Research & reports

Brandon, Chrislyn · Scholar Commons (Santa Clara University) · United States (Santa Clara)

The City of Santa Clara faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to food for its residents amidst rising living costs and economic disparities. Enhancing support for residents' food security needs through increased knowledge sharing and resource provision in community areas is an efficient strategy to reduce hunger rates and create welcoming community spaces that support sustainability. This initiative addresses two key focus areas in Santa Clara's Climate Action Plan.

Adriana Rezende Bighi, Regiane Carla Bolzan Carvalho, Camille Rezende Sartorio, Maurício Novaes Souza · Mérida Publishers eBooks · Brazil

This study examines the role of urban gardens in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, Brazil, exploring their economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Urban gardens mitigate environmental degradation, promote biodiversity, and have the potential to generate employment and income opportunities for local residents, while reducing food costs. Through the efficient use of local resources like idle land and organic waste, these gardens yield significant environmental benefits, including reduced pollution and improved air quality, and foster sustainable agricultural practices.

Adriana de Paula Cavalcante Fraga, Ana Moraes Coelho, Jéssica Castro Chryssafidis, José Geraldo Barreto Monteiro de Andrade, Maíra Bombachini Silva, Maria Luiza Sevilha Seraphico de Assis Carvalho, Mariana Nicolletti, Nathan Debortoli, Samuel Santos de Souza Pinto · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Natal)

This case study of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Natal, Brazil, aimed to identify and characterize the benefits these initiatives provide to the territory and to overview three ecosystem services related to microclimate, soil, and water. Using a hybrid methodology combining biophysical modeling and listening to the voices of experienced protagonists, the study identified a significant potential for urban and peri-urban agriculture to contribute to urban development. This research deepens the understanding of the benefits urban agriculture can offer cities, including its potential to mitigate or solve typical urban problems.

Nicole Cuya, Paul Estrada, Doris Esenarro, Violeta Vega, Jesica Vilchez Cairo, Diego C. Mancilla-Bravo · Buildings · Peru

This research aimed to create comfort for users of an educational center in Carabayllo, Peru, by applying sustainable design strategies. The study involved a literature review, flora and fauna analysis, passive design, and climatic analysis using digital tools. The resulting design proposes an educational center with year-round comfort through energy efficiency, eco-friendly materials, green roofs, dry toilets, biofilters, and xerophytic vegetation for orchards, promoting food production and improving public spaces.

Marcelo Macedo Guimarães, Mariluce Paes de Souza · Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental · Brazil

A qualitative study of a Conservation Unit in the Brazilian Amazon (the Lago do Cuniã Extractive Reserve) analyzing the role of forests within the water-energy-food nexus, focusing on how traditional populations use non-wood natural resources for their survival. Data were collected through questionnaire-based interviews and non-participant observation. The results show that maintaining forest resources improves water quality, controls erosion and resilience against droughts and floods, contributes to energy supply, and contributes to food safety for residents of the conservation unit. The authors note policy implications for management practices to conserve forests and to protect the quantity and quality of rivers, lakes, and aquatic and agricultural ecosystems in the reserve.

Miriam Elizabeth Mery-Ruiz, Gabriela Carmona Ochoa, Areli Lopez-Montelongo · Apple Academic Press eBooks · Mexico

Focusing on the Alameda Zaragoza district in Saltillo, Mexico, this study investigates the relationship between urban morphology and sustainability in the built environment. It used an ethnographic methodology involving qualitative social media research, collecting images and text through Microsoft Bing word searches and analyzing them with nubedepalabras software to identify semantic networks. The findings show that online communities' urban imaginaries offer insights into sustainability strategies, and the study recommends expanding the analysis to other case studies and including search results in additional languages.

Renata Priore Lima, Lady Laura Soares Gundim · Revista Gestão & Sustentabilidade Ambiental · Brazil (São Paulo)

This study investigates the benefits of vertical farms as a sustainable food production model in cities. Through a literature review and a case study of Pink Farms in São Paulo, Brazil, the results indicate benefits such as energy and land use optimization, but also highlight the ecological, social, and landscape limitations of vertical farms.

Leigh Whittinghill, Major Ballard, Anju Chaudhary, Smriti Kandel, Caitlin Mullins, Pradip Poudel · HortScience · United States

This study analyzed runoff water quality from four different nutrient management treatments (conventional fertilizer, organic fertilizer, low-compost + organic fertilizer, and high compost) in raised beds and small plastic pool container plots in the United States. Water samples, collected monthly, were analyzed for pH, conductivity, color, turbidity, nitrate-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, total phosphorus, and potassium. While significant differences existed between raised beds and container plots, these did not translate to meaningful water quality differences for most variables, except for nitrate-nitrogen. The conventional fertilizer treatment showed greater or more variable nutrient leaching than other treatments.

Kendra Locklear Ordia · Interiors Design Architecture and Culture · United States (Lincoln)

This essay presents a case study of an indoor vertical farm in the historic urban core of Lincoln, Nebraska, as a form of urban agriculture. It functions as an adaptive reuse model for existing buildings, creating a spatial ecosystem for localized plant-based food production. This approach aims to enhance urban food resiliency and reconnect communities with their food.

Lila B. Karki, Prem Bhandari · Global Journal of Agricultural Research · United States (Maryland)

This 2022 project collected data from 22 small, socially disadvantaged minority urban gardeners in Maryland to enhance their efficiency. Findings showed farmers operated rationally, cultivating an average of 20 diversified specialty, ethnic, and medicinal crops on 1.2 acres. They employed integrated alley and mixed cropping systems, rainwater harvesting, expanded compost-making, maintained high cropping diversity, and introduced a tier system to mitigate production, marketing, and financial risks.

Marina Carboni, Vitoria Maria Domingues Moço · Revista Fatecnológica da Fatec-Jahu · Brazil

This paper presents a project proposal for an urban agroforestry system combined with a community garden in Brazil. The project aims to revitalize a 2,500m² urban green area currently lacking leisure attractions and adequate tree cover. The plan includes planting 35 trees of 8 fruit species and 9 vegetable species, and fencing the area to prevent theft and vandalism. The project is expected to offer vegetables and fruits to the local population, promote environmental education, and enhance ecosystem services such as temperature reduction and increased rainwater infiltration.

Fanxin Meng, Qiuling Yuan, Rodrigo A. Bellezoni, José A. Puppim de Oliveira, Yuanchao Hu, Rui Jing, Gengyuan Liu, Zhifeng Yang, Karen C. Seto · npj Urban Sustainability · Brazil (São Paulo)

A framework was developed to analyze the food-water-energy nexus of green roofs in data-sparse cities, integrating environmental costs and benefits. Testing this framework in São José dos Campos, Brazil, and Johannesburg, South Africa, revealed that green roofs are carbon neutral but net energy consumers from a life cycle perspective. São José dos Campos is a net water beneficiary, while Johannesburg is a net water consumer, and rainwater utilization, though saving irrigated water, requires 1.2 times more energy.

· Building Materials and Engineering Structures · United States

This study examines the significance of seeds in defining sustainability within urban agriculture, which is viewed as an agricultural operation in a non-rural setting emphasizing communication, education, and farm goods. Using Gray-associated analysis, the study evaluated various crops, finding that spring beans received the highest rank and autumn beans the lowest.

Lucy Diekmann, Summer Cortez, Pauline Marsh, Jonathan Kingsley, Monika Egerer, Brenda B. Lin, Alessandro Ossola · California Agriculture · United States (California)

A survey of 603 home and community gardeners across California was conducted between June and August 2020 to assess trends in gardening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gardens were valued as therapeutic spaces to escape pandemic stress and as safe outdoor places for socializing. Concerns about food supply led to increased interest in growing food for security and self-sufficiency, though 62% of home gardeners struggled to access gardening supplies.

Wenhao Zhu · Highlights in Science Engineering and Technology · United States (Chicago)

This paper focuses on the characteristics of vertical farms, using The Plant vertical farm in Chicago as an example to describe its design and performance, and analyze its advantages and design principles. The success of The Plant is attributed to saving raw materials and waste disposal costs through waste utilization, staggered electricity consumption, and insulated structures to maximize energy cost savings. However, while small-scale pilot projects of vertical farms have achieved some success, many constraints remain for scaling them up due to high construction and operation costs and high technical levels.

Jordi Guimera Garcia, Natalie Bray, Yowhan Son, Aleah L. Butler-Jones, Sara Perl Egendorf, Jenny Kao‐Kniffin · Journal of Urban Ecology · United States (New York City)

In New York City, a study investigated plant growth (tomato, pepper, kale) in soils constructed from four municipal composts mixed with sediments from the NYC Clean Soil Bank, to assess the potential for safe urban agricultural soils. While Clean Soil Bank sediments enhanced plant growth when mixed with BRL compost, they also negatively impacted tomato aboveground biomass production by 29% in LES compost and tomato plant height by 18% in QBG compost, indicating variable effects depending on compost properties.

Sarah Dimick · Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction · United States (Minneapolis)

This study reflects on guerrilla gardening and its narratives by intersecting Eleanor Catton’s novel Birnam Wood with descriptions of gardens at police killing sites in the greater Minneapolis metro area. It argues that guerrilla garden infrastructures sprout in the soil of highly unequal power, often in the wake of the fatal exercise of state power, and in the shadow of a foreshortened environmental future. These are DIY infrastructures constructed by people weathering entwined environmental, political, and economic crises in the 21st century.

Júlio Barêa Pastore, Paulo Henrique Honorato · Ornamental Horticulture · Brazil (Brasília)

The "Jardim de Sequeiro" is a naturalistic, seasonal rainfed gardening technique developed at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. The first experimental garden, over 5,000 square meters of rooftop gardens, was planted at the Instituto Central de Ciências. It relies entirely on rainfall and withers during winter drought, functioning as a temporary installation redesigned annually. Its first cycle ran from December 2020 to May 2021, yielding promising results despite pandemic difficulties.

Austin Thompson‐Spain, Kyle S. Bunds, Lincoln R. Larson, Bethany B. Cutts, J. Aaron Hipp · Sustainable Development · United States

This scoping review examines funding and financing mechanisms for nature-based solutions and their impact on social equity in the United States. It finds that market-driven nature-based solutions can contribute to an inequitable distribution of urban ecosystem services. The distribution of benefits is influenced by local contexts, decision-making inclusion, and payment mechanisms, suggesting disparities in access for diverse and marginalized populations.

Posgrado en Ingeniería Agrícola y Uso Integral del Agua, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Estado de México, México, Hugo Antonio Fernández, R. Salazar, Posgrado en Ingeniería Agrícola y Uso Integral del Agua, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Estado de México, México, E. Fitz-Rodríguez, Posgrado en Ingeniería Agrícola y Uso Integral del Agua, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Estado de México, México, I.L. López-Cruz, Posgrado en Ingeniería Agrícola y Uso Integral del Agua, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Estado de México, México, Uwe Schmidt, Dennis Dannehl · Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua · Mexico (Mexico City)

Yields and water productivity of romaine lettuce and cherry tomatoes were investigated in 13 urban gardens in Mexico City. Lettuce yields ranged from 0.10 to 1.20 kg m-2 with water use efficiency from 0.21 to 2.93 kg m-3, while cherry tomato yields ranged from 0.25 to 3.40 kg m-2 with water use efficiency from 0.32 to 5.52 kg m-3. Irrigation in these gardens is empirically done using potable water, showing an excess water supply of 0.27 to 0.4 m3 m-2 for a complete cycle of lettuce and cherry tomatoes.

Samantha Bosco, Bradley G. Thomas · Ethnobiology Letters · United States

The Skarù·ręʔ (Tuscarora) Food Forest Project is a community-based initiative in ancestral Haudenosaunee territories (New York State) demonstrating the contemporary contributions of temperate nut trees to Indigenous food systems. This project aims to address social justice concerns in agricultural science by providing a methodological testing ground for reconciliation-based and decolonial participatory action research. It expands ongoing food sovereignty, community health, and education initiatives, highlighting nuts as important, yet lesser-known, woodland foods.

Zaydeé Jahel González García · Revista Alfa · Peru (Ate)

This descriptive cross-sectional documentary study identified existing environmental policies within the Ate District Municipality in Peru, focusing on guidelines for the 2022 Work Plan of the EDUCCA Municipal Program. The study found that the municipality promotes a pilot project for sustainable urban agriculture, identifying the urban agriculture initiative as a pioneering plan among discussed programs.

Jaime Hernández-Garc'a, Tannya Pico Parra · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · South America

This chapter explores Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UPA) in Bogotá, Quito, and Lima, three Andean cities, through a transdisciplinary lens. It discusses UPA as a multifunctional nature-based solution for climate change, food scarcity, and inequalities. The chapter examines the potentials and challenges of transdisciplinary projects in these cities, focusing on collaborative culture, conflicting rationalities, socio-ecological transformations, and critical translocalism, and highlights the contribution of diverse knowledge systems, including indigenous local knowledge.

William Miyakava, Margarete Cristiane de Costa Trindade Amorim · Revista Geonorte · Brazil

This study examined the effects of urban agroforestry on climate elements in Presidente Prudente, Brazil, hypothesising that vegetation cover combined with urban agriculture positively influences urban climate dynamics. Automatic sensors recorded temperature and relative humidity at three points with distinct land cover -- a densely built urban area, an urban area with vegetation/agroforestry, and a rural point -- during representative wet (February) and dry (July) months of 2021, with space-time panels and rhythmic analysis graphs used to identify urban heat island (UHI) occurrence day and night. It found that low rainfall combined with high wind-direction variability and speed in February produced greater UHI intensity and magnitude both day and night, while July's low wind speed, low directional variation, near-zero rainfall and stable atmospheric conditions produced more homogeneous daytime UHI but heterogeneous, high-intensity nighttime UHI.

Maureen Hartwell · Environmental Claims Journal · United States

This commentary examines Climate Action Plans (CAPs) that US municipalities have produced for more than thirty years, from a land-use law perspective. It notes that early CAPs often contained detailed but unaccountable, metric-free aspirations, whereas more recent CAPs have grounded themselves in land use law by integrating into comprehensive plans, amending zoning codes to meet urban agriculture goals, and offering expedited zoning procedures for CAP-compliant developers.