Research & reports

Paola Andrea Sánchez Castañeda · City & Society · Colombia (Bogotá)

Focusing on the Indigenous Muysca community of Suba in Bogotá, Colombia, this ethnographic study, framed within Participatory Action Research methodology, examines the unique and enduring forms of colonialism that Indigenous communities experience in urban environments. Having had their traditional territories abruptly urbanized, the Muysca experience urban coloniality through mechanisms such as displacement, environmental degradation and epistemicide, while engaging in embodied practices of contestation including language revitalization, urban gardening, and occupation of sacred sites that have become urbanized. The study explores dwelling as an embodied, place-rooted everyday experience to show how the Muysca produce alternative socioecological lifeworlds within the city, and argues that these embodied practices unsettle the logic of urban coloniality of nature that continues to drive Indigenous dispossession.

Jeremias Pineda, Armando M. Guidote · International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education · Global

A quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest study tested whether agriCHEMture, a home-based, urban-gardening-themed e-learning laboratory material, improved General Chemistry achievement among remote-learning high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-one senior high school General Chemistry students received the agriCHEMture intervention between a pretest and posttest, and paired-samples t-tests (p < 0.001) showed post-test scores significantly higher than pretest scores, indicating a significant increase in chemistry achievement.

Zandra Anciano Quirante, Eric Randy R. Politud · International Journal of Multidisciplinary Applied Business and Education Research · Philippines

A mixed-methods study assessed the viability of a low-cost hydroponic system using locally sourced Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) as an organic input for lettuce production aimed at food security in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines, examining acceptability, growth performance and economic feasibility. Estrosa and Olmetie lettuce varieties showed the best growth performance; nitrate was undetectable in Estrosa and Green Wave, while Olmetie and Invicta absorbed more nitrate with FPJ use, though all levels stayed within international safety limits and cadmium was not detected, while limited technical knowledge, material access and capital were identified as barriers to adoption.

Cassandra Tytler · · Global

A book chapter examines the intersection of place-based art practices, ecological attunement and relational wellbeing through Think Like a Worm, a project using multisensory, embodied approaches that transformed a community garden into a sensory art space. Drawing on feminist and anti-colonial scholarship, it argues for a "politics of location" that acknowledges inequities in environmental impacts and knowledge production.

Ioana Florea · · Global

This chapter finds that while collective urban gardening projects represent forms of resistance against market-based food systems, the precarization of urban natures, and real-estate dominance, their everyday practices often fail to deliver on these ideals and intentions, generating incomplete, contradictory, or temporary results. It proposes a heuristic frame linking space, time, and class to review prior urban-gardening research from a political-ecology perspective, tracing how space's materiality, time embedded in plant growth, and class differences conditioning gardeners' access to space and time produce these contradictions.

Luciana Daniela Portella Carreño, Carla-Maria Strejanțu, Florica Morariu, Dumitru Popescu, Eugen Cătălin Zoican · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

This study compared the growth performance of basil (Ocimum basilicum) grown in a hydroponic system versus a conventional soil-based environment over a six-week period under controlled conditions in a small plastic greenhouse. Measuring plant height, leaf number, and total water consumption, it found that hydroponically grown basil showed faster growth, required significantly less water, and had healthier leaf structures with fewer visible defects than the soil-grown basil.

Zahara Abdul Manaf, Louise Tee, Nurul Mirza Mohamad Shah, Siti Hajar Mohammad, Abdul Arieffarid Abdul Wahid · Journal of Health Population and Nutrition · Malaysia

This quasi-experimental study involved 72 ten-year-old children at a primary school in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, recruited by convenience sampling. The intervention group received a two-month program combining a talk on fruits and vegetables, educational gardening, cooking activities, and an educational board game, while the control group received only a dietitian's talk on fruits and vegetables. Height and weight were measured to calculate BMI, and changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices around fruit and vegetable consumption were measured with a self-administered structured questionnaire. Knowledge and awareness improved significantly among girls in the intervention group (p = 0.010) but not among boys (p = 0.272), and knowledge improved significantly among overweight and obese participants (p = 0.033) but not among those with normal or underweight BMI (p = 0.215). Attitude (p = 0.980) and practice (p = 0.233) toward fruit and vegetable consumption showed no statistically significant improvement after the intervention.

Nurulanis Ahmad, Zarita Ahmad Baharum, Yasmin Mohd Adnan, Nor Nazihah Chuweni · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia

This study qualitatively explored stakeholders' perspectives on urban agriculture (UA) toward sustainable urban development in Malaysia, using semi-structured interviews grounded in stakeholder theory. It drew on 15 stakeholders selected from different authority levels -- the Department of Agriculture Malaysia and PLANMalaysia at the federal level, the Department of Agriculture Perak at the state level, Subang Jaya City Council at the local level, private property managers, and academicians -- who were top management, practitioners, and officers with relevant background in urban agriculture, urban planning, and real estate. The findings produced a framework of action plans centred on social, economic, environmental, policy, and technological-innovation dimensions, intended to guide policymakers and urban planners in developing action plans for advancing UA toward sustainable urban development.

Jan Grossarth · Discover Cities · Global

This paper critically examines the dominance of quantification—certification scores, KPIs, life-cycle assessment—in sustainability practice for cities and buildings (including urban agriculture), arguing that data-driven metrics strip out the emotional and narrative meaning of sustainability. The authors label the shift from a culturally rich orientation to a purely technical, quantitative practice a "tragedy of sustainability," and argue that narrative-focused interviews and real-life storytelling in architecture and urban planning should not just accompany KPIs and ratings but be prioritized over them. The paper is a conceptual argument, not an empirical study with data or case findings.

Augustin Tshilumba Ilunga, Michel Mbumba Bandi, Albert Tshinyama Ntumba, Damien-Joseph Muteba Kalala · Revue Africaine d’Environnement et d’Agriculture · Democratic Republic of Congo

A study of urban agriculture in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo—a sector described as vital for food security and employment amid rapid urbanization, food insecurity, and unemployment, where farms face significant challenges including land pressure, restricted access to credit, and lack of institutional support. The study aimed to (i) examine the motivations of agri-entrepreneurs, (ii) assess their impact on farm viability, and (iii) identify the economic and non-economic factors influencing business sustainability, using a qualitative and quantitative survey combining 20 semi-structured interviews across three peripheral zones (via snowball sampling) with documentary analysis. Three categories of entrepreneurs were identified: civil servants farming as a supplementary activity, private-sector employees investing in farming, and traders farming to secure their survival. Non-pecuniary motivations such as social engagement and passion strengthened resilience, but land insecurity, a financing deficit, and lack of training were identified as the major obstacles farms face; observed adaptive strategies included diversification and informal partnerships. The study concludes by calling for integrated strategies to secure land tenure, facilitate access to credit, and professionalize the sector while integrating peri-urban agriculture into urban planning processes.

Diana Dushkova, Maria Ignatieva · Diversity · Global

Ongoing urbanization, biodiversity decline, and intensifying climate change are increasingly challenging the sustainability of urban green spaces dominated by conventional, intensively maintained lawns, which are criticized for their low biodiversity value and high resource demands. This paper explores nature-based solutions (NBS) as alternatives for enhancing the resilience and multifunctionality of urban lawns, conceptualizing lawns as intertwined ecological, design, and socio-cultural systems and evaluating strategies for their transformation. Drawing on case studies from ten Eurasian cities, a narrative literature review, and the authors' inter- and transdisciplinary research experience, it develops a typology of NBS alternatives including urban species-rich meadows, semi-natural grasslands, naturalistic herbaceous perennial plantings, mixed-vegetation groundcovers, edible lawns, pictorial (annual) meadows, and rewilded lawns, with key interventions including reduced mowing, multifunctional green spaces, adaptive management, and community engagement. The paper finds that these approaches can enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate resilience, but that their success depends on local ecological conditions, landscape design, and public perceptions of urban nature; it recommends using native, drought- and trampling-resistant plants with context-sensitive design that respects cultural traditions of urban greening and fosters social acceptance.

Bojan Baletić, Iva Bedenko, Marijo Spajić · · Croatia

A chapter examining the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) in the Zagreb Living Lab, in the post-industrial area of Sesvete, Croatia, as part of the EU proGIreg project. Key initiatives include the "City Gardens" project, offering citizens free plots for sustainable urban gardening, and a therapeutic garden designed for individuals with disabilities, alongside integration of green technologies including a modular urban farm combining aquaponics with green roofs and walls. Despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquakes, the chapter states these initiatives demonstrated the potential of NBS to enhance urban regeneration, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability, emphasizing co-design processes involving local stakeholders and citizens that successfully fostered community engagement and acceptance of NBS. It discusses challenges and opportunities in operationalizing NBS within urban planning and policy and reflects on the potential for scaling these solutions and their role in shaping Sesvete's future development.

Aldona Glińska‐Neweś, Paweł Brzustewicz, Iwona Escher, Yusheng Fu, Anupam Singh · Food Quality and Preference · Global

Two studies comparing consumers and non-consumers of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) examined whether participation strengthens environmental, social and health consciousness and sustainable behavior. CSA consumers showed higher environmental and social consciousness than non-consumers, with social consciousness increasing over the course of participation, and reported more sustainable consumer behavior extending beyond food to other spheres of consumption.

Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, Favio R. Chumpitaz-Requena, Daniel R. Rondinel-Oviedo, Úrsula Cárdenas‐Mamani, Johan Manuel Redondo · Environmental Science & Policy · Global

This study used a System Dynamics model to simulate five 10-year policy scenarios for an informal settlement in a developing country, addressing settlement consolidation and women's access to formal employment: business-as-usual, time-quality, women's formal employment, circularity (including organic waste management with urban gardens and urban agriculture), and a comprehensive scenario combining all interventions. Individual solutions alone did not fully capture potential synergies, whereas the comprehensive scenario reduced by 47.5% the time needed to improve women's formal employability, a result linked to the settlement consolidation process.

Riann Lognon, Chetna Khandelwal, Megha Sanyal, Santanu Dutta, Pallavi Banerjee, Pratim Sengupta · Frontiers in Climate · Global

Drawing on a three-year community gardening project co-created with newcomer (refugee) youth of color in North America, this qualitative study analyzed the youths' participatory, embodied and discursive work over the first two years of creating and caring for the community garden, examining how they re-establish relationships with land, air, water and more-than-human life in their newly adopted home. The analysis found the youths' participation centered an anti-racist praxis within the garden, and the study offers an expanded account of how race and climate are implicated together in migration.

Edwin Javier Ortega Zúñiga · Ediciones Comunicación Científica eBooks · Colombia

A study of Palmira, Colombia — a city with a long tradition as the country's agricultural capital — finds that it nonetheless faces significant food insecurity. Prior research reviewed in the study attributes this to an aging rural population and young people's declining interest in farming (which has shrunk the available labor force and limited adoption of new technology), gender inequality that restricts women's access to agricultural resources and decisions, climate change impacts such as droughts and floods on production, and accelerated urbanization that has reduced cropland and fragmented the agricultural landscape. As a potential response, the study describes a pilot project at four sites in the city that installed small-space vegetable production systems, which it reports functioned as a viable source of fresh food in dense urban settings. The authors call for a multidisciplinary approach combining social, economic and environmental factors to address food insecurity in Palmira.

Parisi A., Walthall B., Clerino P., Firmbach P., Onyszkiewicz M., Vicente Vicente J. L. · Environmental Evidence · Global

A protocol for a systematic map of the scholarly literature on the relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and gentrification. The authors note that existing accounts variously present gentrification as a possible outcome of UA activities, as a risk that UA initiatives themselves face, and as other kinds of relationship, and argue that these divergent accounts are partly explained by different theoretical engagements with gentrification and by the breadth of activities gathered under 'urban agriculture'. It sets out the search and review strategy and aims to expose gaps in dominant academic discourses. Being a protocol, it reports no findings yet.

Pires M. J. F. C. D. S., Ribeiro S. A., Ferreira L. S., Antunes L. F. S., Uzeda M. C., Correia M. E. F. · Environmental Monitoring and Assessment · ブラジル・リオデジャネイロ市

A survey testing whether agroecological urban agriculture plots — described as remnants of biodiversity that also provide ecosystem services, food security and income — can shelter soil fauna in an urban setting. Fifteen areas forming a gradient from different plantations to forest were selected in the Campo Grande and Vargem Grande neighbourhoods of western Rio de Janeiro. At each area a transect of three sampling points 5 m apart was established; soil mesofauna was sampled with a specific auger from the litter layer down to 10 cm, and earthworms by the TSBF method at 0–10 cm. Soil fertility and texture were analysed at each point, landscape features were measured within buffers around each site, and multivariate techniques including principal component analysis were used to identify which soil attributes and landscape features most affect the occurrence and abundance of soil invertebrates.

Tanja Kähkönen, Joshua Finch, Michael den Herder · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This paper describes community supported agriculture (CSA) as a collaboration model for food production, distribution and consumption involving farmers and consumers. It notes that CSA consumers can include individuals and families as well as other consumers such as restaurants, schools and kindergartens.

Sunamis Fabelo Concepción, Elizabeth Peña Turruellas, Maruchi Alonso Esquivel · Latin American and Caribbean Studies · Global

A discussion piece examines opportunities for cooperation on food security and sovereignty between Cuba and the Republic of Korea following the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It highlights the importance of a legal framework recognizing healthy, adequate nutrition as a fundamental right, and identifies urban agriculture — an area of success for both nations — as a key strategy for pursuing sovereign, local, and sustainable food systems. The piece frames this as an opening for scientific diplomacy grounded in mutual respect and long-term partnership, presenting no empirical data or measured outcomes.

ER Ramesh Chand, Ridhima Arya, Ravi Pratap Singh, Devi Singh, Vedant Singh · International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research · Global

A review article surveys evidence on rooftop vegetable farming's ability to absorb carbon and noise, lower air temperatures on and around roofs, and reduce urban heat-island effects, alongside using composted kitchen waste as a substitute for mineral fertilizers. It cites prior research showing compost can raise soil moisture content, decrease soil erosion, and help manage pests, weeds, and diseases, in place of mineral insecticides and fertilizers currently used in some urban rooftop gardens. The review notes rooftop gardening is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh and is intended to support further study of the practice there.

Sarah Kakadellis, Herman D. Delgado, Russell Teall, R. Gándara León, Christopher W. Simmons, Edward S. Spang · Journal of Agriculture and Food Research · Global

This greenhouse experiment tested liquid food waste-derived digestate (FWDD) as a biofertilizer for community learning gardens, growing tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) under four treatments: potting medium alone, medium with synthetic mineral fertilizer, medium with compost, and medium with a compost-FWDD blend. The mineral-fertilizer control produced the highest total fruit yield, but total edible fruit yield and total fruit weight were similar between the control and the compost-FWDD blend, which produced the largest average fruit weight; compost and compost-FWDD treatments produced lighter, tarter—though not more acidic—tomatoes, and no detrimental soil effects from FWDD were observed, though the authors note further research is needed to assess social perceptions and life cycle impacts.

Jennifer Newell, Siobhan Cox, Rory Doherty · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global

A systematic review synthesized literature on the oral bioaccessible fraction (BAF) of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in vegetables grown on contaminated soils, drawing values from multiple online databases across potentially toxic elements (PTEs), in vitro test methods, and vegetable types. The review starts from the premise that many urban and peri-urban brownfield sites carry a legacy of soil metal and metalloid contamination, so crops grown there may pose human health risks. Median PTE BAFs ranked Cd > Ni > Cr > As > Pb; among in vitro methods, the unified BARGE method (UBM) produced the highest median BAFs (63.0% gastric, 59.6% gastrointestinal); and by crop type, BAFs ranked non-vegetables (e.g., rice, fungi) > legumes > root vegetables > bulb vegetables > leafy vegetables.

Kelley AT, Boger R · EcoHealth · 米国・ニューヨーク市ブルックリン

A survey of mosquito larval abundance and genera across 22 community gardens in Brooklyn, New York. The authors frame these gardens as social spaces providing food sovereignty to many New Yorkers, while the arrival of Aedes albopictus and the longtime presence of Culex pipiens make socialising in them more dangerous — Ae. albopictus is associated with dengue, Zika and chikungunya, and Cx. pipiens is a longstanding West Nile virus vector. Because both breed in human-made plastic containers, knowing their preferred container types and locations can inform gardeners' best management practices. Non-purposeful container types and lower total volumes of water were significant predictors of higher mosquito densities, though these variables did not predict egg-laying preference.

Otoadese D, Kamara I, Onyango E · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · カナダ・アルバータ州

Community gardens are increasingly popular in Canadian cities and can be transformative spaces where immigrants develop self-reliant strategies for accessing culturally familiar, healthy food — yet many facilitators and barriers limit the engagement of racialized groups such as Black-identifying immigrants. Using a socio-ecological framework and a community-based participatory research approach, this mixed-methods study combined structured surveys (n = 119), in-depth interviews (n = 10) and two Afrocentric sharing circles, with participants recruited through African immigrant-serving community organisations in Alberta. Barriers at several levels of the socio-ecological model interacted to shape interest and engagement, while access to collective gardens was associated with significant benefits: maintaining healthy foodways, knowledge exchange, growing social capital, and community connections supporting overall wellbeing. The authors offer an accessible framework for addressing these barriers and for making urban agriculture initiatives more inclusive and culturally responsive.