Research & reports

Daniel Haberman, Laura A. Gillies, Aryeh Canter, Valentine Rinner, Laetitia Pancrazi, Federico Martellozzo · ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information · Canada

This study used multiple land use scenarios to assess different spaces in Montréal, including residential gardens, industrial rooftops, and vacant land, that could be allocated to vegetable production. Results indicated that implementing hydroponics on industrial rooftops could easily satisfy Montréal's vegetable demand, though these operations are generally costly. Utilizing only vacant space also has the potential to meet the city's demand with lower operating costs.

Laure Emperaire, Ludivine Eloy · Bulletin of Latin American Research · Brazil (Rio Negro)

Indigenous agricultural systems in the periurban Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil, have transposed from forest contexts to periurban areas, maintaining multi-plot cultivation and traditional knowledge. However, this agriculture faces challenges from modern urban agriculture values. Its ecological and cultural relevance relies on new market integration and partnerships.

陈永欣 · 大众标准化 · China

With the development of the national economy and scientific progress, people's dietary structures have significantly changed, shifting towards nutritious and healthy food. Waxy corn is highly nutritious, sweet, sticky, and possesses a unique flavor, making it widely popular. In recent years, the cultivation of waxy corn, sales of fresh ears, preservation processing, off-season sales, and year-round market supply have garnered significant attention. Consequently, its planting area has expanded annually, and processing factories have increased, establishing it as an emerging urban agriculture.

Tong Zhou, Tao Zhao · Applied Mechanics and Materials · Global

This article introduced the connotation and function of urban agriculture, analyzing the relationship between its development and ecological city construction. It concluded that the development of urban agriculture is conducive to eco-city construction and an inevitable choice for it.

· Hart Publishing eBooks · United Kingdom (England and Wales)

This paper explores the phenomenon of people in England and Wales returning to the land for various food-growing projects, including over 1,000 community gardens and 82 school farms. It examines the legal frameworks regulating these diverse projects and finds that the legal framework is fragmented, poorly signposted, and often absent, with projects sometimes depending entirely on landowner goodwill. The study concludes that there is little coherency in the law regarding these initiatives.

Min Zhang, LU Feng-jun, MIAO, Runlian, Yan Jin, ZHANG, Min, LU, Fengjun, MIAO, Runlian, JIN, Yan · · China

This paper used a system variable analysis method to establish an urban agricultural development system with six functional variables in China. It summarized the characteristics of different development stages and analyzed the reasons for these characteristics, focusing on cost, efficiency, connection, and risk. The study provided recommendations for promoting China's urban agricultural development based on stage development rules.

Melissa Johnston, Andre Knight-Lira, Zoë Mager, Nadine Mulrooney, Matthew Poppleton, Samantha Shaw, Matthew Wilkinson · · Canada (Peterborough)

This document compiles research reports written by students in the Environmental Resource Studies/Science (ERTS) 3160H class at Trent University in the winter of 2014. The students critically examined urban food forests around the world and made suggestions for designing a food forest in Peterborough. Urban food forests have the potential to provide the same services as current urban forests, but also produce food and perhaps increase biodiversity in the process.

Fan Wang · · China (Dongguan)

This article analyzed the application of banana plants in urban agriculture in Dongguan, China, considering the challenges posed by banana wilt disease. It proposed developing diverse planting patterns with high-quality, disease-resistant edible banana cultivars and unique cooking bananas. Additionally, it suggested introducing ornamental banana cultivars and developing deep processing of bananas into products like wine, resistant starch, and snack food.

H. C. Agada, E. A. Obienusi, Emma E. Ezenwaji · Journal of environment and earth science · Nigeria

This study evaluated urban forestry and housing patterns in Awka metropolis, Anambra State, Nigeria, over a ten-year period (2001-2010). Analysis of land use data using linear regression and correlation coefficients confirmed a significant correlation between housing patterns (urbanization) and the distribution of trees (forestry). The least square regression results indicated that the rate of forest displacement is a direct consequence of increasing structural development in the study area.

Yu Wang · · China (Xi'an City)

This study analyzed the dynamic changes in urban agricultural landscape (arable lands and garden plots) due to urbanization in Chang'an District, Xi'an City, China, using remote sensing, GIS, and FRAG-STAT techniques. Compared to 1999, arable land area decreased and aggregation declined by 2.45% in 2011, while garden plot area increased and aggregation rose by 10.44%. Improved urbanization levels decreased arable land area and increased fragmentation, but correlations with garden plot landscape indexes were insignificant.

Ben Stringer · WestminsterResearch (University of Westminster) · Global

This essay explains the design development for a city farm within the context of the history of representations of rurality in arts and architecture.

Marco Picone · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) · Global

This article considers the role of agriculture in contemporary societies, specifically the renaissance of urban gardening and innovative forms of agriculture. It studies the spread and impact of urban gardening and other innovative agriculture and horticulture in hyper-technological postmetropolises. These forms of crop tending are stimulating new forms of relationships, encouraging people to regain control over their lives and spend time closer to nature, and are argued to be becoming a form of "society tending" or socioculture, aligning with growing environmental awareness.

Gregory Mintz, Phil McManus · Australian Geographer · Australia (Sydney)

This research in Sydney, Australia, evaluates and compares the quality of community garden policies with the distribution of community gardens across local councils and broader geographic regions. It identifies areas that could benefit from increased access to community gardens and discusses ways for councils and the Sydney Region to improve their policies. The study aims to determine what elements community garden policies should contain to best promote these gardens and their benefits.

Matilda Thelin · · Sweden

This qualitative study in peri-urban Uppsala, Sweden, identifies driving forces influencing land use decisions by commercial farmers and institutional landowners. It notes that approximately 700 hectares of land in Sweden are diverted from food production annually, with Uppsala Municipality showing the greatest change in 2013. The expropriation of agricultural land for urban development leads to farmers losing land resources and increased competition for remaining land, resulting in high land prices.

Wojciech Sroka · Wieś i Rolnictwo · Poland

This article addresses the concept of urban agriculture in Polish economic and agricultural literature. It aims to develop a definition of urban agriculture, operationalize it, and present its main forms. The study reviews research from various countries and proposes a definition suitable for Polish socio-economic conditions, describing key actors, products, functions, and distinguishing two main forms: urban farming and urban horticulture.

Zhang Yu-me · Jingji wenti · China (Beijing)

This study analyzed the decoupling relationship between urban agriculture development and carbon emissions in Beijing, China, using the Tapio elastic method. Findings indicate that Beijing maintained agricultural self-sufficiency while carbon emissions decreased annually. The relationship between agricultural economic growth and carbon emissions shifted from recession decoupling to strong decoupling. Livestock, particularly cattle, swine, and poultry, were major carbon sources, suggesting the need for scientific feeding and improved feed conversion rates for sustainable urban agriculture.

Caitlin M. Port, Markus Moos · Planning Practice and Research · Canada

A study used Geographic Information System analysis to measure land potential for urban agriculture in four sub-urban neighborhoods in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Findings show that 49-58% of the land measured has potential to support urban agriculture; in older post-war sub-urban neighborhoods this potential lies primarily in private yards, while newer sub-urban neighborhoods incorporating new urbanist ideals have smaller yards but more public green space, meaning challenges and opportunities for urban agriculture differ between older and newer sub-urban areas due to differences in neighborhood design.

Francesca Cognetti, Serena Conti · SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología · Italy

A paper on Milan, Italy (2014) interprets the rising interest in urban agriculture in Milan as driven both by a desire to revive city design and by concrete attempts to realize it. Constructing a taxonomy of experiences to compose a hypothetical scenario of a "cultivated Milan," it focuses on initiatives that use cultivation not just as individual satisfaction or environmental reflection but as a tool for addressing urban issues and organizing common life; it argues that the English term "community gardens" — despite perhaps overemphasizing the community aspect — better describes these practices than the conventional Italian term "urban orchards," since the observed projects, in different ways, all aim to rediscover shared urban space, both physical and relational, through small projects that offer tangible immediate satisfaction while implicitly pointing toward wider horizons.

Stefano Grando, Roberto Henke, Livia Ortolani, Francesco Vanni, Thomas Aenis, Andrea Knierim, M. C. Riecher, R. Ridder, Harold H. Schobert, Holger Fischer · · Italy

Noting that urban and peri-urban farms cannot feed a city's entire population in either quantity or variety, but can provide a base for products and services that enhance the ecological, social and economic sustainability of metropolitan areas, this study analyzes farms in the countryside surrounding Rome, Italy. It first identifies market-oriented farms within the municipality of Rome and classifies them into three categories — traditional, adaptive and reactive peri-urban farms — then examines two cases of "reactive" farms in depth to identify the factors that shaped their successful trajectories and drove their renewed, multifunctional role in Rome's peri-urban agriculture.

Ségolène Darly, Christine Aubry · Géocarrefour · Europe

This study examined the diversity of alternative agri-food networks (S3A) supplying collective catering (school and institutional canteens) in France, particularly the Île-de-France region, and their respective capacity to reestablish a link between food and urban agriculture. Distinguishing S3A based on proximity relations tied to the region's urban agriculture from S3A built on extended networks spanning distant production and consumption sites, the results show that whether Île-de-France farm products are introduced into canteens depends, beyond the level and nature of local supply, on multiple other local factors such as the existence of producer-referencing networks and the state of kitchen equipment and labor resources.

Feng Yanmi · Yunnan Nongye Daxue xuebao · China

A discussion paper examines the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and its role in the integrated, sustainable development of urban and rural areas in China, against the backdrop of the country's urban-rural dual structure, farmland loss and ecological damage from urban expansion, peasants losing land, and food safety concerns. It frames CSA's model, in which producers and consumers form a partnership through advance payment or participation in production and share profits and losses, as promoting organic production and mutual cooperation with economic, ecological and social benefits.

Landesabstimmungsleiterin Berlin, Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg · Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg · Germany

The official final result report for Berlin's 25 May 2014 referendum on preserving Tempelhofer Feld. Of 2,491,365 eligible voters, 46.1% (1,149,145) participated. The citizen-initiated bill (question 1) passed with 739,124 'yes' votes (64.3%), while the Senate's counter-proposal (question 2) was rejected with 588,586 'no' votes (51.2%), resulting in a law preserving at least 230 hectares as permanent public green space.

Mary M. Gardiner, Caitlin E. Burkman, Scott P. Prajzner · Environmental Entomology · United States

This article discusses the ecological value of urban vacant land in the United States, particularly its role in supporting arthropod biodiversity and ecosystem services. It notes that vacant lands can offer opportunities to preserve declining species and restore ecosystem functions. The article emphasizes the need for quantifying the current ecological value of vacant land and assessing how changes in its ecosystem management affect biodiversity and ecosystem processes, with a specific focus on arthropods.

David Adams, Michael Hardman · Urban Studies · United Kingdom

This paper uses ethnographic data from 'F Troop', a guerrilla gardening group in an English midland city, to re-examine urban guerrilla gardening practices. It argues that these practices may not be as "resistant" or "celebratory" as often suggested in existing literature. The study highlights that the social backgrounds and motivations of participants, along with their relationships with other users of the space, are important but largely unacknowledged aspects of guerrilla gardening.

Yuan Ping-ping · Anhui nongye kexue · China

This literature review elaborated on the promotion of harmonious interpersonal interactions in allotment community gardens from three perspectives: improving interactions among family members, different families participating in the garden, and members of a wider community outside the garden. With China's rapid industrialization and urbanization, allotment community gardens, as a form of agriculture and recreation, are stated to help solve problems in interpersonal interactions, curb social estrangement, and promote a harmonious society by positively affecting interpersonal interactions.