Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
4283 results(58 / 172)
The multifunctionality concept in urban green infrastructure planning: A systematic literature review
2023Maria Korkou, Ari K.M. Tarigan, Hans Martin Hanslin · Urban forestry & urban greening · Global
A systematic literature review examines the multifunctionality concept in urban green infrastructure planning, identifying a knowledge gap in the planning literature regarding multiple ecosystem functions and a lack of methods for quantifying and monitoring ecological services and biodiversity at different spatial scales. The reviewed literature clustered into five main themes — planning methods for urban green infrastructure, assessment approaches, ecosystem services and their benefits, sustainability and climate adaptation, and urban agriculture — which the review found were interconnected. It identifies a knowledge gap in incorporating multifunctional green infrastructure into planning principles and proposes five critical elements for ensuring multiple functions: spatial distribution, optimal distance, integrated network, accessibility, and public participation and engagement.
PolicyCommunityBiodiversityClimate changeInventory and characterization of food systems on Bonaire
2023P. Post, H. Hengsdijk · · Global
This study inventoried and characterized food production systems in Rincon, Bonaire, combining literature review and online key-informant interviews with biophysical analysis and calculations of land and water requirements for several production scales, and applying a SWOT analysis to multiple production systems. It found that increasing year-round fruit and vegetable production in Rincon, and Bonaire more broadly, is challenging and may not be feasible without support, given limited and irregular water availability, an unsupportive business environment, and harsh conditions from pests, diseases, and weather; without sufficient support to expand water availability, local agricultural knowledge, and a suitable business environment, neither capital-intensive nor small-scale crop production is likely to improve the availability of healthy food or employment opportunities.
Economic viabilityEconomicsPolicyThe Role of Smart Technologies in Urban Agriculture
2023Marco Antonio Márquez-Vera, Brenda Eguiluz-Ruiz, Ricardo Calderón-Suárez · Advances in finance, accounting, and economics book series · Global
This book chapter examines the integration of smart technologies—IoT, AI, and data analytics—into urban agriculture. It argues that real-time monitoring, circular resource systems, intelligent irrigation, and controlled environments can improve resource efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in the face of challenges like limited arable land and conventional practices, while acknowledging costs and technology dependence as obstacles and emphasizing collaboration and education for successful implementation; no empirical data are presented.
Digital agricultureCommunitySpaces, Systems and Infrastructures: From Founding Visions to Emerging Approaches for the Productive Urban Landscape
2023Joe Nasr, Matthew Potteiger · Land · Global
Situating the proliferation of urban agriculture within a historical dialogue among foundational figures in urban and regional planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, this theoretical paper identifies fundamental strategies for designing and planning the "productive city" as a response to perceived failures in contemporary food systems. Drawing on a growing body of theory and practice for integrating urban agriculture into urban design and planning, it identifies three approaches: spatial design strategies that identify new territories for food production, systems design linking individual production spaces to broader food-system networks, and infrastructure design addressing flows of soils, water, and nutrients.
PolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageRole of Social Innovation in Alleviating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Development
2023Muradiye Ateş · Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi · Global
A qualitative study on the role of social innovation in poverty alleviation and sustainable development examined two cases — the KIVA microcredit system and community-supported agriculture — assessing each for innovativeness, sustainability, social impact, target audience, and institutional structure. It concluded that both cases contribute to poverty reduction and regional development in terms of these dimensions.
CSA & TeikeiWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceLas huertas urbanas: una estrategia para la construcción de nuevas ciudades
2023Laura Ospina, Paula Parra · Pensamiento udecino · Colombia
A documentary literature review examines the importance of urban agriculture, urbanization and community participation in the context of community gardens in Colombia. It draws on high-quality scientific texts from portals including Scielo, Publindex and Scopus, plus undergraduate, master's and doctoral theses, along with a review of statistical data for each variable studied. The results point to social, economic and environmental implications and the importance of participation in these spaces. The review concludes that urban gardens are a strategy that can offset negative externalities of the current capitalist urban model -- environmental degradation, pollution, poverty, inequality -- and can positively affect residents' quality of life, becoming consolidated as spaces linking social and environmental concerns and enabling new territorial configurations.
CommunityPolicyClimate changeEconomicsThe Socio-Cultural Benefits of Urban Agriculture: A Review of the Literature
2022Ilieva R.T., Cohen N., Israel M., Specht K., Fox-Kämper R., Fargue-Lelièvre A., Poniży L., Schoen V., Caputo S., Kirby C.K., Goldstein B., Newell J.P., Blythe C. · Land (MDPI), 11(5):622 · Global
A systematic review of 272 peer-reviewed publications drawing on urban-agriculture sites in 57 countries, organizing socio-cultural benefits into four domains: cohesive communities, health and well-being, economic opportunities, and education. Community connection and learning emerged as the most frequently reported benefits.
CommunityHealthFood educationEconomicsCommunity gardens and their effects on diet, health, psychosocial and community outcomes: a systematic review
2022Hume C., Grieger J.A., Kalamkarian A., D'Onise K., Smithers L.G. · BMC Public Health, 22:1247 · Global
A systematic review synthesizing 53 eligible studies. Community garden participation was positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake and several psychosocial and community outcomes, though effects on physical health indicators were mixed.
CommunityHealthFood educationCommunity gardens as local learning environments in social housing contexts: participant perceptions of enhanced wellbeing and community connection
2022Gray T., Tracey D., Truong S., Ward K. · Local Environment, 27(5):570-585 · Australia
A mixed-methods study of 42 social-housing residents across six new community garden sites in Sydney. Participants reported greater health and wellbeing awareness, new interest in growing fresh food, shared produce and recipes, happiness, and frequent socialization and community connectedness.
CommunityWelfareHealthFood educationUrban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Sourcebook – From Production to Food Systems
2022FAO, Rikolto, RUAF · Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rikolto & RUAF · Global
A comprehensive guide co-published by FAO, Rikolto and RUAF for local decision-makers, urban planners and practitioners. It frames urban and peri-urban agriculture from production through to urban food systems and policy, promoting reduced food loss via short supply chains, biodiversity protection, social inclusion, and urban-rural linkages.
PolicyCommunityOrganic cycleFood lossEconomicsBiodiversityEvaluating the impacts of school garden-based programmes on diet and nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among the school children: a systematic review
2022Chan C.L., Tan P.Y., Gong Y.Y. · BMC Public Health, 22:1251 · Global
A systematic review of how school garden-based programmes affect children's diet- and nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Synthesizing studies from multiple databases, it concludes that such programmes are a promising and cost-effective intervention for improving healthy eating among schoolchildren.
Food educationHealthCommunityまちを変える都市型農園 コミュニティを育む空き地活用
2022Shimpo N. · 学芸出版社 (Gakugei Shuppan), ISBN 978-4-7615-2821-8, 208pp · Global
Shimpo's single-authored book on 'urban-type gardens' that activate underused spaces scattered through cities—suburban abandoned farmland, corners of urban parks, commercial-building rooftops, housing-estate grounds. Drawing on advanced cases and practitioner interviews from Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Japan, it shows how such gardens address vacant-land use, community revitalisation, greening and food/environmental education.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cyclePolicyEcosystem service delivery by urban agriculture and green infrastructure – a systematic review
2022Evans D.L., Falagán N., Hardman C.A., Kourmpetli S., Liu L., Mead B.R., Davies J.A.C. · Ecosystem Services, 54, 101405 · Global
A systematic review synthesizing 157 peer-reviewed articles that compares which ecosystem services are delivered by different types of urban agriculture and green infrastructure. It finds that community gardens, green spaces and parks deliver the most diverse services, that local climate and air-quality regulation are best provided by green infrastructure alone, and that biological control and genetic-diversity maintenance peak when green infrastructure is combined with urban agriculture.
BiodiversityCommunityHealthEconomicsMeanwhile Use for London
2022Greater London Authority, Arup · Greater London Authority (GLA) · Global
A GLA report institutionalising 'meanwhile use' of vacant land/units awaiting development, presenting support via competitions, guidance, land provision and time-limited change-of-use permissions for interim community uses including gardens.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsThe 'Covid-Trigger': New Light on Urban Agriculture and Systemic Approach to Urbanism to Co-Create a Sustainable Lisbon
2022· Systemic Practice and Action Research · Portugal (Lisbon)
A study examining, through a systemic urbanism lens, how COVID-19 brought new attention to urban agriculture in Lisbon, exploring how participatory urban farming can be co-created and embedded in sustainable city-making.
CommunityPolicyState of ex situ conservation of landrace groups of 25 major crops
2022Ramirez-Villegas J., Khoury C.K., Achicanoy H.A., Diaz M.V., Mendez A.C., Sosa C.C., Kehel Z., Guarino L., Abberton M. · Nature Plants 8:491-499 · Global
A global gap analysis predicting distributions of over 70 landrace groups across 25 crops, finding a mean 63% represented in genebanks and major collecting gaps in South Asia, the Mediterranean, the Andes and Africa.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityPolicyExploring Conventional Economic Viability as a Potential Barrier to Scalable Urban Agriculture: Examples from Two Divergent Development Contexts
2022Kafle A., Hopeward J., Myers B. · Horticulturae 8(8):691 · Australia, Nepal
Analyzes urban agriculture viability across 40 sites in Adelaide and the Kathmandu Valley, calculating margins and benefit-cost ratios from land, labour and distribution costs, finding land cost the primary driver and labour a critical constraint to scalability.
EconomicsCommercial urban agriculture: A review for sustainable development
2022Dias G. M., Ayer N. W., Khosla S., Van Acker R., Young S. B., Whitney S., Hendricks P. · Sustainable Cities and Society 87:104198 · Global
Text-mining review of commercial urban agriculture literature, identifying economic drivers such as employment generation, supply-chain cost reduction, and market proximity as the main forces behind for-profit urban farming.
EconomicsPolicyManaging Urban-Rural Linkages for Biodiversity
2022UN-Habitat · UN-Habitat · Global
Frames the role of urban-rural linkages in biodiversity conservation, presenting integrated urban-rural governance through ecological corridors, green belts and farmland protection.
BiodiversityPolicyUrban–Rural Linkages and Ecosystem Restoration
2022UNCCD · UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification) Working Paper · Global
A policy analysis of how urban expansion cascades into rural land degradation and ecosystem loss, arguing for urban-rural linkage governance to drive land restoration and combat desertification.
BiodiversityPolicyGlobal food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions
2022Li M., Jia N., Lenzen M., Malik A., Wei L., Jin Y., Raubenheimer D. · Nature Food · Global
A global accounting showing that food miles account for about 20% of total food-system CO₂ emissions (3.0 GtCO₂e), giving scientific grounding to the carbon benefit of shortening food transport through local consumption.
EconomicsPotential of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global South: Priority investments for innovation
2022CoSAI, IWMI · CoSAI / IWMI (International Water Management Institute) · Global
Identifies priority investment areas for urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global South—Asia holds 49% of the world's urban irrigated cropland—and proposes investment priorities across technology, policy and finance.
PolicyEconomicsGeographies of peri-urbanization in the Global South
2022Follmann, A. · Geography Compass (Wiley) · Global
Conceptually maps the geographic diversity of peri-urbanization across the Global South, comparing how peri-urbanization processes differ in Africa, Asia and Latin America and their effects on agriculture and livelihoods.
Residential green space, gardening, and subjective well-being: A cross-sectional study of garden owners in northern Belgium
2022Krols J., Aerts R., Vanlessen N., Dewaelheyns V., Dujardin S., Somers B. · Landscape and Urban Planning · Belgium (Flanders)
A cross-sectional study of 587 domestic garden owners in Flanders and Brussels found that nature relatedness and neighbourhood green space quality were associated with reduced stress and depression, while socioeconomic security was an independent protective factor.
HealthWelfareIn the garden: capacities that contribute to community groups establishing community gardens
2022Doyle G. · International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development · Ireland (Dublin)
Based on case studies in Dublin, this paper identifies the key capacities—diverse expertise, supportive organisations, and access to land and resources—that enable community groups to successfully establish and sustain community gardens in Ireland. Published in the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development (Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 15–32).
CommunityPolicyFood education