Research & reports

Oswar Mungkasa · Applied Research on Civil Engineering and Environment (ARCEE) · Indonesia (Jakarta)

This paper discusses the implementation of green infrastructure (GI) in Indonesian cities, accelerated by public awareness and the government's Green City Development Program (P2KH). Jakarta serves as a case study, where programs like Jakarta Smart City, Green Buildings, Urban Agriculture, and Child Friendly Integrated Public Space (RPTRA) have been successfully implemented. The study notes that GI programs are more readily accepted when they are community-based.

Tri Atmaja, Miina Yanagihara, Kensuke Fukushi · ˜The œinternational archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences/International archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences · Indonesia

This study in Malang City, Indonesia, inventoried existing and potential areas for urban farming and estimated its total value using Contingent Valuation Method and Market Price Method. Currently, 1.38 ha (0.01% of city area) is used for urban farming across 21 plots, with a potential area of 211.46 ha (1.92% of city area). Urban farming provides services valued at US$28.68 m−2 yr−1, including food provisioning, income generation, recreation, education, and urban comfort. If both existing and potential areas were utilized, urban farming could contribute up to US$60,646,800.35 annually to the city.

Kristin Reynolds · Environmental Justice · Global

This chapter explores the intersection of food systems, agriculture, and environmental justice within social movements, activism, and scholarship. It reviews historical instances of these intersections, including indigenous peoples' movements, farmworker organizing, urban agriculture, and consumer solidarity campaigns. The chapter also discusses recent developments and future concerns connecting environmental justice, food, and agriculture with issues like climate change, gentrification, and Black Agrarianism.

Elisa Peñalvo López, Francisco Javier Cárcel Carrasco, David Alfonso-Solar, Iván Valencia-Salazar, Elías Hurtado-Pérez · Energies · Spain

This paper investigated the effect of a green roof on a public building's energy consumption in a Mediterranean location in Spain through experimental campaigns. Results showed a substantial 30% improvement in cooling energy demand for a standard summer day and a 15% reduction in heating energy demand for a winter day. Annual simulation analysis, calibrated with experimental data, indicated an overall 19% improvement in energy efficiency but also a 6% increase in peak power during winter.

Sheriden M. Hansen, JayDee Gunnell, Anthony Whaley, Xin Dai, Cole Harding, Brent Black · Horticulturae · United States

This study in the U.S. Intermountain West assessed eight tree species for their suitability as windbreaks for urban farms, focusing on initial establishment and use at the urban–agriculture interface. Standard poplar and 'Theves' columnar poplar were most effective for rapid establishment. However, species with moderate growth rates like aspen, juniper, and hackberry may offer lower long-term maintenance costs for the region's challenging environmental conditions.

Miguel A. Altieri, Clara I. Nicholls · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the relevance of agroecology as a path to reconstruct a post-COVID-19 agriculture. Agroecology can prevent future food supply disruptions by localizing food production and consumption. Five key areas for a new post-COVID-19 agriculture include overcoming pesticide reliance, enriching natural environments, revitalizing small farms, creating alternative animal production systems, and enhancing urban agriculture.

Borgar Aamaas, Robbie M. Andrew · Duo Research Archive (University of Oslo) · Global

This report, part of the SHAR(e)ON project, estimates the effects on emissions of four sharing schemes: community supported agriculture, sharing in local communities, sharing of cabins, and car sharing. The estimates are presented as scenarios or illustrations, not as likely outcomes for emissions.

Marie-Soleil L’Allier · Revue Possibles · Global

In recent years, citizen-led agricultural and food innovations, such as urban agriculture, community gardens, collective greenhouses, and food cooperatives, have proliferated. These initiatives operate on a logic distinct from the globalized food system, forming the seeds of a post-growth society that does not depend on economic growth. This study raises the question of how to ensure these social innovations, while holding significant transformative potential, can effectively outline an ecological transition for our food system.

Cordula Kropp, Clara Da Ros · · Europe

Ethnographic case studies examined urban farming movements in Leipzig, Germany and Nantes, France. The Leipzig movement is strongly oriented toward building an environmentally friendly, sustainable post-growth economy, while the Nantes movement is aimed above all at overcoming social inequality and exclusion; in both cities, participants respond to forces in urban development they perceive as opposed to their own needs and interests, encouraging fellow citizens to reclaim local spaces and cultivate them for community subsistence.

Muhammad Asadullah, Shahbaz Nasir Khan, Hafiz M. Safdar, Rana Ammar Aslam, Imran Shaukat · Earth Sciences Pakistan · Global

A review paper on aquaponics, a closed-loop system combining hydroponics and aquaculture, framed as a sustainable-technology response to soil, air and water pollution, global warming, food shortages and droughts. It notes that many studies have focused on small-scale farming for education and indoor decoration rather than commercial urban-scale food production, and highlights how trickling biofilters and plant uptake of aquaculture wastewater improve water and nutrient use efficiency. The paper identifies the central sustainability challenge as balancing optimal organism growth and maximum production output against minimizing effluent discharge to the environment.

Jacques L du Plessis, Ashley J Knox, HE Jacobs · Water SA · South Africa

Using spatial data on 1,813 gated-community homes across different regions of South Africa, this study quantitatively evaluated garden footprint area as a percentage of total plot area. Analyzing data from 11 gated communities, it found the average garden footprint to be 36% of total plot area. Homes with a garden area under 100 m² showed limited influence on monthly water consumption, while water use in homes with a larger garden footprint increased proportionally with garden size, and seasonal fluctuations in water use reflected garden irrigation and other outdoor water use.

Sanju Kumari, Kanhaiya Lal, Rajnee Lata · Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry · India

With rapid urbanization shifting agriculture in many Indian metropolitan cities, and land conversion for housing causing land scarcity in Mumbai, residents have turned to urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) activities — terrace farming, balcony farming, vegetable production along railway tracks, use of wastewater and sewage for irrigation, and goat keeping — to sustain agricultural production. A paper assesses the ecological, environmental and economic sustainability of UPA development in Mumbai, one of India's global cities, revealing its limitations and proposing possible measures for ensuring sustainability.

Pierre Donadieu · Territoire en mouvement · France

This is a review-style article introducing a June 2019 opinion document from France's Conseil economique, social et environnemental (CESE), L'agriculture urbaine: un outil determinant pour les villes durables (98 pages). It notes that during the 2010s, six major publications sought to characterize urban agriculture as an economic and social phenomenon that has been emerging or resurging in France and worldwide for at least 20 years, and traces this literature back to three earlier French-language collective works, including one titled Agriculture urbaine: amenager.

Jaekyoung Kim, Sang Yeob Lee, Junsuk Kang · Sustainability · South Korea

Using ENVI-Met simulation on the campus of Seoul National University, South Korea, researchers quantitatively analyzed how different rooftop garden arrangement patterns affected temperature reduction. Extreme and linear (longitudinal) configurations achieved the greatest maximum reduction at -0.3°C, while the checkerboard pattern achieved the lowest maximum reduction at -0.2°C, with the largest impact over broader areas occurring in the mornings rather than the afternoons.

Andrea Colantoni, Gianluca Egidi, Giovanni Quaranta, R. D’Alessandro, Sabato Vinci, Rosario Turco, Luca Salvati · Land · Europe

Using statistical data analysis and a literature review covering 1961-2017, a regional study in Greece examined the relationship between wildfire frequency/extent and the decline of nomadic livestock (mainly sheep and goats), comparing Attica — the peri-urban region that includes the capital Athens — with the rest of the country. Attica showed a markedly faster decline in nomadic livestock than the rest of Greece, a decline associated with higher wildfire risk in that region. The findings indicate that nomadic livestock grazing helps prevent fuel (biomass) accumulation in forests and unmanaged natural land, contributing to sustainable management of peri-urban land.

Marcela Patricia Galindo Toloza, Brandon Steven García Rodríguez · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This project proposal addresses the San Germán neighborhood in Bogotá, Colombia — located between the Usme and San Cristóbal localities on the upper slopes of the Entre Nubes ecological district park in the city's southeast, an area designated as protected land since 2000 under the city's land-use plan (POT). The Integral Improvement Plan (PMI) aims to provide an architectural, urban, and environmental solution to the neighborhood's problems by structuring an alternative for recovering the existing urban fabric in relation to the informal settlement that developed there over time, through rehabilitation and landscape regeneration. The PMI is designed to minimize the physical, environmental, and legal impacts caused by informal occupation, which has degraded residents' quality of life and disarticulated the neighborhood's urban structure from the wider city. It implements an "Ecobarrio" (eco-neighborhood) strategy incorporating design for different modes of mobility, prioritizing bike paths and pedestrian trails, applying integral-improvement treatment to existing construction where possible, recovering disused areas, and designating a zone for urban agriculture — elements intended to work together to regenerate the sustainability and livability of the San Germán community.

Joshua P Newell, Anu Ramaswami · Environmental Research Letters · Global

An editorial (2020, no specific region) introduces a focus issue on the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus in urban areas, noting that with most of the world's population now living in cities, cities drive global flows of food, energy, and water. The eight papers in the issue are described as interdisciplinary, multiscalar, and cross-sectoral, examining how FEW interactions affect the health of cities and their inhabitants as well as the distant people and places from which resources originate, covering topics including a review of existing urban FEW research and promising approaches, urban agriculture and energy-water dynamics, conventional agriculture and FEW dynamics, and the energy "foodprint" of the American diet. The editorial identifies four areas needing further research: ecosystem services tied to urban agriculture, resource recovery in the urban FEW nexus, equity/social actors/governance of the FEW nexus, and the food-energy-water-health nexus.

Małgorzata Burchard‐Dziubińska · Economics and Environment · Europe

An analysis of urban gardening's role in building city resilience to economic and social change and global warming examines whether Polish cities use it to strengthen resilience to climate change. It finds that using urban gardening for climate resilience is becoming more common worldwide, but that Polish cities have not yet joined this trend.

Helena Kahiluoto · Food Security · Global

An essay written during the pandemic argues for food system resilience, proposing that co-designing contrasting future narratives and developing tools to build adaptive capacity strengthens preparedness for shocks. It contends that supplier-buyer diversity matters most in market-led global food chains, while farm and crop diversity matters more in publicly protected regions, in responding to variability in weather, price and policy. During events such as international conflict or a pandemic, diverse food sourcing -- from local producer-consumer cooperatives to community-supported and urban agriculture -- could help secure food for citizens. The piece presents no empirical data or case analysis.

Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (Senamhi) · Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (Senamhi) · Peru

Peru's national meteorological and hydrological service (Senamhi) reported on 1 April 2020 that moderate rain fell over Lima the previous night. The rain began around 6:30 p.m. and lasted about 30 minutes, reaching up to 2mm in La Molina and Santa Anita and up to 3mm in Chosica and Santa Eulalia. Senamhi noted that Lima receives less than 15mm of rain per year, with winter (June-August) garúa drizzle consisting of very fine droplets over several hours, unlike summer rain driven by Andean humidity transport.

Johannes Langemeyer, Diego Wedgwood, Timon McPhearson, Francesc Baró, Anders L. Madsen, David N. Barton · The Science of The Total Environment · Spain (Barcelona)

This study developed a spatial multi-criteria screening tool in Barcelona, Spain, to prioritize green roof locations and designs for optimal ecosystem service provision. Fifteen spatial indicators and five green roof designs were analyzed and weighted by local experts. The assessment found high demand for green roof ecosystem services across Barcelona, especially in dense residential and industrial areas, with habitat, pollination, and thermal regulation being most needed, while runoff control and food production were least demanded. Naturalized roofs offered the highest potential for 87.5% of rooftop area.

Siv Lene Gangenes Skar, Rocío Pineda‐Martos, Axel Timpe, Bernd Pölling, Katrin Bohn, Mart Külvik, Cecília Delgado, Celestina Pedras, Teresa A. Paço, Mirjana Ćujić, Nikolaos Tzortzakis, Antonios Chrysargyris, A. Peticilă, Gitana Alenčikienė, Hendrik Monsees, Ranka Junge · Blue-Green Systems · Global

This article discusses urban agriculture's role in creating sustainable and climate-friendly cities, drawing on 20 years of research and practice. It highlights that urban agriculture can minimize climate change effects and improve urban quality of life. Effective land use and spatial planning are crucial for establishing food production sites within cities, integrating resource streams like water, waste, and energy.

Celina Gómez, Christopher J. Currey, Ryan W. Dickson, Hye‐Ji Kim, Ricardo Hernández, Nadia Sabeh, Rosa E. Raudales, Robin G. Brumfield, Angela Shaw, Adam K. Wilke, Roberto G. López, Stephanie E. Burnett · HortScience · Global

This review discusses the application of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) techniques to urban agriculture (UA), driven by increased market demand for local produce. While CEA offers opportunities for year-round production and resource-use efficiency, significant challenges remain due to the high costs of production in urban settings. The review emphasizes that for urban growers to benefit, studies evaluating CEA for commercial food production must consider economic viability.

Mysha Clarke, Melissa Davidson, Monika Egerer, Elsa C. Anderson, Nakisha Fouch · People Place and Policy Online · United States

This paper argues that community gardens should be a prioritized element of green infrastructure to improve cities' adaptation to climate change. Community gardens can reduce urban heat islands, provide ecosystem services, and increase stormwater retention. However, a qualitative analysis of 18 policy documents for Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City, U.S.A., found that green infrastructure for climate change adaptation prioritizes rain gardens, bioswales, and green roofs, but seldom acknowledges the role of community gardens.

Barbara Maćkiewicz, Raúl Puente Asuero, Antonio Garrido Almonacid · Quaestiones Geographicae · Spain

This study investigated how urban allotment gardens in Baeza, Andalusia, Spain, affect the city’s sustainable development. The research showed that allotment gardens in Baeza endorsed all three pillars of sustainable city development: ecological, economic, and social. However, it was found that developing broader community relations on the city scale, reviving the declining local grocery market, and disseminating environmental initiatives that allotment gardens could promote and facilitate were missing.