Research & reports

Guo Hua, Guozhu Ren · JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING STUDIES · Global

This paper attempts to define the role of urban agriculture in building resilient cities. It also analyzes how urban agriculture can make cities more resilient to potential crises in emergencies or sudden events, as well as under normal circumstances, such as climate change and oil peak.

Katrin Bohn, André Viljoen · · Global

This paper focuses on urban agriculture as a major component of CPUL (Continuous Productive Urban Landscape). The CPUL City concept aims to make urban spaces more productive and desirable for citizens by planfully introducing continuous productive urban landscapes, including urban agriculture, into cities. The CPUL City concept proposes that urban agriculture can contribute to more sustainable and resilient food systems while also adding beneficially to the spatial quality of the urban realm.

Avi Friedman · Island Press/Center for Resource Economics eBooks · Global

This chapter discusses the problems of conventional landscaping, which requires excessive water, maintenance, and chemicals, leading to resource depletion and pollution. Alternative practices such as edible landscaping and xeriscaping are gaining traction in residences, as they can significantly reduce adverse environmental effects while maintaining aesthetic value. The principles and applications of these methods are discussed in this chapter.

José Luis Fernández de Casadevante, Nerea Morán Alonso · · Global

This article reviews the uses of the term resilience in the urban domain and examines methods for applying sustainability to urban environments. It focuses on the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture, arguing that their scope extends beyond mere food production. These practices generate spaces for developing alternative city models, fostering conviviality, and illustrating an alternative to the current agri-food system.

· · Global

This paper proposes Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPULs) as a complement to the compact city model, arguing that urban food production contributes to environmental sustainability. The CPUL model suggests that not all brownfield sites must be built upon, while still maximizing sustainable returns from land use. This combination is envisioned to create a new type of city.

고성철, 김수현, 김경묵, 장재수, 이은희 · 한국생태환경건축학회 학술발표대회 논문집 · Global

This study focused on implementing a functional rooftop garden using biochar and the microbial consortium BM-S-1. Biochar amendment reduced heavy metal (Pb and Zn) runoff and maintained more moisture to stimulate plant growth, but it did not maintain NO3- and PO43-. The amendment of biochar and BM-S-1 somewhat inhibited the growth of broadleaf liriope, while biochar amendment increased tolerance to storm carrying salt.

Takao Ugai · ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa) · Global

This investigation aims to develop a new urban scheme for "Cultivating Urbanism" by adapting agricultural practices into existing urban fabrics to create pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, high-density cities filled with agriculture. The study analyzes the history of urban systems and agriculture, drawing on New Urbanism and Agricultural Urbanism to propose new urban typologies. It investigates the paradigm of ecology, lifestyle, food products, and physical and psychological benefits, using Shinjuku, Tokyo, as a case study for applying urban agriculture methodologies to various building prototypes.

Zhu Qing-hai · Ecological Economy · Global

This paper describes a new cultural movement in agricultural food emerging in Western developed countries, driven by concerns over food safety, environmental pollution, global climate change, and inequality. This movement encompasses community-supported agriculture, food miles, and fair trade. These initiatives are presented as ensuring food safety, promoting regional economic development, safeguarding global fairness and justice, and influencing global environmental improvement.

Rolando León Aguilar, Ramón Liriano González, Dania Bárbara Núñez Sosa · Centro agrícola · Cuba

A study at the intensive garden of the Universidad de Matanzas in Cuba evaluated the effect of organic matter and vegetative ground cover on water resource sustainability for urban agriculture, growing lettuce and cucumber. Using a randomized block design with six treatments and five replicates, soil moisture content and yield components were measured and analyzed with Tukey's test at 95% confidence; organic matter and vegetative cover increased soil water content and retention by more than 10% compared with bare soil, and both applied singly or combined produced a positive response in the yield components of lettuce and cucumber.

Eleni Katrini · KiltHub Repository · Global

A 2012 thesis (KiltHub Repository) reviewed multiple systems -- urban agriculture, decentralized water management and treatment, and energy production from waste -- through literature review and case studies. The goal was to build a toolkit for urban regenerative environments to introduce these systems to designers, with its key component being a quantitative link between each system's spatial demands and its efficiency.

Leigh Whittinghill, D. Bradley Rowe · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Global

Urban agriculture faces limitations including competition for space, lack of formalized land use rights, and health hazards from food contamination. Green roof technology is proposed as a method to alleviate these issues, potentially reducing the use of contaminated land and water at ground level. However, for large-scale implementation, installation costs must be reduced, roof weight limitations assessed, and appropriate management practices developed.

H. de Zeeuw, R. van Veenhuizen, Marielle Dubbeling · The Journal of Agricultural Science · Global

This paper summarizes the available evidence regarding the potential of urban agriculture to respond to key urban challenges and reviews the perspectives on urban agriculture applied by local and national authorities.

Christophe Antonio‐Nkondjio, Billy Tene‐Fossog, Cyrille Ndo, Benjamin Menze Djantio, Serge Zebaze Togouet, Parfait Awono‐Ambene, Carlo Costantini, Charles S. Wondji, Hilary Ranson · Malaria Journal · Cameroon

This study assessed the influence of urban pollution and agriculture on malaria vector distribution and insecticide susceptibility in Douala and Yaoundé, Cameroon, from October 2009 to December 2010. Researchers sampled 1,546 anopheline larval breeding sites and analyzed water parameters. Findings showed mosquitoes from cultivated urban areas exhibited the highest insecticide resistance levels, with urban agriculture, rather than pollution, suggested as the major factor driving resistance.

Helena K. Farrell · ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst (University of Massachusetts Amherst) · Global

Modern food systems are vulnerable, necessitating a transition to regenerative agricultural practices. Urban agriculture is expanding globally to meet urban dwellers' needs and mitigate the effects of industrial agriculture. The wide variety of urban agriculture styles, practices, and production modes highlights the need for clearer articulation and more accurate distinctions between actual urban farm systems. An evaluative framework was developed in this research to assess urban farm systems using a current and comprehensive set of criteria and metrics. The long-term role of urban food production in feeding the global population remains unclear.

Zhao Shu-ming · · Global

This paper discusses the unique functions and effectiveness of urban agriculture in the construction of urban ecosystems, based on its connotation and development models. Specifically, it includes promoting the integration of urban and rural areas, strengthening the living service functions of urban ecosystems, creating a livable ecological environment, building green spaces in cities, and promoting the coordinated development of agriculture and industry.

Leonie J. Pearson, Linda Pearson, Craig J. Pearson · Urban agriculture · Global

This paper reviews research on urban agriculture in relation to its social, economic, and environmental sustainability dimensions. It proposes that urban agriculture comprises three elements: isolated practice, its interface with people and environment, and its contribution to built form design, considering micro, meso, and macro scales. The analysis highlights legal, social, and economic constraints and opportunities, suggesting future research priorities include identifying principles for resilient city design and trialing innovative institutional mechanisms.

Éric Duchemin · · Global

This paper discusses how urban agriculture improves the economic situation and health of poor and vulnerable families in both industrialized and developing countries. It suggests that policies reconciling urbanity and rurality can reduce food insecurity and better integrate the most vulnerable populations, contributing to sustainable development.

Heather A. Okvat, Alex Zautra · American Journal of Community Psychology · Global

This paper introduces community gardening as a method to enhance well-being and resilience at individual, social, and environmental levels. It examines empirical evidence for gardening's benefits and advocates for developing and testing social ecological models of community resilience by studying the impact of urban community gardens. The paper also discusses the potential of community garden networks to address the global climate change crisis.

Božidar Manić, Crnčević Tijana, Ana Niković · Arhitektura i urbanizam · Serbia (Bela Crkva)

This paper examines the possibilities of improving urban settlement structure by interpolating passive protection concepts against climate change, specifically applying green areas in urban fabric planning. The research applies analysis of existing legislation, planning documents, literature, foreign practice, and in situ scanning. A case study of block 23 in Bela Crkva emphasizes the role of green areas, noting its specific position with planned housing near existing industry, and analyzes the possibility of affirming existing, spontaneously developed agriculture through planning guidelines, based on comparative examples of urban agriculture in foreign countries.

Lorenzo Montero, Reynaldo Cun, J. Pérez Pérez, Marta P Ricardo, Julián Herrera · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba (La Habana)

The effect of wastewater irrigation on sorghum and maize yields for animal feed production in urban agriculture was studied at an urban farm in San Miguel del Padrón municipality, La Habana province, Cuba. Two treatments, wastewater irrigation (T1) and no irrigation (T2), were compared, with a total net dose of 1775.4 m3·ha-1 of wastewater applied over 31 irrigations. Wastewater irrigation significantly increased grain yields for sorghum (4.29 t·ha-1) and maize (1.73 t·ha-1) compared to the no-irrigation treatment. Sorghum showed better water utilization efficiency than maize.

Ji Zhao, Chang An Liu, Yu Kun Zhang · Advanced materials research · Global

This paper analyzes the potential for integrating agriculture into urban environments and architectural spaces as an integrative strategy for low-carbon cities and architecture. It explores the necessity and possibility of developing urban agriculture as an alternative that amends missing links in existing low-carbon strategies, discussing its integration into cities and buildings.

Jenny Cameron, Craig Manhood, Jamie Pomfrett · Local Environment · Global

This paper explores Bruno Latour's concept of "learning to be affected" as a form of bodily learning, suggesting it is suitable for understanding how people are motivated to act in response to the world. It argues that performative and collective research, focused on crafting realities, can enhance this embodied learning. A community garden research project using a collective bus trip-workshop method is presented as an example.

Yan Lv, Rui Zhang · Advanced materials research · Global

Farming in the city is the most significant practice of urban agriculture, with important social and economic impact. It constructs a stable and sustainable eco-recycling system, utilizing daily waste for crop irrigation, livestock breeding, and energy production. This study discusses the ecological characteristics, scientific principles, and operation steps of these ecological technologies to efficiently present an artificial agro-ecosystem in limited space.

David Mason, Ian Knowd · Urban agriculture · Australia (Sydney)

This paper explores the history of urban agriculture (UA) in the Sydney Metropolitan Region, Australia. UA emerged as a grassroots response to global forces negatively impacting urban and farming communities, including urban sprawl, supermarket dominance, the fast food industry, and globalization in the developed world. Community-based promotion of local agriculture has led governments and organizations to recognize UA as a strategic mechanism for urban communities to address food security and other challenges.

Steffen Lehmann · Sustainability · Global

This paper reports on best practices in urban design principles for material flow, recovery, and adaptive reuse to implement zero waste. It notes that urban farming is a valid strategy for local food production and composting organic waste. A key finding is that embedding zero-waste requires strong industry leadership, new policies, effective education curricula, and increased awareness.