Research & reports

Udo Weilacher · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

This chapter discusses the historical perception of gardens and gardening in urban contexts, noting that from the mid-19th century, ornamental gardens were often questioned by architects and urban planners. Leading 20th-century European landscape architects criticized gardening as neither artistic nor scientific. However, in the 21st century, gardens, particularly urban gardening, have seen a renaissance as a living component of the 'network metropolis', suggesting that the fundamental principles of garden thinking remain relevant.

Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro · Journal of Environmental Quality · Global

This review examines atmospheric sources of trace element (TE) contamination in cultivated urban areas (CUAs), noting that these sources are understudied and poorly understood despite extensive research on TE contamination in CUAs. Existing research often assesses atmospheric deposition indirectly or lacks controls for other TE contaminants, and shows little engagement with atmospheric sciences methodological guidelines, which reduces confidence in current findings. The review suggests combining atmospheric science techniques with existing robust methodologies for TE contamination studies in CUAs.

Catalina Cruz-Piedrahita, Caroline Howe, Audrey de Nazelle · Global Transitions · Global

This scoping review analyzed 138 papers to develop a conceptual framework on the impacts of urban horticulture (UH) on public health in the Global North. While UH is proposed as a tool for health improvement, the review notes a lack of systematic information on its benefits, barriers, costs, and risks in these regions. The framework visualizes relationships between UH and public health, providing evidence for both positive and negative connections regarding mental health, physical activity, diet, and socialization.

Jani Kozina, Nela Halilović · Capacities · Slovenia (Velenje)

The book "Velenje, an industrial city in transformation" aims to illuminate aspects of the Slovenian industrial city of Velenje's past, present, and future transformation, providing an overview of its developmental factors. It emphasizes social, cultural, spatial, environmental, and economic aspects, alongside a critical evaluation of future development resources and actions. Through 16 diverse contributions, the book highlights the importance of utilizing endogenous development resources and adopting a participatory approach to future decision-making.

Hendri Librata, Suryono Herlambang · Jurnal Sains Teknologi Urban Perancangan Arsitektur (Stupa) · Indonesia

This study focuses on the unresolved dialogue between traditional markets and public transportation in the Angke Market environment, proposing an architectural design to meet the needs of urban millennial society. The design uses a mixed program combining transit functions, traditional fruit and vegetable markets, vertical urban farming, and millennial hangout places. This results in new programs like urban farming and hangout facilities that link transit and market programs and contextualize future needs.

Shingo YOSHIDA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study examined the interaction between farm development and diversification in 18 peri-urban farms in Japan's Kanto region. Farm structural diversification was categorized into four types: highly diversified, complementary enterprise, search and selection, and non-diversified. Farms exhibiting entrepreneurship, management skills, and active social networks achieved development across all categories. Diversification in highly diversified and search & selection types interacted with the internal farm environment, but had little impact on management in complementary enterprise types.

Miguel A. Altieri, Clara I. Nicholls · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the relevance of agroecology as a path to reconstruct a post-COVID-19 agriculture. Agroecology can prevent future food supply disruptions by localizing food production and consumption. Five key areas for a new post-COVID-19 agriculture include overcoming pesticide reliance, enriching natural environments, revitalizing small farms, creating alternative animal production systems, and enhancing urban agriculture.

Evan Bowness, Hannah Wittman · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Canada

A study advancing the theory of agrarian citizenship—the bundle of rights and responsibilities underpinning the food sovereignty movement—based on interviews with 34 participants engaged in urban agriculture in Metro Vancouver, Canada. It introduces the concept of urban agrarianism, defined as an urban ethic of care for foodlands and, by extension, a relational responsibility to exercise solidarity with those who cultivate and harvest food. The paper argues that urban people, especially those with privilege, should recognize the impacts of their social-ecological metabolism and mobilize for food sovereignty struggles, including for the repatriation of lands stolen through colonial dispossession.

Ana Clara Aparecida Alves de Souza · Revista Brasileira de Casos de Ensino em Administração · Brazil

This teaching case study addresses activism for urban agriculture in an initiative called Horta da Formiga ("the Ant's Garden") in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The initiative is characterized as a social laboratory within the city, and because urban agriculture draws multidisciplinary interest, the case is intended for use across a range of academic fields and disciplines.

Angela Bernadete Lima · História e Cultura · Germany

A historical study examines the food situation in Berlin, Germany, during and after World War I, looking at how residents sought alternatives to the food scarcity of the time and how urban spaces were used for food production, building on a practice of urban cultivation already present in the city's daily life since the 19th century.

Jessica Ann Diehl · Sustainability · Australia

Semi-structured interviews with 15 commercial urban farmers in Sydney, Australia, guided by questions based on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, examined how farmers access tangible and intangible resources through social networks within the urban food system. Three patterns emerged: urban-local, rural-local, and urban-global networks used in pursuit of sustainable livelihoods. The study concludes that land is only one driver, among many, of the sustainability of the local food system.

Lisandro Esteban Martínez · Estudios socioterritoriales · Global

A team from Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) conducted a territorial foresight exercise for the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (RMBA), focusing on food production and consumption and the metropolitan territory in which they are embedded. Defining the area as a metropolitan agri-food system (SAM), the team constructed multiple plausible future scenarios, drawing on more than a decade of INTA work on urban and peri-urban agriculture in the region to characterize the dynamics of this complex system.

Flora Del Debbio · estudoprévio revista do centro de estudos de arquitectura cidade e território da Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa · Europe

Using primary sources such as historical written documents and cartography, an article examines how the interpenetration of urban and rural space has been a defining feature of Lisbon, Portugal's history, and attempts to map in detail the agricultural land occupation within the city's urban soil. The available abstract breaks off mid-sentence while describing a balance maintained over the centuries, and no further specific findings are given.

Zhaohui Wu, Madeleine Pullman · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global

A book chapter surveys sustainable food supply chain issues, introducing the typical actors in food supply chains and the global food system characterized by consolidation and industrialization. It discusses traceability, transparency, certification and standards, and alternatives to industrialized food systems — including cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and small and medium-sized growers practicing regenerative agriculture — and closes with emerging logistics topics such as last-mile delivery, new technology, and cold chain management.

Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore · Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore · Singapore

In a written reply to a 4 November 2020 parliamentary question, Minister Grace Fu stated that SFA and HDB awarded the first tender for nine multi-storey carpark rooftop sites in September 2020 to operators proposing high-productivity systems, projected to collectively produce up to 1,600 tonnes of vegetables annually. She noted local produce travels shorter distances and lasts longer, and cited community benefits such as employment and increased awareness of local produce.

Mothership.SG · Mothership.SG · Singapore

This article reports that a tender for rooftop space on nine HDB multi-storey carparks in Singapore opened on 12 May 2020, closed on 16 June 2020, and results were announced on 30 September 2020. Nine sites (five standalone plus two clusters of two) were awarded to six operators; the article states the nine farming systems can potentially produce around 1,600 tonnes (1,600,000kg) of vegetables per year. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and Housing Development Board (HDB) were involved, and the project is framed as part of the '30 by 30' strategy to produce 30 per cent of Singapore's food locally by 2030.

Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (Senamhi) · Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (Senamhi) · Peru

Peru's national meteorological and hydrological service (Senamhi) reported on 1 April 2020 that moderate rain fell over Lima the previous night. The rain began around 6:30 p.m. and lasted about 30 minutes, reaching up to 2mm in La Molina and Santa Anita and up to 3mm in Chosica and Santa Eulalia. Senamhi noted that Lima receives less than 15mm of rain per year, with winter (June-August) garúa drizzle consisting of very fine droplets over several hours, unlike summer rain driven by Andean humidity transport.

Barbara Maćkiewicz, Raúl Puente Asuero, Antonio Garrido Almonacid · Quaestiones Geographicae · Spain

This study investigated how urban allotment gardens in Baeza, Andalusia, Spain, affect the city’s sustainable development. The research showed that allotment gardens in Baeza endorsed all three pillars of sustainable city development: ecological, economic, and social. However, it was found that developing broader community relations on the city scale, reviving the declining local grocery market, and disseminating environmental initiatives that allotment gardens could promote and facilitate were missing.

Youcan Feng · IntechOpen eBooks · Global

This chapter summarizes current research progress and challenges regarding the benefit, measurement, and simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) from green infrastructure (GI). ET is crucial for GI's hydrologic performance and related benefits, but classic ET equations struggle to represent variations due to urban spatial heterogeneity and GI's multi-layer designs. The underperformance of existing ET models is partly attributed to a lack of high-quality field observations for various GI types in urban settings.

Benz Kotzen · · Global

This paper argues that vertical cities, integrating biophilia, could address the challenges of increasing global and urban populations. It suggests that these megastructures, which can include green spaces and urban agriculture, offer a compact footprint that allows for increased nature and farming in adjacent areas. While individual megastructures exist, the concept of a full vertical city has not yet been realized.

Habtamu Abebe · International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources · Ethiopia

This cross-sectional study in Arbaminch town investigated community awareness of climate change and the perceived role of urban agriculture for climate resilience using a structured questionnaire. It found that 87.2% of respondents were aware of climate change, primarily through media (70.7%), family/friends (63.4%), and public meetings/seminars (28%). A significant association was observed between respondents' age, education level, and occupation with both climate change awareness and the perception of urban agriculture's importance for climate change intervention.

Thulasizwe Mkhabela · · Southern Africa

This chapter examines trends in large and urban agricultural markets in Africa, focusing on Southern Africa and using South Africa as an example. It notes the increasing importance of urban agriculture markets due to growing urban populations, purchasing power, and changing consumer preferences. The chapter analyzes the evolution of these markets, including the rise of alternative marketing channels like farmers' markets, and discusses the linkages between rural and urban areas in food marketing, suggesting policy interventions to enhance urban agricultural markets.

Julián Briz Escribano, Isabel de Felipe Boente · Mundo del agrónomo: la revista del Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Agrónomos de Centro y Canarias · Global

Urban naturalization, as the incorporation of nature into our environment, can occur spontaneously and invasively through what are called "weeds" with native flora and fauna, or in a controlled manner through agriculture, both in orchards and gardens.

Karla Solari Pérez, Jazmín Goicochea Medina, Mishel Huamán Nakamura, Ronaldiño Tamara Pachas · Investigaciones Sociales · Peru (Lima)

This article analyzes the role of women in promoting and developing urban agriculture in two districts of South Lima, Peru: San Juan de Miraflores and Villa María del Triunfo. These experiences are part of the "Red de agricultores ecológicos huertos en línea" (Network of ecological farmers online gardens) social responsibility project by Red de Energía del Perú, and are analyzed transversally through the sex/gender system.

· International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE) · Global

Unplanned urban expansion leads to the conversion of farmland, causing urban environmental degradation and food security concerns. This paper analyzes the correlation between urban farming and supporting food demands in urban areas. It further discusses critical challenges and opportunities for promoting urban farming as a significant tool for encouraging balanced sustenance in urban areas.