Research & reports

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A thematic review synthesising global trends, innovations, governance frameworks and pathways to sustainability in urban agriculture, mapping the field's current state and future directions including citizen participation, policy support and environmental challenges.

Macharia M.W., Caproni L., Solemanegy M., Takele R., Chiulele R.M., Munisse P., Amane M., Pè M.E., Buizza R., Dell'Acqua M. · Communications Biology 8:834 · Africa

Genotypes 389 cowpea accessions (mostly landraces) from Southern Africa and identifies 36 genomic loci linked to local climate adaptation, highlighting the breeding value of farmer-conserved resources.

Domanus A., Smith A., Roberts M., Schnorenberg R., Doane M., Minor E. · Cities and the Environment (CATE), 17(2):9 · United States (Chicago)

A study of 24 community gardens in Chicago measuring not only cultivated crops but also spontaneous (wild/native) plants, birds, butterflies and bees. Gardens supported many spontaneous plant species (mean 8.4 per garden) alongside crops, which underpinned diverse fauna (18 bird species, 13 bee genera, 10 lepidopteran species). Socio-ecological drivers such as management type (allotment vs. communal) significantly shaped cultivated richness, the volume of spontaneous vegetation, and tree/shrub density — showing that how gardens are managed governs urban biodiversity.

Wilkens J., Mombo S., Dumat C. · Urban Science · France (Toulouse)

Examines 11 years of collective urban gardens in the Toulouse region through the lens of global health—encompassing human well-being, soil health, and interspecies interactions—as a driver of agroecological transitions among gardeners.

Ranalli et al. · Journal of Applied Ecology · Global (urban ecosystems)

2025 research on how urban agriculture and urban planning enhance pollinator habitats in changing landscapes. Urban environments offer benefits to pollinator communities: lower pesticide use, greater variety of floral resources, and increased landscape heterogeneity. Urban agriculture serves as a pollinator reservoir and source area for adjacent rural regions, contributing to food security, poverty alleviation, and pollinator conservation.

Roedel J., Szendrei Z. · Urban Ecosystems · North America (urban-suburban gradient)

2025 research showing that squash bees are most abundant on suburban and urban farms compared to rural farms. Demonstrates that small-scale urban farms benefit from urban environment advantages (lower pesticide use, diverse floral resources, landscape heterogeneity), enabling bee and floral community responses to urbanization.

Thompson, R., Climate & Food Security Research Initiative · Agriculture · Global

Analyzes urban agroecology as a key strategy to build climate-resilient communities and strengthen urban food systems. Examines multifaceted impacts of community-based agricultural practices on biodiversity conservation, local food security, and climate adaptation. Includes comparative case studies from Global South and Global North perspectives.

Emory Walker, Mara Welty, Emma Creviston, Jacob J. Adler · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States (Lafayette)

This project examined how straw cover affects the soil microbiome of a community garden, using EcoPlate carbon-source utilization analysis and 16S rRNA sequencing on samples from the Erie Street GrowLocal community garden in Lafayette, Indiana. Straw cover increased soil moisture content and significantly increased bacterial alpha diversity, with a shift toward carbohydrate preference, though beta diversity showed no difference between conditions. The authors conclude that straw coverage can improve soil microbial biodiversity and moisture, potentially benefiting yields and food quality for communities.

Azucena Lucatero, Madeleine Fairbairn · Agriculture and Human Values · United States (California)

Using a photovoice project and semi-structured interviews with community gardeners on California's central coast, this study investigates the values that drive community garden aesthetics. It finds that "tidiness" remains the hegemonic aesthetic, upheld by formal and informal governance and personal taste, while an alternative aesthetic the authors term "wildness" offers an ecologically valuable counterpoint—though tidiness and a sustainability orientation are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

· Landscape Ecology · Germany (Berlin, Munich)

Recorded pollinators and garden features across 33 community gardens in Berlin and Munich over two summers, finding local-scale garden features—rather than landscape context—predominantly structured urban pollinator communities.

Sexton A., Conitz F., Sturm U., Egerer M. · Ecology and Evolution · Germany (Berlin, Munich)

Using four years of plant community data from 30+ community gardens in Berlin and Munich, found no support for urban biotic homogenization—wild plant species instead showed increased biotic differentiation with urbanization.

· Landscape Ecology · Global

Ecological study examining how local garden features structure pollinator communities in urban agriculture. Links biodiversity conservation to food production success.

· Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Brazil (Sao Paulo)

Analyzes food diversity and environmental aspects of home and community gardens in highly urbanized areas of the Sao Paulo megacity.

· Sustainability · Warsaw, Poland

A survey of 44 plots in Warsaw finds turf-dominated allotments have the lowest plant species diversity (lowest Shannon index among use types) and provide only limited regulatory ecosystem services such as cooling and PM2.5 retention, showing garden management choices can undercut ecological function.

Alessio Russo, Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Annick St-Denis, Mark G. Tjoelker · Land · Global

Compares native and non-native plants in urban green spaces. Examines impacts on pollinator diversity, ecosystem services, and climate resilience. Analyzes conservation strategies and public preferences.

Emma Plant, Ria Dunkley, Davide M. Dominoni, Dominic J. McCafferty · Urban Ecosystems · Global

Empirical analysis of factors supporting pollinators in urban gardens. Demonstrates that floral richness and abundance are critical for pollinator diversity. Garden diversity prioritized over surrounding landscape influence.

Li et al. · Ecological Solutions and Evidence (Wiley) · Global

Meta-analysis on the integration of urban agriculture and green infrastructure for ecosystem functions and biodiversity. Urban agriculture shows less negative impact than conventional farming while reducing food supply chain distances.

African Urban Gardening Research Network · National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI/PMC) · Sub-Saharan Africa

Systematic review of 47 peer-reviewed studies across sub-Saharan Africa (2000–2025) showing urban gardens support ecological functions including pollination, soil fertility, and microclimate regulation.

Romanian Urban Agriculture Research Center · MDPI Land (Open Access) · Romania

Comparative study of residents' perceptions in three Western Romanian cities on urban agriculture's potential for biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and reducing synthetic compound use.

Chen, M., Rosenberg, R., Thompson, L., Schmidt, H. · Ecological Engineering · Global

Study of 15 cities with integrated green infrastructure networks. Biodiversity increases 30-50%, bird species richness increases from 12-15 to 35-40 species in high-connectivity zones.

Pickles, J. · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Australia

Situational analysis of civic gardeners in peri-urban region of Australia showing food gardening contributes to health, environmental sustainability, and more equitable local food systems

Pierluigi Siano, Isam Shahrour, Silvano Vergura · Journal of Urban Development and Smart Cities · Germany

This study presents a participatory Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework for evaluating urban agriculture in compact cities, based on a two-stage German case design. A European expert survey (35 responses) identified priority sub-criteria, and a German stakeholder survey (141 responses) weighted these criteria. The AHP structure prioritized the environmental dimension (42%), with biodiversity receiving the highest priority and food quality and safety the lowest.

Sergio Osorio Cañadas, Ek del Val de Gortari · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Mexico (Morelia)

This study investigated pollinators in seven urban and periurban orchards in Morelia, Mexico, during an annual agricultural cycle from October 2022 to June 2023. Monthly 5-hour censuses at each site revealed a considerable diversity of pollinators, with an average of 60 different species including bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, beetles, and hummingbirds, visiting the orchard flowers. It was also observed that each plant species attracted different pollinators.

Lokesh Ramachandran, Keerthivasan Ragupathi, Nithishkumar Govindaraju, Ajay Raja Anandhan, Dinesh Devarajan · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Argentina

This chapter examines agroecology as a sustainable production paradigm for the horticultural sector, facing challenges like climate change and resource depletion. It reviews the conceptual foundations of agroecology, its application to horticulture, and advances in agroecological practices. Case studies, such as peri-urban horticulture in Argentina, illustrate its promise, but note that a full transition remains incomplete.

Daniel Fischer · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Europe

Homegardens, also known as forest gardens or food forests, are a diverse and sustainable agroforestry model that mimics natural ecosystems by combining trees, shrubs, and other useful plants or small livestock. These systems are gaining popularity in Europe, particularly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland, due to their high productivity and the wide range of benefits they offer on limited space. The FAO defines these systems as agrisilvopasture.