Research & reports

홍석기 · 정책리포트 · France (Paris)

The "Le Grand Paris Project" proposes a major reform of Paris to transform it into a sustainable and globally competitive city for the 21st century. Proposed plans, to be implemented from 2020 to 2030, include physical spatial expansion beyond current boundaries, establishment of new governance for geographical and sociocultural integration, and a shift from a single-core radial to a multi-core linear urban structure. The project also suggests urban agriculture, agro-cities, and green car activation to improve the urban environment in line with the Kyoto Protocol.

Clara Irazábal, Anita Punja · Journal of Urban Affairs · United States (Los Angeles)

This qualitative case study analyzes the destruction of the 14-acre South Central Farm in Los Angeles in July 2006, arguing it was a landscape of resistance against discriminatory legal and planning practices. The study contends that environmental justice and planning ethics provided a substantive rationale for the city to prevent its dismantling. This case highlights a failure in governance to protect community gardens threatened by dismantlement in capitalist societies.

Mark Redwood · Open House International · Global

Urban farmers often produce food on land with limited or no security of tenure, exposing them to the risk of being evicted for more profitable land uses. Without legal status, most forms of credit are inaccessible to farmers, pushing them to the margins. Recent projects suggest that banking systems need to develop a methodology to value informally controlled lands and indicate that advocacy groups can increase security and access to land for urban farmers.

Alain Santandreu, Alberto Gómez Perazzoli, R. Terrile, Mariana Ponce · · Uruguay (Montevideo)

Urban agriculture has become a permanent activity in Rosario, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. While important for feeding cities during crises, it is currently promoted by civil society and local governments to enhance social inclusion and employment for urban farmers, particularly the poor. This transforms challenging situations into new opportunities within the urban landscape.

Bolanle Wahab, M. K. C. Sridhar, Aramide Ayorinde · Urban Agriculture Magazine · Nigeria (Ibadan)

The Sustainable Ibadan Project (SIP), established in 1994 by UNCHS (HABITAT), identified waste management and conversion to organic fertilizer as top priorities for Ibadan. Participants at a 1995 City Consultative Forum jointly identified aerobic composting technology using windrows as a viable method to collect and recycle waste, generate income, and use compost for urban agriculture.

Anges Yadouléton, Alex Asidi, Rousseau F Djouaka, B. James, Christian Agossou, Martin Akogbéto · Malaria Journal · Benin

A study in urban areas of Benin investigated the impact of rapid vegetable farming development on the emergence of insecticide resistance in Anopheles gambiae populations, using sociological data, bioassay tests, and biochemical analysis. The expansion of urban agriculture led to improper insecticide use for vegetable pests, exerting strong selection pressure on mosquito larval populations. This resulted in the emergence of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors, with permethrin mortality rates of 76% in Parakou, 23.5% in Porto-Novo, and 17% in Cotonou.

Yu Chen, Wong Nyuk Hien · Advances in Building Energy Research · Global

This chapter reviews three major types of urban greenery: public green areas, rooftop gardens, and vertical landscaping, from systematic and thermal benefit perspectives. It synthesizes worldwide research on these types of urban greenery and provides general guidelines for strategic landscaping in cities.

Colleen O’Holleran · School for International Training Digital Collections (School for International Training) · United States (Boulder, Colorado)

A study in Boulder, Colorado, interviewed thirteen community gardeners to understand their motivations for participation. Gardeners were found to come from diverse backgrounds and participate for various reasons, including the desire to be outdoors, curiosity, resource sharing, a closer connection with food, self-reliance, health commitment, and pride. Despite challenges, gardeners overcome them due to their commitment to cultivating their plots.

Dionys Forster · DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)) · Vietnam (Hanoi)

This work aims to develop a methodology for determining nutrient flows and budgets in peri-urban agricultural systems in Hanoi, Vietnam. The methodology will assess nutrient status at farm, village, and communal levels, considering the spatial and temporal variability of crop and nutrient management. This is intended to support the recycling and reuse of solid and liquid organic waste in peri-urban agriculture.

Zhu Jie-fang · Tangdu Journal · China (Xi'an)

A SWOT analysis of urban agriculture in Xi'an city, China, identified several countermeasures for its promotion. These include the municipal government providing guiding functions and overall plans, establishing socialized service systems and favorable external environments, enacting complete rules and laws, increasing investments and circulating funds, training modern farmers for technical support, and perfecting the municipal government's management system.

Rachel Chadderdon, Laura Colangelo, Joel Heeres, Brian Lipinski, Rachel Steel · · United States

This project assessed how the Ypsilanti-based nonprofit Growing Hope could best utilize its recently acquired Growing Hope Center to promote garden-related social enterprise activities. Through literature review, surveys of urban agriculture nonprofits and Ypsilanti residents, and a survey of Washtenaw County food businesses, sufficient community demand for a market gardener training program and willingness of local businesses to purchase produce were identified. The research led to the formulation of two models, the Food Security Model and the High Production Model, and a recommendation for Growing Hope to form an Ypsilanti Food Policy Council.

Pernilla Ouis, Ebba Lisberg Jensen · Malmö University Publications (Malmö University) · Sweden (Malmö)

This article examines the cultural parallelism between biological and cultural diversity as manifested in allotment garden areas in Malmö, Sweden, from a historical perspective. Using empirical data from interviews with allotment gardeners of different ethnic origins across Malmö, it shows how people bring their old plants and exchange varieties and species. This practice is argued to sometimes enhance contact and integration, and other times symbolize difference, contact with the country of origin, or ethnic identity.

Isabelle Anguelovski · Urban Agriculture Magazine · Ecuador (Quito)

Marginalized urban communities in Quito, Ecuador, residing in informal settlements or on fragile hillsides, are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts like floods, landslides, droughts, and food scarcity. Many of these communities rely on urban agriculture for sustainable livelihoods and food security.

尤俊 · 农机科技推广 · China (Wuhan)

In recent years, the agricultural machinery department in Wuhan, Hubei Province, has thoroughly implemented the "Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Law" to serve the development of modern urban agriculture. This initiative focuses on improving the overall level of agricultural machinery, guided by subsidy policies, and utilizing promotion, technical training, and administrative enforcement to strategically adjust agricultural machinery structures and foster the growth of large-scale agricultural machinery operators and service organizations.

Eric G. Strauss · Cities and the Environment · Global

This issue of CATE is dedicated to the theme of urban pollinators in relation to community gardens, addressing a gap in knowledge regarding pollinator ecology in urban landscapes. It notes that while pollinators' roles in agricultural systems are well-studied, their impact in community gardens is less understood. Six papers in this issue explore these questions, aiming to provide a foundation for understanding urban pollinators and guiding future research and management.

刘宛 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China

Based on practical observations and a literature review on new rural construction in China, this article explores the concept of modern urban agriculture and its value and role in new rural construction. It points out that the development of urban agriculture can be a driving force and opportunity for new rural construction, but it is not equivalent to new rural construction itself. Government-led new rural construction should focus on farmer participation and achieving healthy urban-rural interaction.

Xing Dong · China Environmental Protection Industry · Global

This paper introduces basic knowledge of rooftop gardens and discusses their various environmental benefits.

Hong Xin-xing · · Global

This study analyzed the characteristics of urban agricultural enterprises based on their concept. It also illustrated the significance of the study.

Luciana Morais de Freitas · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Brazil

This project in the Federal District and surrounding areas of Brazil aimed to improve and expand food production and promote agroecological practices in settlements and pre-settlements. Implemented in partnership with MDS and Via Campesina, the urban and peri-urban agriculture initiative has enhanced production conditions in these settlements. It also strengthens the productive chain by training producers in agroecological practices.

Graciela Ottmann, Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán, Antonio Lattucca · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina (Rosario)

This paper examines the environmental dimension of agroecological productive experiences, focusing on a specific case in Rosario, Argentina. It demonstrates that by articulating various agroecological experiences into productive networks, these networks gain political content, influencing transformation processes with participatory and popular education. Examples include the Network of "Huerteros/as," the Green Life consumer network, "Huerta" Parks, and Social Agroindustries, which are agroecological actions integrated with Rosario's municipal Urban Agriculture program.

Marielle Dubbeling, Laura Bracalenti, Laura Lagorio · Open House International · Argentina (Rosario)

In Rosario, Argentina, city planners and university staff collaborated with two low-income communities to design and implement a multifunctional neighborhood park, public square, and road reserve for urban agriculture. A step-by-step participatory design process was followed. This participatory design contributed to improving socio-economic and environmental conditions in the city.

P. Kirai, J. Gachugi, Anne Scheinberg · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) · Kenya (Nairobi)

The 'Converting City Waste in Compost Project' aims to develop a viable system for collecting, processing, distributing, and marketing organic city waste for urban and peri-urban agriculture in East Africa, particularly Nairobi. Phase one of this project involved an inventory and analysis of organic waste sources, quantifying and characterizing non-domestic organic waste streams in Nairobi City. This study presents the findings of phase one, providing a basis for evaluating the potential to divert Nairobi's organic waste for compost and biogas production.

Daniela Plachá, Helena Raclavská, Dalibor Matýsek, Mark H Rümmeli · Geochemical Transactions · Czech Republic

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination was investigated in urban, agricultural, and forest soil samples from the surroundings of Valasske Mezirici, Czech Republic. While PAH levels in urban/agricultural soils were within the typical range for industrialized areas, forest soils showed elevated PAH concentrations compared to other forest soils in Western and Northern Europe. PAH concentrations were highest in localities at higher altitudes and decreased with increasing distance from the town.

Michael Sifferman · Digital Commons - CSUMB (California State University, Monterey Bay) · United States (California)

For a capstone project, a school garden comprising an herb, vegetable, and flower garden was built at Meadowlark Elementary. The author taught garden-related lessons to kindergarten classes, integrating various subject standards. A random survey of parents and teachers was conducted to assess the project's usefulness.

Yamila Santana Esponda, Ramiro Renol Ortega Vera · DELOS Desarrollo Local Sostenible · Cuba

This work aims to provide guidance on urban agriculture as a beneficial option for food production in cities and their peripheries in Cuba, especially given rising food prices and global economic crisis. It seeks to enhance knowledge about urban agriculture as a path to sustainability in upper secondary education, focusing on Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara province.