Research & reports

Ouiam Fatiha Boukharta, Loïc Sauvée, Fabiana Pena-Fabri, Leticia Chico-Santamarta, Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia · Cities · France

In Rouen, France, a two-level urban agriculture governance system—the metropolitan authority and the City of Rouen—was examined through 19 semi-structured interviews with project stakeholders. The two levels shared similar approaches to social aspects, education, fresh produce consumption, and the goal of long-term project viability, but differed in project selection criteria: the metropolis applied less strict requirements than the city regarding plot size and soil analysis.

Javier Bayo, Joaquín López-Castellanos, Marta Doval-Miñarro, Sonia Olmos · Scientific Reports · Spain

An ATR-FTIR analysis of 11 commercial compost products found microplastics in every sample, averaging 137.65 ± 6.01 items/kg dry weight and up to 631.14 mg/kg. Eco-labeled composts had significantly lower microplastic abundance, size, and concentration than non-eco products. Microplastic concentration correlated negatively with pH and nitrogen content and positively with organic matter content.

ADEME · ADEME Infos · France

One year after France's January 2024 mandate for source-separated food waste, ADEME reports that about 50% of residents (32.1 million people) now have access to municipal sorting services, 56% sort their food waste, and 9 million tonnes of biowaste per year have been diverted from incineration and landfill, backed by €100 million in green-fund investment since 2023.

Anne Lenormand · Banque des Territoires (Localtis) · France

Reporting that France's source-separation infrastructure for biowaste has tripled in three years since the January 2024 legal mandate, giving 32.1 million French residents (about 50%) access to sorting solutions (municipal collection, individual and shared composting). The rollout had a difficult start but is now accelerating, with 20 million more residents expected to gain access.

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, HM Treasury, Department for Business and Trade · GOV.UK · United Kingdom

On 23 December 2025 the UK government announced it would raise the 100% Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs threshold from £1m to £2.5m, effective 6 April 2026. Married couples or civil partners will be able to pass on assets worth up to £5m tax free, and up to £5.65m when combined with existing nil-rate bands. The government projects that the number of estates claiming agricultural property relief affected by the 2026-27 reforms will roughly halve, from 375 to 185.

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · United Kingdom

According to MHCLG's statistical release (published 9 October 2025), the extent of land designated as Green Belt in England as at 31 March 2025 was estimated at 1,633,220 hectares, around 12.5% of England's land area. This represents a decrease of 660 hectares (0.04%) from 31 March 2024, driven mainly by local authority boundary policy changes (650 hectares across six authorities) and digital boundary updates (10 hectares). By region, London has the highest proportion of its area designated Green Belt, at 22.1%.

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · United Kingdom

A technical note describing how the UK's MHCLG compiles official statistics on green belt land in England, collecting area figures as of 31 March each year from local authorities via the Annual Green Belt (AGB) return. The 2024-25 response rate was 99% across 177 local authorities, and prior-year area figures are subject to scheduled revisions.

European Environment Agency (EEA) · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

According to this EEA indicator, water scarcity affected 28% of EU territory during at least one season in 2023. Although water abstraction fell 14% across the EU between 2000 and 2023, the area affected by water scarcity has not shrunk overall. Southern Europe experiences water scarcity year-round, with about 30% of the population in areas of permanent water stress and up to 70% in areas of seasonal summer stress; Cyprus and Malta are the most severely affected (seasonal WEI+ above 40%), with Greece, Romania, Portugal, Italy and Spain also notably affected in spring and summer.

· Wikipedia (español) · Spain

According to Spanish Wikipedia, the exact founding date of the Water Tribunal is unknown, though the most widely held theory dates it to around 960 CE, during the reign of a Caliph. It is made up of eight síndicos, one representing each irrigation community, one of whom generally serves a two-year term as president. It meets every Thursday at noon (except from Christmas to 6 January and on public holidays) at the 'Door of the Apostles' of Valencia Cathedral, with administrative meetings afterward at the Casa Vestuario on Plaza de la Virgen. It was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage on 30 September 2009.

· Viquipèdia (català) · Spain

According to Catalan Wikipedia, the irrigated farmland (horta) of Valencia took shape in the Middle Ages under Islamic rule through the construction of séquies (irrigation channels) and assuts (weirs). The main séquies of the Túria river have been governed since Islamic times by the Tribunal de les Aigües, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2009. Eight séquies in the Vega de València draw water from the Túria and have historically supported orange, vegetable and rice cultivation, but many now run beneath houses and streets, with rice farming described as being in crisis as farmland is converted to housing.

Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana · Diari Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) / BOE · Spain

A decree-law issued by the Consell (Valencian regional government) on 4 February 2025, published 5 February 2025, amending the 2018 Huerta law and its implementing plan (Decreto 219/2018) to simplify administrative procedures for reconstruction following the 29 October 2024 DANA flooding. It abolishes the Huerta Council and chapters on agrarian development planning and farm inventories, and relaxes urban-planning parameters for agricultural buildings.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

This EEA indicator page defines water scarcity as river sub-basins where the water exploitation index plus (WEI+) exceeds 20% for at least a quarter of the year, tracking conditions across the EU27 from 2000 to 2023. The data combines EEA water quality monitoring, Eurostat abstraction and population statistics, and JRC river flow and climate data.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

According to this EEA indicator, 2020-2023 EU water abstraction breaks down into power cooling (33%), agriculture/irrigation (31%), public water supply (21%), and manufacturing (14%), with total EU27 freshwater abstraction falling 14% from 224 billion m3 in the 2000s to 192.6 billion m3 in 2020-2023. However, groundwater abstraction by the agricultural sector rose 52%, from 11 to 16.5 billion m3.

European Environment Agency · European Environment Agency (EEA) · Europe

This EEA briefing from the 2025 Europe's environment report states that water stress affects roughly 30% of Europe's land area and 34% of its population every year, and that EU water abstraction fell 19% between 2000 and 2022. It also reports that flooding caused average annual economic losses of EUR 6.5 billion between 1980 and 2023, and 5,582 direct deaths between 1980 and 2022.

Eurostat · Eurostat · Europe

Published around World Water Day, this Eurostat article reports the EU's overall water exploitation index plus (WEI+) reached 5.8% in 2022, the highest since data collection began and up 0.9 percentage points from 2000. Cyprus stood at an unsustainable 71.0% and Malta at 34.1%, with values above 20% generally considered a sign of water scarcity and above 40% severe water scarcity.

Ville de Paris · Ville de Paris · France

Official Ville de Paris page defining shared gardens as green spaces cultivated and run by residents, intended as places of intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. About 15 educational gardens host children from 28 Paris educational facilities (nurseries, primary schools, after-school centers). Residents wishing to open a new garden must form an association and contact the city's 'Main Verte' team.

European Commission · European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment · Europe

The European Commission's official page on the EU Pollinators Initiative (adopted 2018, revised 2023). It reports that 1 in 3 European bee, butterfly and hoverfly species is in decline and 1 in 10 bee and butterfly species is threatened with extinction, while around 4 out of 5 crop and wild flowering plant species depend on animal pollination. Under Article 10 of the Nature Restoration Regulation (in force since 19 August 2024), Member States face a legally binding target to reverse pollinator decline by 2030. A delegated regulation establishing the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS) was adopted on 19 September 2025, to be implemented by Member States by 16 December 2026 at the latest.

NCVO · National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) · United Kingdom

Recommendations published on 30 April 2025 by NCVO as part of its Power of Small project on small charities. It asks funders to increase multi-year core funding, simplify application processes in line with IVAR's principles, support capacity-building, ensure equitable distribution of funding, and foster sector-wide collaboration, with transparency through published data. On grant length, it proposes moving from twelve-month terms to at least twenty-four or thirty-six months, and ideally five years or more.

Chmielewski J., Wszelaczyńska E., Pobereżny J., Florek-Łuszczki M., Gworek B. · Sustainability · Poland

The study sampled 112 items — 72 vegetable and 40 fruit — from 16 allotment gardens in Warsaw and measured Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd. Vegetables accumulated markedly more heavy metals than fruits, and leafy vegetables grown near high-traffic roads carried the highest Pb, Cd and Zn. Lead exceeded permissible limits by six to twelve times and cadmium by one to thirteen, leading the authors to advise against growing tomatoes in urban settings. Only trace amounts appeared in fruits, and the Hazard Index rated the fruits alone as safe. The paper calls for continuous monitoring of urban garden soils, remediation of contaminated ground and safer growing practices.

Jansma · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Europe

Proposes a new typology of the diverse forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Europe, moving beyond the conventional 'urban farm vs community garden' divide and offering a framework for situating citizen-driven initiatives.

Raggi L., Spataro G., Tiranti D., Negri V. · Biodiversity and Conservation 33:2709-2738 · Europe

Reviews the status of on-farm landrace conservation in the EU, including the materials conserved, who maintains them and why, and EU policies governing the commercialization of landrace seeds.

Bartezzaghi G., Garrone P., Rizzuni A., Melacini M., Perego A. · Business & Society · Italy

A longitudinal action-research study of a cross-sector partnership delivering urban food assistance, showing how resource orchestration by public, corporate, and nonprofit actors spurs phases of systemic change in the urban food system.

· Planning Practice & Research · Germany

Investigates citizen participation and acceptance around regional garden shows (Landesgartenschauen) in Germany as recurring urban greening and event-driven planning instruments.

· Urban Ecosystems · Germany (Dresden)

A case study based on two transition experiments in Dresden, analyzing how edible cities are initiated, innovated, and accelerated.

· Land · Germany

Presents a national ecosystem-service indicator for Germany to assess and monitor local climate regulation provided by urban green infrastructure.