Research & reports

Roman Szkup · Journal of Geography Politics and Society · Poland

Changes in the ways of using plots in allotment gardens in Poland were investigated. A direct inventory and questionnaire survey were conducted among users of five gardens: one in Łódź and four in its suburban zone. Analysis revealed that the farther from the center of Łódź, the less dominant the leisure and recreational model was. Additionally, users' professional activity and age were identified as socio-demographic features currently determining the way plots are used in these gardens.

Barbora Duží, David Fanfani, Stanislav Martinát · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Europe (Italy)

A case study of Prato Province (Tuscany, Italy) analyzing how urban and peri-urban farming is embedded in local community life. Methods combined spatial analysis, semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders (N=9), field observations and discussions with local farmers (N=17). The study identified a diversity of locally rooted agrifood initiatives and food networks connecting individual farmers with local residents, with farms varying in how re-embedded they were in the urban space of Prato and its inhabitants. Cooperation among local agrifood initiatives was found to contribute to a more sustainable territorial agrifood system, and a tendency toward more sustainable land management was observed in the region. The authors argue that coordinated local food governance and innovative territorial planning instruments could contribute to sustainable agrifood systems elsewhere.

Jan Eelco Jansma, Sigrid C. O. Wertheim-Heck · Land Use Policy · Netherlands

A paper (Land Use Policy, vol. 117, 2022, article 106104) analysing the peri-urban development of Oosterwold in Almere, the Netherlands, where 51% of the planning area is allocated to agriculture and left to residents' self-organisation. It classifies Northwest European peri-urban agriculture into three types and examines how new residents shaped the planning process, finding that agricultural practice in Oosterwold developed toward 'hobby garden farming'.

Dominika Dymek, Agnieszka Wilkaniec, Leszek Bednorz, Magdalena Szczepańska · Sustainability · Poland

This study in Poznań, Poland, examined the significance of allotment gardens in the urban green space system and developed a classification method for urban planning. While over 30% of allotment gardens were found to be of high significance, urban planning documentation indicates plans to reduce their area. Even highly significant gardens are slated for liquidation, highlighting a conflict between their ecological value and current urban development plans.

Peter Clark · · Europe

This chapter explores the historical trajectory of large urban parks and the broad pattern of urban green space from the pre-modern period to the present day in European cities. It notes that urban green spaces, including large urban parks, have faced significant financial, development, and management challenges in recent decades. However, these parks have also benefited from inter-city competition, as large green areas are crucial for a city's international identity and attractiveness.

Paweł Matacz, L. Świątek · Sustainability · Poland (Szczecin)

This article addresses the problematic heritage of Nazi German underground air raid shelters in Szczecin, Poland, by exploring their revitalization for urban agriculture. Through inventory and analysis, a modular hydroponic plant-growing system adapted to these prefabricated spaces was proposed. This solution aims to overcome negative associations, strengthen food sovereignty, initiate bottom-up community activity, and build social ties in residential neighborhoods.

Sabina Rossini Oliva, Rafael López Núñez · Agronomy · Spain

This study investigated potential toxic element contamination in food and soils from urban and rural gardens in Seville, Spain, including urban gardens in a mining area. Soils from mining gardens were the most contaminated. While arsenic, cadmium, and lead concentrations in studied vegetables did not exceed legal maximum levels, high levels of barium (up to 42 mg kg−1) and zinc (up to 123 mg kg−1) were found in leafy green vegetables like chard and lettuce, indicating a need for further study on associated human health risks.

Magdalena Szczepańska, Ewa Kacprzak, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Lidia Poniży · Moravian Geographical Reports · Germany; Poland

A comparative study analyzed the use and development of allotment gardens (AGs) in Westphalia and Lippe (Germany) and Wielkopolska (Poland). AGs in Westphalia and Lippe are accessible and harmoniously integrated into the landscape, while AGs in Wielkopolska are less accessible, prioritize internal users, and do not always blend with their surroundings. The considerable freedom enjoyed by Polish plot-holders leads to a gradual marginalization of edible-plant growing.

Enrico Gottero, Claudia Cassatella, Federica Larcher · Land · Italy (Turin)

This research developed a holistic method and map-based indices for interpreting and classifying peri-urban landscapes, focusing on open spaces to understand their complexity and identify homogeneous units. The method was applied to the peri-urban area of Turin, Italy, generating maps of spatial and functional classification at the landscape unit level, as well as a map of critical areas for improvement. Despite some minor limitations, the proposed method and tools appear to have a range of applications in the context of global challenges and from a landscape perspective.

Lael Walsh, Bethan R. Mead, Charlotte A. Hardman, Daniel Evans, Lingxuan Liu, Natalia Falagán, Sofia Kourmpetli, Jessica Davies · Environmental Research Letters · United Kingdom

This study provides a national-scale analysis of the horticultural production potential of urban green spaces in Great Britain (GB). It identifies urban green spaces available for horticultural production and quantifies potential yields based on three production options. Urban green spaces in GB, at their upper limit, have the capacity to support production 8 times greater than current domestic fruit and vegetable production, or 38% of current domestic production and imports combined. Most urban green spaces consist of private residential gardens and amenity spaces, and all examined towns and cities were found to have substantial potential to meet the dietary needs of the local urban population.

Perla Zambrano-Prado, Joan Muñoz‐Liesa, Alejandro Josa, Joan Rieradevall, Ramón Álamús, Santiago Gassó, Xavier Gabarrell · Sustainable Cities and Society · Spain (Barcelona)

This work established a remote sensing framework to identify and analyze the technical feasibility of roofs for integrating urban agriculture, rainwater harvesting, and photovoltaic systems. Applied to a region north of Barcelona, the study found that 8% of the roof area was feasible for tomato and lettuce production, potentially satisfying 210% of average tomato intake and 21% of average lettuce consumption. Rainwater harvesting systems could supply 94.26% of water for open-air lettuce and 53% for rooftop greenhouse tomatoes, while 50% of roofs were suitable for photovoltaic panels, representing 18% of citizens' average energy consumption.

Viktoria Shchurova · Current problems of architecture and urban planning · Ukraine (Kiev)

This article highlights the problems of the negative impact of the agricultural sector integrated into the central and middle zones of large cities. A critical view was formulated on the practical implementation of scientific and legislative documents, using the example of the city of Kiev, and strategies for reorganization, restrictions, or a complete ban on estate development in urban environments were analyzed. Specific plots of estate development in Kiev were identified as requiring reconstruction or complete renovation in accordance with the city's strategic development concept.

İrem YURDAY, Ceren Yağcı, Fatih İŞCAN · Türkiye Arazi Yönetimi Dergisi · Turkey

This study explains the definitions, contributions, and benefits of urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture. It notes that there is no clear policy framework for urban and peri-urban agriculture in Turkey, although urban interfaces are subject to planners and policymakers. The transformation of villages in big cities into communities under Law No. 6360 is presented from a utilitarian perspective. Urban agriculture has been adopted as a profitable production method in urban and peri-urban areas, and suggestions for its development in Turkey are provided.

Åsa Ahrland · University of Vienna · Europe

A historical study by the University of Vienna focused on Södermalm, a central part of Stockholm, Sweden, that for a long time combined industrial production, trade, craft and cultivation. It shows that agricultural fields there did not disappear until after World War II, challenging the common assumption that nineteenth-century rectilinear town planning was the main factor that ended urban agriculture. The study argues that the view of agriculture as incompatible with modern city life, together with the "green city" concept built on parks and other green spaces, was tied to interpretations of modernity in the Swedish welfare state's emphasis on rationality and efficiency, which produced a dichotomy between urbanity and rurality.

Perla Zambrano-Prado, Francesco Orsini, Joan Rieradevall, Alejandro Josa, Xavier Gabarrell · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Europe

A study developing a framework and overview of key factors, policies, and barriers associated with rooftop urban agriculture (RUA) integration, based on stakeholder perspectives in four European cities—Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, and Paris—via a two-phase workshop and stakeholder survey. While education, environmental, research, technological innovation, food production, and social factors were found to play an important role in implementing RUA, the cost of water and pollution emerged as major contextual factors constraining it. Policies related to food trade and urban planning were the most limiting to RUA development, and major architectural and technical barriers were identified around building height limits, historical buildings, lack of specific building codes, and roof accessibility, with high infrastructure costs and policies prohibiting RUA product sales acting as economic constraints. The cities differed significantly in the perceived effect of urban policy on RUA diffusion and the perceived relevance of economic and pollution factors, and the study concludes that wider dissemination of RUA information and new or revised regulations and building codes are needed.

Paola Branduini, Elena Colli · Landscape Research · Italy

A qualitative sociological analysis examined a policy tool used by public landowners in peri-urban Milan, Italy, who introduced new lease agreements transferring the maintenance costs of built rural heritage to tenants, aiming to avoid degradation and add value to unused buildings. Analyzing the tool through the lens of social justice and its impact on quality of life, the study found that the same policy tool produces very different outcomes for landscape preservation and quality of life depending on the implementation strategy used, and on the elements of social justice considered along with contextual and individual characteristics.

Ines Peper · University of Vienna · Europe

A paper on Eisenheim, a company housing settlement founded in 1844 near Oberhausen in Germany's Ruhr region by the mining company Gutehoffnungshütte, historically situates today's discourse on urban agriculture. It examines urban gardening and agricultural facilities at Eisenheim, then places the case within the broader development of urban agriculture from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, comparing it to four other "model villages" — including those of Krupp, BASF, and Farbwerke Höchst — with differing ideological and socio-economic backgrounds. The analysis centers on how access to land was organized and what property regimes affected long-term preservation of agricultural land use, how subsistence agriculture affected residents' food resilience, diet quality, and household income formation, and how subsistence gardening and settlements' green-space layout contributed to residents' community life.

Alicja Kolasa-Więcek, Dariusz Suszanowicz · Environmental Science and Pollution Research · Europe

This study conducted field tests on model roofs and GIS-based building potential analysis in two districts of Opole, Poland, proposing a methodology to forecast reduction in rainwater drainage load from green roof deployment. Rainfall up to 5 mm/day is completely retained by both intensive and extensive roofs, and about 44% of torrential rainfall is retained. The runoff reduction coefficient is 0.63 for extensive roofs and 0.74 for intensive roofs; installing green roofs on 25% of suitable buildings is estimated to reduce drainage load enough to prevent localized flooding.

Panagiota Kotsila, Isabelle Anguelovski, Francesc Baró, Johannes Langemeyer, Filka Sekulova, James J. Connolly · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Spain (Barcelona)

This paper analyzes nature-based solutions (NBS) as discursive tools that create an inviting space for nature's neoliberalization processes, examining two city-initiated projects in Barcelona, Spain: the Passeig de Sant Joan green corridor and the Espai Germanetes community garden. The study found that urban nature can serve elite economic players at the expense of widespread socio-ecological benefits. It also noted that outcomes regarding neoliberalism and its contestation were very distinct between the two projects due to different forms of governance.

احمد حسنی رضوان, احمد عبد الغنی مرسی · مجلة العمارة والفنون والعلوم الإنسانية · Germany (Berlin)

This research examines former airports as urban voids and their potential reuse as urban commons. Two case studies, Tempelhofer Feld Airport in Berlin, Germany, and Imbaba Airport in Giza, Egypt, are analyzed, recognizing the cultural, historical, political, economic, and urban complexities involved in each city and country. Tempelhofer Feld is cited as an example already providing space for urban gardening, culture, sports, and recreation.

David Goode, Ian Douglas, Mark J. McDonnell, Amy K. Hahs, Ian MacGregor‐Fors · · Europe

This chapter explores the evolution of urban ecology through eight historical events or stages. Urban allotment gardens as a source of vegetables and fruits were an important issue across Europe for the greater part of the twentieth century. The three paradigms 'in', 'of', and 'for' urban ecology are viewed as progressively more complex in the range of topics involved, from traditional ecological studies to multi-dimensional issues of urban sustainability.

Ulrich Häpke · sub\urban zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung · Germany (Ruhrgebiet)

While statistical data demonstrates the significance of urban agriculture in German cities and metropolitan areas, urban agriculture faces the problem of constant land loss despite its proximity to consumers. The example of the Ruhrgebiet highlights challenges such as land loss and high proportions of leased land, indicating governance issues faced by urban agriculture.

Phoebe Lickwar, Roxi Thoren · · United Kingdom

Welwyn Garden City was conceived by Ebenezer Howard as a utopian hybrid community combining the best aspects of city and rural life. Agriculture was integrated into the urban fabric in two forms: a buffering greenbelt surrounding the city and allotment gardens providing opportunities for domestic self-sufficiency. The garden city was designed as a closed-loop development connecting farms to local markets and reinvesting urban waste into soil regeneration.

J.E. Jansma, Sidrig Wertheim-Heck · · Netherlands

This paper explores how urban planning practices can integrate urban agriculture in peri-urban zones, despite its current marginalization in such areas. It analyzes the planning practices of Almere, a Dutch city that has fully integrated urban agriculture into its new urban area, Oosterwold. The study reflects on how cities can sustainably feed urban populations.

Rosalia Filippini, Sylvie Lardon, Stefano Corsi · · Italy

This chapter designs an inter- and transdisciplinary, multiscale, and mixed-method framework for analyzing Smart Agriculture (SA) in urban-rural relationships across Italian case studies. It proposes SA as an experimental field for cooperation among decision-makers, civil society, and academia to improve urban-rural links in metropolitan regions. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture and rural-urban links is central to this approach.