in importance for Māori and Pacific Island participants.

Jan Macháč, Lenka Dubová, Marek Hekrle, Sára Laníková · Cities · Czech Republic

A study investigated differences in perceptions of community garden (CG) benefits among non-users in two Czech cities (Ústí nad Labem and Prague) via on-site surveys and CG users across Czechia via online surveys. Non-users prioritized environmental benefits like air quality improvement and crop production, alongside recreational functions. In contrast, CG users placed the highest importance on cultural and social benefits, specifically recreation, social interaction, and aesthetic enhancement, while giving lower priority to provisioning functions.

Judith Maher, Derlene Gray, Kirby Murtha, Muriel Bond, Kora Uhlmann, Kristen Tulloch, Sarah Burkhart, Tricia King, Lynne Stuart · Health Promotion Journal of Australia · Australia

This paper describes the development and implementation of a home gardening project with the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community in Australia, which aimed to promote food security, health, and wellbeing. The research team demonstrated how ethical principles, including spirit and integrity, responsibility, respect, reciprocity, equity, and cultural continuity, were practically integrated into the project, which unfolded in an iterative, nonlinear fashion prioritizing community connections.

Luca Battisti, Adrienne Csizmady, Federico Cuomo, Luca Kristóf, Boldizsár Megyesi · Sustainability Science Practice and Policy · Hungary (Budapest)

This study examined how community gardens in Budapest and Turin function as locally embedded nature-based solutions (NbS) through the everyday practices of urban residents. Based on a qualitative analysis of 47 semi-structured interviews conducted in five gardens in Budapest and two in Turin, findings showed that gardeners practice NbS-aligned approaches. Socially, they foster well-being, inclusion, and community cohesion; technically, they adapt to resource constraints through low-tech experimentation and collaborative problem-solving; and ecologically, they support biodiversity, soil regeneration, and microclimate regulation through organic cultivation and composting.

Djim-adjim Tabo, Fissou Henry YANDAI, BONGO NARE Ngandolo, GRANIER Sophie, ABAKAR Brahim, MILLEMANN Yves · European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety · Chad

A study in N'Djamena, Chad, isolated Salmonella and Escherichia coli from wastewater discharged into the Chari River and from market garden crops irrigated with it. E. coli was found in 29.66% of wastewater samples and Salmonella sp. in 19.49%, with raw vegetables showing very high contamination. Wastewater results exceeded WHO standards, indicating that re-use of this wastewater for market gardening is not recommended due to significant contamination risks.

Gabson Baguma, Gadson Bamanya, Allan Gonzaga, Hannington Twinomuhwezi, Barnabas Mubangizi, Eric Niringiyimana · Pollutants · Uganda

This review synthesized literature on the occurrence of cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead, and arsenic in foods consumed in Uganda. Contamination was concentrated in mining-influenced agricultural areas, wastewater-irrigated farms, municipal dumpsites, industrial corridors, and urban food markets, with vegetables, cereals, livestock products, fish, and street-vended foods exhibiting the greatest contamination burdens. Lead and cadmium most frequently exceeded WHO/FAO, Codex Alimentarius, and Ugandan food safety limits, and children consistently showed higher dietary exposure than adults.

Coşkun Şerefoğlu, Duhan Kalkan · İDEALKENT · Türkiye

This quantitative study in Türkiye used a structured survey and binary logistic regression to examine factors influencing urban agriculture participation intention. Findings showed prior agricultural experience was the strongest determinant, and COVID-19's impact on food perceptions positively influenced intention. Education level and policy awareness, however, did not significantly explain participation, revealing a gap between awareness and behavioral engagement.

Nina Oher, Anna Bengtsson, Patrik Grahn · Land · Global

This study aimed to understand the evidence-based design process behind a rooftop garden at an urban Memory Clinic. Through focus group interviews with healthcare professionals and an interview with the landscape architect, findings showed that while the garden exceeded expectations regarding aesthetics, restorative qualities, and staff use, it was not used for patient-oriented therapeutic activities as intended. This divergence was linked to governance issues such as organizational change, loss of key actors, insufficient documentation of design intentions, procurement disruptions, shifting clinical priorities, and maintenance arrangements.

Jennifer Newell, Rory Doherty, Gary Lyons, Siobhan F. Cox · Environmental Geochemistry and Health · Global

A controlled experiment investigated the effects of 5%w/w digestate biochar on lead (Pb) ingestion risks in urban vegetable agrisystems with varying soil Pb concentrations, high pH, and organic matter. Biochar significantly reduced soil-derived Pb ingestion risks in some systems but had no effect on vegetable-derived Pb ingestion risks for any agrisystem. Overall, biochar showed limited and variable effects on reducing Pb ingestion risks, suggesting its remediation potential is context-dependent and may offer limited protection in soils with elevated pH and organic matter.

Johanna Ruh · Open MIND · Global

This study connects Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) with Integrative Garden Therapy (IGT), demonstrating how combining both approaches can deepen and expand ESD. A concept for IGT/ESD units for children aged 6-10 within a Community-Supported Agriculture framework is presented. The concepts of multiple alienation, ecophilia, ecosophy, and integrative cultural work are particularly highlighted.

Giovane Sampaio dos Santos, Yuri César Miranda Soares, Guilherme Alves Barroso Araújo, Lorena Oliveira Pereira, Daniel Viana Ferreira, Mariana Aragão Machado Santos Neves, Vanilson Furtado Pereira, Sandra Regina Cardoso Vitorino · Revista Tópicos. · Global

This integrative literature review analyzed recent scientific evidence on community gardens as a tool for promoting basic health, focusing on articles published in Portuguese over the last five years. The review found that community gardens offer benefits related to physical and mental health, food security, strengthened social relations, environmental preservation, income generation, and urban space revitalization.

Juliana Ju Yun Hoo, Shumetha Kaur Sidhu, Tan Kok Wei · PLoS ONE · Malaysia

A study in Malaysia assessed the perceived restorativeness of tropical urban green spaces (UGSs) using 120 environmental stimuli and 87 participants. Nature and mixed urban-nature scenes were generally rated as more restorative than urban scenes. In the visual-only modality, mixed urban-nature scenes were perceived as more restorative than nature scenes, but no significant differences were found in audio-only and bimodal modalities.

Eric Vukicevich · Urban Ecosystems · Global

This paper describes a class-based soil testing project where undergraduate students partner with local community gardeners to investigate urban soil health. The project involves students examining soil properties such as pH, organic matter, nutrients, and toxic elements, and ensuring crop safety. Students develop project plans, interpret data, and make recommendations for soil management.

ROAN BAGAOISAN · Divine Word International Journal of Management and Humanities (DWIJMH) (ISSN 2980-4817) · Global

A study investigated school garden programs in elementary schools, exploring the experiences of fifteen teachers, staff, and students using a descriptive phenomenological approach and open-ended questionnaires. It found benefits in academic learning, environmental awareness, health, and social development, but also identified challenges including resource constraints, time limitations, garden maintenance, and stakeholder engagement. These challenges require careful planning, collaboration, and creative solutions.

Kamil Pająk, Alicja Trawińska, Marcin Łapicz, Andrzej R. Reindl · Toxics · Global

This study quantified emissions and toxicological consequences of a large-scale tire fire in an urban ecosystem by analyzing soil samples from the fireground and surrounding urban allotment gardens for zinc and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Soil at the fire site showed severe contamination with PAHs (Σ PAHs: 148.9 mg/kg), and the cumulative Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) for children reached 9.7 × 10−4, exceeding the regulatory benchmark. Elevated risk levels persisted at distal residential sites, indicating long-term environmental contamination and persistent terrestrial health hazards.

Gök A., Arıkan M. · Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B · Türkiye (Istanbul)

Tracks how DDT, a legacy contaminant, restructures the soil microbiome of an urban garden in Istanbul across a 15-day microcosm experiment. Rather than broad diversity loss, Shannon diversity rose steadily as sensitive taxa were suppressed; Rhodococcus, Kribbella and Nitrospira increased while Pedomicrobium and Lysobacter declined. Inferred functions shifted away from aromatic amino-acid and fatty-acid metabolism and towards degradation of chlorinated aromatics, redox homeostasis and stress response — a successional move to a stress-resilient, potentially degradative community.

Paul Shing-fong Chan, Joseph Kawuki, Mythily Subramaniam, Elizabeth Broadbent, Esther Yuet Ying Lau, Kelvin Fai Hong Lui · Education Sciences · Global

This systematic review, pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD420251250712) and conducted following PRISMA guidelines, synthesized global evidence on the effects of horticulture-based interventions (HBIs) on student well-being. It searched PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and APA PsycInfo from inception to June 30, 2025, and included 15 studies (more than 2,000 students aged 5-18) from South Korea (8), Taiwan (3), Mainland China (1), Hong Kong (1), Italy (1), and the United States (1). Results showed HBIs have the potential to enhance emotional/psychological well-being (e.g., stress reduction, mood improvement), social well-being (e.g., peer relations, social skills), cognitive and educational benefits (e.g., attention, academic attitudes), and physical and overall health benefits (e.g., physical activity, quality of life). The review states that future randomized controlled trials with diverse populations are needed to address limitations such as small sample sizes and geographic bias.

Karina Corada, Caroline Nash, Prashant Kumar, Stuart Connop, Laura Wendling · Nature-Based Solutions · Global

A synthesis paper on the largely unexplored role of domestic gardens in influencing local air quality. While gardens are widely recognized for cultural and health benefits, particularly mental well-being and everyday contact with nature, the paper states few studies have examined air quality dynamics within residential garden settings. It notes that general urban green infrastructure research suggests vegetation structure, plant traits, and spatial configuration shape pollutant capture, but these findings have not been tested in domestic gardens, where microclimates and spatial constraints differ markedly. Evidence from food-growing gardens and allotments further suggests edible crops cultivated near roads may accumulate airborne pollutants, particularly metals, underscoring the need for research on exposure pathways and allotment locations. The paper identifies a significant gap in current green infrastructure and air-pollution research: the lack of empirical evidence on how domestic gardens function as socio-ecological systems with implications for air-quality regulation.

Nahide AYDIN MARAL, Pınar AYDIN ÇAYCIOĞLU, Hasan MARAL · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This conceptual paper proposes a framework for using medicinal and aromatic plants in preschool education, arguing that their volatile compounds add olfactory stimulation to visual and tactile input and may support attention, emotional memory and environmental awareness given the link between the olfactory and limbic systems. It recommends selecting non-toxic, low-allergenic species for school gardens or mini plant areas, growing annual aromatic species from seed so children can observe life cycles, using observation, description and drawing activities, and controlling the duration and intensity of exposure. No empirical data are reported.

Rattan Lal · · Global

A book chapter addresses rising food and nutritional insecurity from rapid urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and elsewhere, noting that 55% of the world population currently lives in cities, projected to reach 70% by 2050. It states that as much as 10-20% of food consumed could be grown within city limits, but that careful planning is needed to reduce risks from soil contamination, plastic pollution, and reuse of grey/black water and city-waste compost. It identifies rooftop gardens, multistory glass buildings, and soil-less methods such as aquaculture, hydroponics and aeroponics as modern forms of urban agriculture, and discusses barriers including land tenure and research priorities for scaling up.

Eduardo Antonio CastroNemocon · Institutional Repository of the National University Open and Distance UNAD (Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia) · Colombia (Bogotá)

Focused on the UPZ 96 Lourdes area of the Santa Fe Tercera locality in Bogota, Colombia, this paper reports on an initiative that treats urban agriculture as a tool for building sustainable food systems. From an environmental standpoint, it advances a process of training and knowledge exchange using an agroecological approach in private spaces, generating self-supply and self-consumption of agricultural products and using household spaces to plant and harvest organic food free of fungicides that compromise food safety, aiming to prevent declines in quality of life and health problems for consumers. Drawing on a political ecology perspective, the initiative seeks policy directions and direct social action to improve the quality of food consumed in daily diets, prioritizing responsible environmental management and the practice and production of organic agricultural food in urban spaces — promoting healthy eating habits while culturally preserving knowledge exchange and ancestral planting, harvesting and consumption practices in a country whose historical character has been agricultural, and aiming to guarantee food sovereignty.