Research & reports

Sonia Delgado Berrocal · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Madrid)

This research focuses on the experience of new green systems co-created through urban horticulture and ecological agriculture in Madrid, Spain, as factors for urban resilience. It examines projects on abandoned urban plots, such as Esta es una plaza de Lavapies (2008) and Huerto de la Tabacalera (2010), and educational community gardens like Huerto del Retiro (2011). The study also considers initiatives that educate urban horticulturists and local organic matter cycle actions within Madrid's urban garden network.

Clare Nash · RIBA Publishing eBooks · United Kingdom (Bristol)

Ashley Vale in Bristol is a unique place featuring a city farm, allotments, a permaculture project, and a farm cafe selling locally sourced foods. The entire development is built on a concrete slab, formerly an industrial warehouse site. A "Homezone" scheme on the street improved its appearance by installing planters and organizing parking.

Chiara Certomà, Lorenzo Chelleri, Bruno Notteboom · Urban Studies · Italy (Rome)

This paper investigates informal planning practices and "fluid governance" in urban public spaces, using the case of Parco delle Energie in Rome, Italy, and a comparative analysis of international cases. It found that politically progressive urban gardening challenges traditional governance networks and redefines public space functioning by transforming green spaces into food production and collaboratively managed areas through informal planning. This demonstrates that urban gardening worldwide challenges traditional planning perspectives and governance, turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force.

Rebecca St. Clair, Michael Hardman, Richard Armitage, Graeme Sherriff · Urban Studies · United Kingdom (Manchester)

This study, conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, highlights the difficulties of collaboration among organizations in a lottery-funded urban agriculture project. Due to local authority cutbacks and a lack of funding, community groups and charitable organizations compete for space and resources, leading to a "siege mentality" where organizational self-preservation takes precedence over cooperation. This paradoxically results in groups with similar goals working against each other instead of collaborating.

Perrine Hamel, François Mancebo, Clément Feger, Stéphanie Hamel · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

This chapter presented three case studies illustrating how nature's benefits have been incorporated into urban planning decisions, specifically urban agriculture policy in Nantes and Bordeaux, France, and an integrated urban water management strategy in Melbourne, Australia. The cases demonstrated that urban green space provides multiple benefits, including efficient water management, food production, recreation opportunities, and biodiversity protection. Key opportunities and barriers for incorporating urban nature into planning were identified.

Joanna Dudek-Klimiuk · Technical Transactions · Poland

This study examined the "central school gardens" established in interwar Poland for students of all schools in a given city. These gardens were primarily demonstration gardens, modeled after university botanic gardens, and were characterized by their relatively large scale, public access, and park-like nature. Their layout, architectural details, and plant selection reflected not only their didactic function but also contemporary fashion and design standards for gardens and parks.

Sabrina Giuca, Simonetta De Leo · ECONOMIA AGRO-ALIMENTARE · Italy (Rome)

This study investigated the role of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) using the "Kalulu" network, a web platform operating in the rural and peri-urban territory of the Metropolitan City of Rome, as a case study. Analysis revealed that this platform creates a local market recognizing fair and sustainable exchange value between producers and consumers. This commercialization model increases consumer awareness and responsibility regarding consumption choices while also ensuring the economic needs of small farmers.

Giuseppe Pulighe, Flavio Lupia · Sustainability · Italy (Milan)

A spatiotemporal quantification of urban agriculture in Milan, Italy, assessed its food self-provisioning potential using Google Earth images from 2007 and 2014. The study found that even in the best-case scenario, the current urban agriculture production (98 ha of vegetable gardens, 2539 ha of arable land) is insufficient to meet the vegetable and cereal consumption needs of over 1.3 million city residents. It could only satisfy approximately 63,700 vegetable consumers and 321,000 cereal consumers.

Francesca Cappellaro, Laura Cutaia, Carolina Innella, Claudia Meloni, R. Pentassuglia, Vincenzo Porretto · Environmental Engineering and Management Journal · Italy (Rome)

This paper presented several circular economy practices integrating circular strategies at an urban scale, focusing on the Centocelle district in Rome, Italy. Through the employment of smart solutions and a collaborative process involving citizens, circular economy urban practices such as community gardens, co-workings, local and km0 production systems, and recycling centers were identified. These practices achieved urban transformation in terms of regeneration, sharing economy experiences, resource optimization, and closed-loop systems, positively and actively influencing the urban community in supporting the transition towards circular economy models.

Alma Clavin · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom

A study using qualitative, visual methods and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland examined their potential for human agency and ecological sustainability. While positive agency and wellbeing benefits were observed, the gardens were found to be limited in their ability to truly enhance political freedoms and overcome asymmetric power relations. The research indicates that these initiatives may perpetuate neoliberal forms of unsustainable and uneven development, alongside ongoing issues of tenure insecurity.

Andy Lockhart, Simon Marvin · Antipode · United Kingdom (Sheffield)

This article explored the phenomenon of automated environmental control, using three sites in Sheffield, UK: a botanical glasshouse, a luxury hotel, and a university plant growth research lab. The study identified technical and ecological tensions and limits of indoor environmental control at each site, which restrict the scope of automation. It also showed that maintaining desired conditions required considerable hidden labor and energy.

J. Ochoa, Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, J.A. Fernández, S. Bañón, Francesco Orsini, F. Magrefi, Giovanni Giorgio Bazzocchi, Severin Halder, Doerte Martens, Noémi Kappel, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Europe

A user needs analysis conducted in Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, and Cartagena, Europe, evaluated training requirements for participants in community gardens. The results revealed a need to reinforce training during the formation and community building phases of community gardens, particularly for top-down activities. Users expressed a need for training in crop management skills, such as maintenance and organic practices, and communication skills to disseminate their activities.

gökçe öcal · Journal of Planning · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study focuses on the Roma Garden, one of Istanbul's last remaining urban gardens, within the context of "DIY urbanism." In Istanbul, historical gardens are threatened by municipal policies favoring urban development, leading to the formation of "DIY" urban gardens on public land since 2013. These gardens operate without legal ties to the local state, and the destruction of urban public space over the last decade is noted as having paved the way for DIY public gardens as spaces of solidarity and shared knowledge.

Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, Erofili Grapsa, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Europe

This study evaluated 11 urban agriculture case studies across Italy, Germany, France, and Spain to identify innovation triggers, characterize novelties, assess their innovativeness, and link them to sustainability. Researchers found 147 novelties, with more in environmental and social dimensions than economic, often originating from specific problems. The analysis suggests that innovativeness enhances overall sustainability in urban agriculture projects.

Anna Boneta, Martí Rufí-Salís, Mireia Ercilla‐Montserrat, Xavier Gabarrell, Joan Rieradevall · Frontiers in Plant Science · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed an 18 m2 polyculture rooftop soilless urban home garden in Barcelona city center from 2015 to 2017 to estimate its degree of self-sufficiency and sustainability. A total productivity of 10.6 kg/m2/year was achieved, estimating that 5.3 m2 would be needed to fulfill the yearly vegetable requirements of an average citizen. While a high degree of self-sufficiency was achieved, fertilizers and their associated leachates accounted for the highest environmental impacts in all studied categories.

Robert Bartłomiejski, Maciej Kowalewski · Sustainability · Poland

This article discusses Polish urban allotment gardens (UAGs) as an alternative urban development framework, "Slow City." It notes that increasing problems of soil pollution, abandoned gardens, informal housing, and limitation of access to UAG green areas for other inhabitants reinforce the pressure to reduce the number of UAGs.

Michael Hardman, Mags Adams, Melissa Barker, Luke Beesley · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom (Todmorden)

The Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) movement in Todmorden, UK, was investigated using a qualitative approach. The scheme was found to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the town, providing social, environmental, and economic benefits and contributing to a more just food movement through its "free for all" philosophy. However, negative aspects were also highlighted, including maintenance issues and a lack of perceived inclusivity in some parts.

Edward Wigley · Cultural Geographies · United Kingdom

This research investigated how the historic custom of orchard wassailing is reinvented in contemporary practices, including in community orchards, city farms, and public gardens, in southern England. Through in-depth interviews with organizers of local wassails, it was shown that wassailing, traditionally rural, is now popular in urban areas with little history of fruit farming. Organizers modify historical elements due to contemporary regulations or social attitudes, yet mobilize the notion of "tradition" to authenticate and reassert the local identity of the event, even when recently reinvented.

Yvon Le, Paula Nahmías, Giulia Giacchè · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France (Rennes)

This paper is a contribution to the inaugural issue of the journal "Palimpseste," which aims to highlight research conducted within the twenty-two research units of Rennes 2 University.

Lucia Škamlová, Agnieszka Wilkaniec, Magdalena Szczepańska, Vladimír Bačík, Petra Hencelová · Urban forestry & urban greening · Europe

This research conducted a comparative analysis of community gardens in Bratislava, Slovakia, and Poznań, Poland, to understand their development and management in post-socialist urban environments. Extensive field research, including exploratory walks, participatory observation, and semi-structured interviews with community garden representatives, was used. The analysis revealed both similarities and differences in city-specific approaches to establishing, managing, and developing community gardens, concluding that a "copy-paste" management approach does not exist and practices vary by local context.

Carme Melo Escrihuela · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Spain (Valencia)

The evolution in the preservation, management, and planning of l'Horta de València, a historical Mediterranean huerta in Valencia, Spain, was assessed. It is argued that negative changes and impacts in l'Horta are not simply the outcome of global dynamics but result from the region's planning trajectory and landscape management approach. This approach has been shaped by a lack of territorial and supra-municipal perspective and the primacy of culture, identity, and heritage aspects over the landscape's productive dimension.

Jean-Christophe Levassor · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · France

This study addresses social divisions in Le Pile, east Roubaix, France, where over 40% of residents live below the poverty line. It states that without proactive policies, social divisions will worsen, and initiatives like urban farming and zero waste will only have a limited effect beyond a small circle of insiders. La Condition Publique aims to recreate ties among various actors to support urban renovation and foster resilience in this deprived neighborhood.

Juan Ignacio Plaza Gutiérrez, Daniel Herrero Luque, Marta Martínez Arnáiz, Eugenio Baraja Rodríguez · Cuadernos Geográficos · Spain

This article explores the singularity and diversity of peri-urban garden landscapes characterizing the surroundings of several cities in Castilla y León, Spain. The study analyzed the spatio-temporal evolution, landscape dimension, functional relationship with urban space, and the consideration of their protection, management, and maintenance in planning instruments. Results reveal the unequal persistence of traditional garden belts, their diverse types, and their uneven treatment in urban planning in the studied cases.

Guido Sali, Federica Monaco, Stefano Corsi, Chiara Mazzocchi · Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) · Europe

This paper adopts a territorial approach to analyze agro-food systems in five European metropolitan regions. The methodology aims to assess the capacities of urban and peri-urban agriculture to meet urban food demand and its economic role. Preliminary results are provided to inform regulations in the agro-food sector.

Ian Siddons Heginworth, Gary Nash · · United Kingdom (London)

This introduction provides an overview of a book discussing an eighteen-week environmental arts therapy pilot group for adult mental health clients. The book explores themes related to hostile mothering and connections to nature, and considers trauma-informed environmental arts therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome. It also describes the Community Outdoor Art Therapy Service (COATS) in London, which uses urban parks and community gardens.