Research & reports

Rawaa Fawzi Naom, Fatima fouad Yaseen · Iraqi Journal of Architecture and Planning · Global

This research explores the concept of urban agriculture within sustainable urban trends, driven by limited green areas, population growth, and neglect of urban landscapes. Through a literature review and analytical study of urban agriculture projects, the study identified contextual linking as a main characteristic and social and cultural uses as the most important functions of urban agriculture spaces. The findings led to the development of a theoretical model for urban agriculture in city landscapes.

Maria Finn · · Sweden (Malmö)

Malmö’s Lot 30:40, a former allotment garden area, has been in a state of decay since the 1990s, largely unmanaged by its owner, Jernhusen AB. This site is used by city residents for recreation, though temporary encampments by homeless people are not permitted. The area is described as an undefined urban space, existing in a fluid state that defies conventional descriptions and offers a disordered yet resilient environment.

Mohd. Ramzi Mohd. Hussain, Norul Hafizah Yusoff, Izawati Tukiman · · Global

This paper aims to discuss the literature framework of the growing demand for urban farming activities within the city environment and how they benefit the concept of environmental sustainability. It describes the advantages of urban farming activities from environmental, economic, and social perspectives that contribute to urban sustainability, evaluating the benefits and potential of implementing urban farming within limited urban spaces.

Rocío Pérez-Campaña, Luis Miguel Valenzuela Montes · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · Spain

This paper presents a method for assessing and visualizing existing nodes in the field pattern of a peri-urban agricultural landscape. The method was applied in the Vega del Guadalfeo in southern Spain, and the results showed an innovative map of the Vega, which can be interpreted as its eco-structure, a node-based model representing the ecological value of the peri-urban agricultural landscape.

C.O. Edeoghon, A.A. Idowu · Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management · Nigeria (Lagos State)

This study investigated the role of agricultural enterprises in the food security status of urban farmers in Ikorodu metropolis, Lagos State, Nigeria. A survey of 150 urban farmers, selected using a multistage technique and structured questionnaires, revealed an average food security score of 2.73, indicating food security without hunger. The relationship between food security and agricultural enterprises suggested that fruit, vegetable, and fisheries enterprises tend to move urban farmers towards food secure groups.

Yoonah Jang, Sun Jin Jeong, Kyeong Suk Han, Gyung Mee Gim, InChan Choi, Joonyung Heo · The Korean Journal of Community Living Science · South Korea

A study investigated the status of school gardening in 164 elementary schools (39.4% of 416) in Jeollabuk-do, South Korea. The installation and automation of garden facilities, such as greenhouses and tool sheds, were poor. Teachers, who most often operated the gardens, reported difficulty managing them due to a lack of knowledge about sustaining gardens and expressed a need for training programs.

Lucy Diekmann, Leslie Gray, Gregory A. Baker · Local Environment · United States (California)

This case study in Santa Clara County, California, used interviews and surveys to explore the implications of historic drought for urban agriculture (UA). It found that metropolitan California's decentralized water supply and diverse institutional arrangements create an uneven landscape of water access for UA. This results in geographically and socially differentiated pressures on UA water users to change water-consuming practices, with responses varying due to site-specific sociotechnical arrangements and UA purposes.

María Hernández Hernández · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

A book chapter on Spain examines the historical shift in city-countryside relations, analyzing the factors behind the paradigm change since the late 20th century and the strategies (agri-food policy, local development, governance, land stewardship) and tools (agrarian parks, social agriculture, urban gardens) used to sustain farming in peri-urban areas, based on a literature review of scientific publications, regulatory frameworks, and initiatives. It concludes that quality, authentic local farm production represents an opportunity for peri-urban territories and historic agricultural landscapes.

Giuseppe Cinà, Fahimeh Khatami · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Iran

A study addressing the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Mashhad, Iran, from a sustainable development perspective, aimed at identifying conditions hindering and factors favoring its development. After framing the UPA phenomenon with reference to significant planning experiences in Western and Islamic countries, the study outlines Mashhad as a "city in transition," describes the institutional framework of its present urban planning, and shows the weak enforcement mechanisms of planning policy for UPA. It then presents a conceptual and material network of un-built areas potentially suitable for agriculture, organized into three classes from the compact city center to its periphery, summarizing physical characteristics, ownership, and resources for each, and concludes that policy, education, and social commitment are the three domains that can favor effective UPA policies and practices.

Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro · · Brazil

The available abstract consists only of the names of the thesis advisor and the six committee members (four external, two internal); no information on the study's subject, method or findings is provided.

Tong-Yu Li, Ziyi Wang, Xueshan Bai, Yue Wang · DEStech Transactions on Environment Energy and Earth Science · China

A review tracing the origin and evolution of urban agriculture as a new industry closely tied to the city, summarizing the main problems in contemporary urban agricultural development in China. Building on urban agriculture development experience under urbanization, it proposes a new development pattern for Chinese cities.

Lijie He, Zhiguo Fang · Urban Planning International · China

Identifying green residential communities and urban agriculture as important approaches to addressing environmental and food-safety problems that have long been researched and practiced separately without intersection, this paper (2017, China) argues that integrating urban agriculture into green residential communities could help transform cities from a consumption pattern toward a production pattern. Based on behavioral characteristics and spatial demands spanning food production, food consumption, and food recycling/reuse, it examines a strategy system of space, technology, and management for integrating urban agriculture into green residential communities, proposing new ideas for China's green residential community and urban agriculture development.

Miriam Hermi Zaar · OKARA Geografia em debate · Brazil

Arguing that analyzing territory across multiple scales requires an analytical framework grounded in the dynamic, repeated interweaving of elements and processes that combine into — and clash as — diverse "territorial fragments," this paper examines urban agriculture as a site where city and countryside, urban and rural, and their diverse practices approach, blend and are sometimes confused with one another. Focusing on horticulturists in the Gramorezinho Community in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, as its case, the study shows that historical and spatial singularities — environmental, socioeconomic and administrative — have produced distinct processes that at times align and at other times contradict one another.

Shobha Shrestha · Nepalese journal of geoinformatics/Journal of geoinformatics Nepal · Nepal

Using GIS, remote sensing and spatial metrics, this study analyzed the spatial structure and dynamics of urban land use, including agricultural land use, in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, over the ten years from 2003 to 2012. Land use changed drastically over this period, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in the agriculture and built-up classes, signaling rapid urbanization; the valley's spatial structure moved toward a more heterogeneous and fragmented landscape, with new, isolated urban patches emerging inside what had been larger, contiguous agricultural patches and breaking them into smaller fragments.

Fábio Cunha Coelho, Enilce Maria Coelho, Monika Egerer · Scientia Agricola · Global

A review paper on the consumption of locally produced food examines its relationship to local and global sustainability, the effect of transport distance ("food miles"), low-carbon farming practices, urban agriculture's contribution to local food, and links to nutrition and health. It states that transportation is not the sole determinant of how efficiently local food is consumed — the agricultural technologies used are often more responsible for the degree of sustainability — and that local production does not always mean lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Eli Zigas · SPUR · United States

SPUR's May 2017 article reports on four years of implementation of California's Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones law (AB-551). San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Clara County had opted into the program, with four parcels across three cities under contract at the time; five more jurisdictions including San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach were considering it. The article reports the resulting loss in property tax revenue was minimal, under $7,000 per year in all but one case.

RESET · RESET · France

Article from the German web media outlet RESET describing La Caverne, an underground farming project by startup Cycloponics in a disused 3,500 m² Paris car park. It grows mushrooms, endives, and microgreens, with yields ranging from 2 kg for herbs up to 300 kg for endives depending on the crop. The project uses energy-efficient LED-lit hydroponics, won the City of Paris's 'Parisculteurs' competition, and plans deliveries by electric bike and fully electric vehicles.

Gareth Haysom, Jonathan Crush, Mary Caesar · Hungry Cities Partnership (Report No. 3), African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town · South Africa

Hungry Cities Partnership Report No. 3 examines Cape Town's demographics, economy, informal sector, urban agriculture and food security. A 2013 national survey found 26% of South Africans regularly experienced hunger and a further 28% were at risk, with urban informal areas showing especially high rates (36% hunger, 32% at risk). On urban agriculture, the report notes the City supports 201 community gardens with 1,849 beneficiaries, yet fewer than 5% of households in low-income study areas grow their own food.

Eva Olsson, Eva Kerselaers, Lone Søderkvist Kristensen, Jørgen Primdahl, Elke Rogge, Anders Wästfelt · Sustainability · Europe

A study focusing on peri-urban land in Gothenburg (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), and Gent (Belgium) analyzed the relationship between peri-urban food production and urban resilience. It found that arable farming has declined in all three areas since 2000 due to urban expansion and recreational land use changes. While policies for farmland preservation exist, strategies for local food production are not expressed in current planning documents, and competing land uses and high dependence on global food systems reduce peri-urban food production and improvements in urban food security.

Sandra María Fonseca da Costa, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Russell Good, Ivana Sentić, S. Treija, Jasminka Rizovska Atanasovska, Hervé Bonnavaud · · Europe

This chapter provides an understanding of the position of allotment and community gardens within the urban fabric across Europe. It offers insights into their diverse locations, relationships to other green spaces, reciprocal impact on the urban landscape and people, and their role in green infrastructure, including functions, connectivity, and accessibility for residents.

Sarah James, Philip O’Neill · Australian Geographer · Australia (Sydney)

This study collated and analyzed existing Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and non-ABS data on Sydney agriculture between 1992 and 2011. It found that accounting for the Sydney Basin's farmlands remains opaque due to difficulties in acquiring reliable data, and existing data are often contested. The findings reveal trends in Sydney Basin agriculture that invite debate on assumptions about peri-urban agriculture, emphasizing the need for more reliable and consistent longitudinal data for future planning.

Giovanni Sanesi, Giuseppe Colangelo, Raffaele Lafortezza, Enrico Calvo, Clive Davies · Landscape Research · Italy (Milan)

This study assessed land use changes and policy impacts on urban green infrastructure (UGI) in the Metropolitan Area of Milan, Italy. Since the 1970s, policies have led to the creation of 10,000 hectares of new forests and green systems, such as Boscoincittà and Parco Nord Milano, to address green space loss. The research, part of the Emonfur project, aims to identify effective measures for increasing UGI quality and quantity.

Malin Gustafsson, Matilda Olsson · · Netherlands (Schiedam)

This thesis focuses on a design proposal for a multifunctional foodscape in a peri-urban area on the city edge of Schiedam, in the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands. The proposal includes food production, education, and recreation, aiming to transform peri-urban areas into multifunctional zones and exemplify their role as transition zones between urban and rural landscapes. An empirical pre-study was conducted, focusing on urban farming in Rotterdam, dairy farming in Midden-Delfland, and greenhouse horticulture in Westland.

Sophie Lufkin, Emmanuel Rey, Suren Erkman · Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) · Switzerland

A case study in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, explored three scenarios (technological, behavioral, and symbiotic) for the future development of an urban sector by 2035. These scenarios tested design strategies related to industrial symbioses, production, storage, transportation, and urban agriculture, with energy flow analysis assessing each scenario's energy performance. The research highlights the necessity of complementary approaches that simultaneously combine technology, user behavior, and urban symbiosis to achieve high-energy performance at the neighborhood scale.

Gyun-Gi Bae, Donghun Shin · 산업경제연구 · South Korea

This study explored farmer income creation in urban agriculture through farmer participation and community activation, focusing on a community garden in Jeonju, South Korea. Exploratory factor analysis identified four factors: community, farmer participation, facilities/environment, and operation/management. Regression analysis showed all factors positively influenced user satisfaction, with farmer participation and community having the strongest effects. For farmer income generation through produce sales and increased plot fees, sufficient facilities and environmental conditions were concluded to be necessary.