Research & reports

Xueming Li · Journal of University of Science and Technology Liaoning · China

Using statistical analysis, a study of Ganjingzi District in Dalian, China, examined the features and problems of construction land during rapid urbanization. It found that both urban and rural construction land scales are expanding simultaneously, that rural residential land use has serious problems, that current traffic land use results in low efficiency of the traffic network, and that profits from urban construction land need to increase. The study proposes an optimized design for the structure and layout of urban construction land.

Zhifeng Chen, Guohua Lin, Liu Rongzhang, Lin Shu-wen · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

This paper analyzes the significance of low-carbon patterns in urban agriculture development from economic, aesthetic, ecological, and philosophical perspectives, examining low-carbon patterns characterized by high-value industry structures, high resource efficiency, ecological safety, and mechanism innovation. Based on a city's natural resources, agricultural resources, and low-carbon technology, it summarizes low-carbon patterns of urban agriculture spanning multiple regions, scenic areas, and types, and proposes that local governments should actively create conditions to support and develop low-carbon industrial patterns of urban agriculture.

SP Jayasooriya · Journal of humanities and social sciences · Global

Using FAOSTAT data from 2000 to 2005, this panel data analysis examines the impact of the food production index (FPI) on the food consumer price index (CPI), the agricultural labor force (ALF), and rural-urban and agricultural-nonagricultural populations in South Asia. While food production in the region increased, food prices also rose sharply, producing an undesirable dual impact in countries where net consumers outweigh net producers: consumers lose while producers gain. A random effects model was found more appropriate, and results indicate consumer protection, CPI, and ALF are country-specific determinants of food production.

蔡元杰 · 浙江现代农业 · China

This survey report covers Yinzhou district, China, which borders central Ningbo and benefits from a favorable location and strong overall economic capacity, describing local efforts to transform and upgrade agriculture around reliance on the city, service to urban areas, and increasing farmer income. It states the district has built modern industrial and support systems and achieved positive results while maintaining rapid, healthy agricultural development, but presents no specific quantitative data.

Chandra Sen · Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics · India

This study estimated the impact of air pollution on crop yields in peri-urban areas of Varanasi, India. Phytotoxic gases are known to cause major yield reductions in important crops in developing countries, and in this study all major crops grown in peri-urban Varanasi — paddy, pigeon pea, maize, wheat, and potato — showed yield reductions attributable to air pollution. Air pollution was found to reduce both the yield and the nutritional quality of the produce, and the study calls for similar validation studies in other cities and for efforts to reduce air pollution in the city to improve crop yield and quality.

Danielle Nipper · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · United States

A methods paper (D-Scholarship@Pitt, University of Pittsburgh, 2010) proposes applying the Sustainability Assessment Modeling (SAM) framework—which quantifies stakeholder values, perceptions, and economic and environmental costs—to develop an assessment tool for community garden longevity and sustainability, motivated by evidence that community gardens often struggle with discontinuation. The paper reviews SAM-related literature and its methods, strengths and limitations, and proposes a participatory assessment process using indicators of organizational strengths, weaknesses, and success such as longevity, without presenting empirical test results of the tool itself.

Xi-Guang Wang, Wei-Hua Lin, Wen Zeng · Journal of Geographic Information System · China

Focused on urban gardening (green-space) administration in China, this paper (2010) argues that agencies need a gardening information management system to provide a scientific basis for garden planning, project construction, maintenance, and social service. Based on a needs analysis of gardening-sector requirements, it discusses key technologies for building the system and proposes a flexible construction approach using a secondary-development design and runtime environment built on a data-center integration platform, stating that the system supports daily management work and plays a role in improving the urban ecological and investment environment.

邓清南, 许虹 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China

Pixian County in Sichuan, China — regarded as the birthplace of China's "farmhouse leisure" (nongjiale) tourism — is described as having successfully completed the initial stage of ecological agritourism development. Facing intensifying market competition from leisure agritourism in suburban Chengdu and the challenge of sustaining farmhouse leisure tourism, this discussion piece argues that upgrading Pixian's traditional ecological agritourism into urban-type agricultural tourism is a promising direction to explore, offering some preliminary reflections based on the actual state of agritourism development in Pixian County.

Sibel Mansuroğlu, Ali Sabancı · Journal of Food Agriculture & Environment · Turkey

In primary schools of the Konyaalti district, Antalya, Turkey, the study examined the physical school-garden landscape against landscape-architecture principles and educational outcomes, assessing existing conditions, planning and design problems, the qualitative state of outdoor space, and principals' awareness of using well-designed gardens to enhance educational opportunity. School gardens showed problems of poor or insufficient planning and design, inadequate land allocation, and unqualified management regarding gardens' educational importance, and an extremely high student-to-teacher ratio left teachers without the time or energy for personal garden projects, though the researchers saw potential for principals, teachers and parents to build ties with civic and public organizations.

Adam Shiloh Moates · Culture & Agriculture · Colombia

A case study of clasificadores (urban waste sorters) in Montevideo, Uruguay, focusing on the subset known as clasificadores criadores de cerdos (CCdCs) who raise hogs alongside recycling. CCdCs do not fit the standard urban agriculture model since they do not garden but instead feed collected organic refuse to hogs. Raising hogs in the irregular settlements where CCdCs live is illegal, and very little of the hog meat they produce is consumed by the CCdCs themselves; out-of-town hog farmers transport their "bootleg," trash-fed hogs to legitimate markets to close the legal loop for what remains a clandestine production system. Although clasificadores have recently organized cooperatives and a labor union, the hog-raising activity itself remains illegal and dependent on this informal, off-book market channel.

Marie Hélène Dabat, Romaine Ramananarivo, Evelyne Ravoniarisoa Faramalala, Tovohery Ramahaimandimbisoa, Christine Aubry · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Madagascar

Little was known about the quantitative importance of urban agriculture in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, but recent studies on supply chains for commodities including rice, tomato, cauliflower, and leafy vegetables provide insight into agriculture's contribution to the capital's food supply and the comparative advantage that urban locations offer for these chains.

Ross Wilson · The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies · United Kingdom

The year 2008 marked the centenary of the UK's 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act, which significantly shaped the landscape of urban and rural Britain by placing a new obligation on local authorities to provide allotment gardens where residents wanted them. This article focuses on the creation of corporation-owned and -operated allotment gardens in York in the early twentieth century, examining how the era's debates over poor housing, unemployment and the condition of the working classes were reflected through the allotment movement. Allotment gardens represented an important resource for residents of the city's deprived areas, while local politicians and councillors viewed the sites as significant tools for social reform.

Nyuk Hien Wong, Steve Kardinal Jusuf · Architectural Science Review · Asia

A study measured microclimate conditions and thermal effects along two pedestrian canyons with different greenery and building-distribution conditions in Singapore, addressing the previously unexamined cooling effects of different green canyon forms in the tropics. Results showed cooling effects inside the canyons varied with vegetation cover and the shading provided by trees and buildings, and that planting vegetation within a canyon is an effective passive measure for improving microclimate. Calculated mean radiant temperature and physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) further showed that mature trees provide pedestrian thermal comfort through their shading capacity.

Hideharu KURITA, Tokuji Yamamoto, Tetsushi Shigeoka · JOURNAL OF RURAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION · Japan

A case study of an allotment garden for kitchen garbage recycling in Kitamoto City, Japan, examines the potential for agricultural land management by user organizations of allotment gardens in peri-urban areas. Analyzing the management system of an allotment garden with a garden user organization, the study finds that such organizations can potentially play a role in managing agricultural land in peri-urban settings, and that garden user organizations and their networks contribute to resolving problems related to urban residents' use of agricultural land.

Cantor, Kelly-M · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study analyzed urban agriculture practiced by forcibly displaced residents and by vulnerable populations living in poverty in southern Bogotá and the Soacha locality, Colombia, using a livelihoods approach and drawing on 20 local actors and public/private institutions that had run urban agriculture programs as its information source. It found that urban agriculture carries symbolic value as a livelihood and occupational alternative, framed around collective wellbeing beyond monetary value, and reflects a struggle by peasant identity to survive within city life—but concluded that it is not an integrally sustainable activity.

Yamane Kyoko, Lü Ning, Ohnishi Ohmi · Breeding Science, 59(1): 55-65 · Japan

Analyzing 25 chloroplast SSR loci across 59 cultivated radish accessions and 23 wild Raphanus accessions, the study found evidence for at least three independent domestication events and high genetic diversity in cultivated radish.

de Cárdenas Maestre I. · Cuaderno de Notas, no. 12, 119-134 · Germany

A Spanish-language study of Migge's 1919 'Green Manifesto', examining his utopian call for self-sufficiency and self-governance through small, interconnected rural-urban groups he termed Stadtland or Landstadt.

Larsen K., Gilliland J. · Health & Place 15(4):1158-1162 · Canada

Evaluates a farmers' market established in a London, Ontario food desert, analyzing its effect on the price and availability of fresh, healthy food and its potential to improve local food access.

Rocha C., Lessa I. · International Planning Studies 14(4):389-400 · Brazil

Describes the distinct food security governance developed by Belo Horizonte (2.5 million people), marked by comprehensive programs, urban/rural focus, flexibility, and commitment to social justice and equitable food access.

Colla S.R., Willis E., Packer L. · Cities and the Environment (CATE), 2(1):4 · Canada (Toronto area)

A foundational study comparing bee diversity and abundance on green roofs and ground-level sites near Toronto. With suitable plants and management, green roofs can host bee communities comparable to ground habitats, discussing implications for urban pollinator conservation and rooftop agriculture.

Coley, D., Howard, M., Winter, M. · Food Policy 34(2), 150–155 · United Kingdom

Compares farm-shop and mass-distribution approaches, showing that if a consumer drives more than 6.7 km one way, even local produce can emit more carbon than mass distribution—a classic paper opening the debate that 'local food is not automatically sustainable'.

大阪産業大学 · 大産大論集 第30号, 51–60 · Japan (Kobe)

An empirical analysis of agricultural change in urban Hyogo Prefecture (including Kobe) since the 1990s, statistically tracking trends in farmland conversion and the number of farm households driven by urbanization.

Buchmann C. · Human Ecology · Cuba (Trinidad de Cuba)

Using ethnobotanical fieldwork in Trinidad de Cuba, this study shows how home gardens serve as the most adaptable local land resource, with garden composition and management adapting in response to major events such as the Soviet collapse, bolstering household food security and social-ecological resilience.

Arce B., Prain G., Maldonado L. · Women Feeding Cities: Mainstreaming Gender in Urban Agriculture and Food Security (Practical Action Publishing), Chapter 13 · Peru (Lima)

Examines land tenure insecurity and gender constraints among periurban farmers in Carapongo, Lima, showing that women's time burdens limit participation in horticulture field schools. Based on a baseline survey of 125 producers conducted through the CGIAR Urban Harvest initiative.

Kratky B. A. · Acta Horticulturae · United States

Presents three non-circulating, low-cost hydroponic methods for growing lettuce in which roots grow into a static nutrient solution with no pump, air stone, timer, or electricity required. The passive approach can be built with simple containers/tanks and reduces additional labour.