Research & reports

· Ecological Processes · Germany

Surveys the vegetation composition of extensive green roofs built in 1980s Germany, examining how plant communities develop on green roofs over multiple decades.

Bitella G. · Sensors · Italy

Presents a low-cost open-hardware platform based on an open-source Arduino microcontroller board and inexpensive high-frequency dielectric probes to monitor soil water content at multiple depths plus air and soil temperatures.

Christian M.S., Evans C.E.L., Nykjaer C., Hancock N., Cade J.E. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · UK

A randomized controlled trial across 23 schools comparing an RHS-led gardening intervention with a teacher-led one; 641 children completed it, finding little evidence that school gardening alone improves children's fruit and vegetable intake.

Rina Ghose, Margaret Pettygrove · Antipode · USA (Milwaukee)

Case study of Milwaukee community gardens challenging the assumption that participation is empowering: under neoliberal restructuring, volunteer-dependent garden governance shifts state responsibility onto residents and produces uneven, tension-ridden citizenship outcomes.

Inmaculada Marques-Pérez, Baldomero Segura García del Río, Concepción Maroto · Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research · Spain (Valencia)

This paper presented a descriptive approach to the multifunctionality of agricultural systems and described a methodological approach to evaluate social preferences for multifunctional peri-urban agriculture. This approach is based on a review of scientific literature focused on multifunctionality and the goods and services of agricultural systems. The proposed methodology was applied to the "Huerta de Valencia," a rich peri-urban agricultural system with diverse resources, yielding results useful for enriching the political-institutional debate on defining its protection scheme.

Emmanuelle Vaudour, Christine Aubry, Liliane Bel, Laëtitia Bréchet, Philippe Cambier, Yves Coquet, Karim Dhaouadi, Veronique V. Etievant, Benoît Gabrielle, Jean-Marc J.-M. Gilliot, Jean Christophe Gueudet, Dalila Hadjar, Jonas Hamiache, Sabine Houot, Christophe Labat, Patricia Laville, Raia Silvia Massad, Joël Michelin, Paul Emile Noirot Cosson, Jean-Noël Rampon · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

The PROSTOCK project aimed to spatially assess the potential of recycling organic waste (exogenous organic matter, EOM) to improve soil organic carbon stocks (SCS) in peri-urban agricultural areas. It also evaluated the impacts of EOM use on greenhouse gas emissions and nitrate leaching. The Versailles Plain and Alluets Plateau (221 km²) were chosen as the study region, with field and lab measurements collected from over 250 point locations. The project advanced the use of imaging data for estimating topsoil organic carbon content (SOC) from soil reflectance spectra, but found that medium spatial resolution multispectral satellite images do not discriminate changes in SOC resulting from EOM applications.

Raúl Puente Asuero · · Spain

This record is a summary of a conference on urban gardens in Andalusia, Spain, delivered by D. Raul Puente Asuero at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Malaga on April 7, 2014. No specific findings or details about urban gardens are provided in the abstract.

Massimiliano Agovino, Antonio Garofalo, Angela Mariani · RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA · Italy

This paper assessed and compared the urban environmental quality performance of Italian provinces using the Legambiente Index and the Local Moran Transition Probability Matrix. The results revealed a persistent dualism between Northern and Southern Italy and a lack of positive environmental spillover among neighboring provinces. The study suggests that Southern Italy should prioritize improving sustainable food sourcing for urban development.

Roberta Pucci · · Italy (Settimo Torinese)

A project for urban transformation in the HT6 Bordina area of Settimo Torinese, Italy, was proposed. This project critiques a previous plan for 15-story buildings as invasive for the surrounding low-rise residential area and presents a more sustainable alternative, including social and production spaces like an urban garden, playground, and commercial square. The proposal aims to connect existing green areas, residential areas, and a historic farmhouse.

Nerea Morán Alonso, José Luis Fernández de Casadevante · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain

In Spain, urban agriculture is gaining importance, but faces difficulties in municipal regulation, particularly for community gardens. This regulatory challenge perpetuates the insecurity and precariousness of urban agriculture projects.

Jill L. Edmondson, Zoe G. Davies, Kevin J. Gaston, Jonathan R. Leake · Journal of Applied Ecology · United Kingdom

This study compared soil quality indicators (soil organic carbon storage, total nitrogen, C:N ratio, and bulk density) in urban allotments, surrounding agricultural land, and other urban greenspaces in a typical UK city. Allotment soils showed 32% higher soil organic carbon concentrations and 36% higher C:N ratios than pastures and arable fields, and 25% higher total nitrogen and 10% lower bulk density than arable soils. The study reported no significant difference in soil organic carbon concentration between allotments and urban non-domestic greenspaces, but it was higher in domestic gardens beneath woody vegetation.

Yvon Le · · France

This lecture focuses on five geographical questions concerning the rural-urban interface. It was shown that major food industries are not necessarily located in main cities, leading to a frequent disconnection between agricultural and regional centralities, and that the disconnection between cities and agricultural surroundings is challenged by farmers through short food supply chains. Access to the countryside by city dwellers is a major issue for social interaction, and urban agriculture opens new opportunities for urban planning.

Jemma Hawkins, Alexander D. Smith, Karianne Backx, Deborah A. Clayton · Journal of Aging and Physical Activity · United Kingdom (Wales)

To examine the exercise intensity of gardening activity for older adult allotment gardeners in Wales, oxygen consumption and energy expenditure for six gardening tasks were measured via indirect calorimetry. Estimated metabolic equivalent units (METs) were calculated from these measures. The six gardening tasks were classified as low to moderate-high intensity physical activities based on their metabolic values (1.9-5.7 METs).

Mikey Tomkins · Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) · United Kingdom (London)

This research explored reactions to the idea of potential urban agriculture landscapes through 32 participatory walks with 150 local residents around a 25-hectare site in east London. The walks used an "edible map" that suggested food growing in vacant urban areas. The study showed initial engagement with urban agriculture and local food systems, but also produced a strong critique of urban spatial design and a desire for place-making.

Marcin Graban · Pressto (Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza) · Poland (Poznań)

The Polish National General Exhibition in Poznań in 1929 attracted many laborers, who later contributed to the unemployed population during the 1930s economic crisis, exacerbating the housing crisis in Poznań. City authorities initially housed the homeless in former exhibition grounds as an interim measure. For a more permanent solution, the city redeveloped allotments or community gardens by building purpose-built residential garden huts or sheds.

S. Mecca B. Özel · · Italy (Pisa)

Rapid urbanization has led to negative consequences such as urban poor, primarily formed in suburbs. The physical expansion of cities occurs more in suburbs, causing "urban sprawl" into rural areas beyond their boundaries, resulting in the loss of agricultural lands and stress on the surrounding natural environment.

Géraldine Farges · Sociologia Ruralis · France

This one-year ethnographic study analyzed the integration of pro-environmental practices among amateur gardeners in a French urban allotment. Through observations and repeat interviews, it found that while gardeners adopted new techniques, the meanings of their practices and their environmental relationships differed. The diffusion of pro-environmental practices was not systematically linked to shared concerns, and practices were interpreted differently by policymakers and individuals.

Rosalia Filippini, Elisa Marraccini, Sylvie Lardon, Enrico Bonari · Italian Journal of Agronomy · Italy (Pisa)

This study developed a method to assess food production capacity in periurban areas, applying it to beef and lamb production in Pisa, Italy. The potential meat supply was estimated to meet 16% of beef demand and 62% of lamb demand. On-farm data indicated that the current lamb supply decreased to 37%, while beef remained at 14%. The actual supply was 70% and 10% of the current supply for beef and lamb, respectively. Gaps between these estimates, particularly for lamb production, suggest constraints in production and commercialization.

E.J. Veen, P.H.M. Derkzen, A.J. de Visser · Food and Foodways · Netherlands

This article compares food acquisition habits among participants in four Dutch urban food-growing initiatives: two allotments and two Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Allotment gardeners integrate gardening into daily routines and easily use harvests, while AFN members, who primarily engage in shopping, struggle to regularly consume urban-grown food due to competition with supermarkets. The study concludes that involvement in shopping versus growing significantly impacts urban-grown food consumption, indicating a limited effect of motivations to change the food system when confronted with everyday routines.

Giuseppe Cinà · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy

This paper examines Italian planning, highlighting an unresolved discrepancy between urban and agricultural policies due to a long-standing separation of urban and rural worlds. It outlines how this historical gap results in two inconsistent and low-effective policies. The paper discusses agricultural parks as an attempt to overcome this planning backwardness by integrating spatial planning and agricultural activity, documenting three Italian examples.

Hillary J. Shaw · · United Kingdom (Birmingham)

This chapter describes four stages by which people have become divorced from the origins of human food: industrialization, globalization, supermarketization, and dromology. Ashram Acres, established in 1981 in Birmingham, England, exemplifies many merits of urban agriculture, aiming to utilize the agricultural expertise of local migrants from South Asia, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

Attila Tóth, Ľubica Feriancová · Acta horticulturae et regiotecturae · Spain (Barcelona)

This study investigated squat farming as a typology of urban agriculture, focusing on the case study of Can Masdeu, a squatted and cultivated land at the northern city border of Barcelona, Spain. It aimed to understand how landscape and urban structures are influenced by land cultivation and how the social dimension of squat farming is structured. Spatial and perceptual analyses were applied, and users were interviewed through discussions and questionnaires, with results describing the spatial and social characteristics of squat farming at Can Masdeu.

Annabelle Schaffner · · France

Based on 2010 census data, this study analyzed agricultural holdings in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. Nearly 25,000 out of 39,000 agricultural holdings were located in rural communes, but their proportion is decreasing due to urban expansion. Structural differences between rural and urban farms are minor, mainly related to geographical location or production type. However, their economic weight differs significantly: agricultural employment accounts for over 10% of total employment in rural areas, compared to only 1% in urban areas.

Davide Olori · Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) · Italy

This publication aims to collect research contributions on new movements and self-organized initiatives that re-use and transform various parts of the city, including abandoned buildings, green areas, and public spaces. These experiences, such as informal community gardens and squatter occupations, can be interpreted as interstitial practices or a growing method of urban construction.

Mike Nichols · Practical Hydroponics and Greenhouses · United Kingdom

The International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture was held at the University of Nottingham, England, on September 9-10, 2014. This event gathered scientists, engineers, industrialists, and policymakers to discuss current ideas, technologies, commercial applications, and research opportunities in vertical farming and urban agriculture. It served as a forum to evaluate benefits, opportunities, risks, and challenges, and to foster collaboration between academic and commercial sectors.