Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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4122 results(60 / 165)
Urban Agriculture in Thailand: Adoption Factors and Communication Guidelines to Promote Long-Term Practice
2022Sukanya Sereenonchai, Noppol Arunrat · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global
A mixed-methods study (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022) surveyed 325 villagers across 13 communities in seven Thai provinces, combining the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Health Belief Model with techniques including crosstab analysis, stepwise multiple linear regression, one-way ANOVA, multinomial logistic regression, decision tree analysis, and descriptive content analysis. Attitude, perceived benefits, and perceived readiness significantly and positively influenced adoption of urban agriculture. Among villagers who owned agricultural land, behavioral control and social norms drove continued practice; for other groups, perceived readiness and communication were the key drivers. The study proposes communication guidelines based on the EAST framework (easy, attractive, social, timely) delivered through a Critical Participatory Action Research process.
PolicyDigital agricultureCommunityCircularity in the Urban Water-Energy-Nutrients-Food nexus
2022M.C.G. Haitsma Mulier, F.H.M. Van de Ven, Paul Kirshen · Energy Nexus · Global
Drawing on case-study water-energy-food (WEF) nexus research at urban farms, which found that two distinct types of "food" are relevant to urban agriculture, this study (2022, no specific region) splits the "food" component of the WEF framework to build a water-energy-nutrients-food (WENF) nexus framework for urban farming. The systematic WENF monitoring, analysis, and evaluation framework aims to support quality data acquisition during case-study research at farm sites, addressing a quantitative data gap on urban agriculture and closed circularity loops; it differentiates stocks of water, energy, nutrients, and food, describes flows within each, and identifies multi-sectoral flows and interdependencies among the four resource stocks to formulate options for circularity in urban farming. The analysis indicates urban systems offer many opportunities for realizing sustainable agriculture in cities because waste management and farming can mutually reinforce each other: local reuse of resources found in urban "waste" could reduce stormwater problems and energy needs for water, nutrient, and food transport, irrigation, and wastewater pumping, while eliminating the need for synthetic soil amendments and unsustainable mineral mining, and reusing resources from urban (waste)water in urban farming could reduce food production's overall negative environmental impact.
Organic cycleEconomicsPolicyClimate changePrácticas económicas alternativas de escala local en espacios urbanos: el caso de Zaragoza
2022Eugenio Antonio Climent López, Raúl Lardiés Bosque, Samuel Esteban Rodríguez · Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles · Spain
Since the 2008 crisis, alternative economic practices to the dominant system have proliferated, especially in urban areas where new social movements have taken stronger root. This study examines Zaragoza, Spain, governed in the previous legislative term by a new-left coalition, one of the so-called "councils of change." It selected practices operating at the local scale through unconventional procedures: community urban gardens, agroecological consumption markets and groups, community currencies (time banks, barter markets, and social currency), and self-managed social centers. A qualitative methodology combined semi-structured interviews with closed questionnaires and participant observation. These practices were found dispersed across the urban space and linked to urban social movements and local politics. The study concludes that their impact is limited in quantitative terms, but that they hold broad transformative potential owing to the characteristics of their practitioners and the support of local administration.
CommunityEconomicsPolicySmart Urban Agriculture : exploring its development in Sweden
2022Per-Anders Langendahl, Maria Tunberg, Suvi Kokko · · Europe
Smart urban agriculture — food produced in closed, controlled and digitally augmented environments such as vertical farms, plant factories and aquaponics systems — is found in cities worldwide and is said to produce fresh food year-round using fewer chemicals and fewer food miles. However, critiques of smart urban agriculture note it is a marginal activity that often produces food with low nutritional value and requires energy-intensive artificial lighting. Using qualitative research methods, this report examines the development of smart urban agriculture in Sweden, identifying experimental and entrepreneurial initiatives and analyzing them in relation to high-level policy agendas such as food policy, smart cities and digitalisation. The findings show Swedish smart urban agriculture broadly consists of technology-oriented entrepreneurial start-ups and experimental initiatives split into production-oriented (mainly herbs and leafy greens), community-oriented (prioritizing social benefits), and technology-oriented (developing and supplying digital solutions and services) types. However, product output was limited to a small variety of financially high-margin crops sold at premium prices. In relation to high-level strategic agendas, smart (urban) agriculture is recognized for environmental and social benefits such as mitigating flooding.
Limited or null effectDigital agriculturePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceMainstreaming Urban Agriculture: Opportunities and Barriers to Upscaling City Farming
2022Michael Hardman, Andrew Clark, Graeme Sherriff · Agronomy · United Kingdom
Using a qualitative approach across the UK's largest urban farm and a range of other urban agriculture (UA) sites, this study examined the barriers to upscaling city farming. Evidence pointed to urban soil contamination and hesitation about growing crops in cities as a core issue preventing UA from scaling up, alongside public hesitancy and financial barriers, despite the practice's potential social, environmental and economic value through job creation, biodiversity enhancement and shorter food supply chains. The paper concludes that public hesitation, financial barriers and soil quality prevent development, and calls for a more pragmatic approach to these barriers.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityPolicyEconomicsThe Role of Agricultural Institutions in Promoting Community Involvement in Fertigation in Community Gardens
2022Rosmiza Mz, Noorziah Mohd Salleh, Nurin Sahira Che Helmi, Milah Zainal, Jabil Mapjabil, Mohd Nor Mohd Rosmi, Mazdi Marzuki · Journal of Asian Scientific Research · Malaysia
Against the rise of community gardens driven by increasing living costs, growing interest in healthy lifestyles, and limited agricultural land, a quantitative study of 50 residents in Kampung Gali Hilir, Pahang, Malaysia, examined the role of institutions in increasing community involvement in cultivation using fertigation methods. Most respondents, described as agripreneurs, agreed that agricultural institutions play a crucial role in providing information and assistance on fertigation cultivation through courses and training and in supplying agricultural inputs and related programs, and the study identified a need to strengthen institutional approaches to further increase participation in newly introduced methods.
CommunityFood educationPolicyNew Approaches on Urban Agriculture: A Case Study in Ataköy
2022Ezgi Duman, Beyza Şat · Journal of Design Studio · Turkey
A case study examining urban agriculture potential in Ataköy, Bakırköy, Istanbul, against the backdrop of Istanbul receiving 42.5% of Turkey's internal migration in 2019 according to TUIK (Turkish Statistical Institute). Using literature review together with feasibility and field studies based on the R-URBAN strategy, the study examines idle industrial areas and vacant lots in Ataköy for urban agriculture potential, and develops a scenario and implementation model for the area.
CommunityPolicyRevitalization of inner-city brownfields through urban gardening exemplified by the Kölner Neuland e.V. in Germany
2022Isabel Müller, Karina Pallagst, Patricia Hammer · Ra Ximhai · Germany
A case study of Kölner Neuland e.V., an urban gardening project that revitalized part of a 44,000 m² former industrial brownfield in Cologne's Bayenthal district, Germany, framed as a "Green Innovation Area." Based on a literature review and an expert interview, the study examines the project's history, financial aspects, marketing measures, and goals, then assesses its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It reports the project is evaluated "quite positively" overall, while also noting that some aspects show a need for action, and it formulates recommendations in the areas of financing, public perception and management/control for future development of the project and similar brownfield-revitalization efforts.
PolicyCommunityNarrative explorations of the role of the informal food sector in food flows and sustainable transitions during the COVID-19 lockdown
2022Sandra Boatemaa Kushitor, Shawn Alimohammadi, Paul Currie · PLOS Sustainability and Transformation · South Africa
An ethnographic study using in-depth interviews and participant observation, conducted April to November 2020 with thematic analysis, examined the role of the informal food sector in food flows in Cape Town, South Africa, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The informal food sector has historically been subject to exclusionary urban policies, and lockdown regulations caused food flows through the sector to cease, resulting in job loss and increased food insecurity. The sector subsequently reshaped food flows through urban agriculture, food aid programmes and community change, though it can also hinder urban modernisation. The study concludes regulatory frameworks need to be more inclusive of the sector.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsThe Role of Farmland Titling in Urban Agricultural Resilience: Evidence from Metropolitan Guangzhou, China
2022Dan Li, Wenjing Zhong, Yitao Chen · Sustainability · China
Using household-level survey data from metropolitan Guangzhou, China, and a property-rights-theory framework, this study empirically examined whether farmland titling as a formal institutional reform affects the resource allocation of urban farmer households (UFHs). The analysis found that farmland titling positively affects UFHs' willingness to hold farmland and their capital allocation, and the paper argues that reforming the farmland transaction market, strengthening talent cultivation, and increasing green agricultural investment would support the modernization, sustainability and resilience of urban agriculture.
PolicyEconomicsThe condition of urban agriculture in a Chinese global city: evidence from the field
2022Gianni Talamini, Qi Zhang, Paola Viganò · Environment and Urbanization · China
Focusing on Nanshan District in Shenzhen, a vast, rapidly urbanizing region of China, this study used a mixed-method approach combining spatial analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews to analyze the social and spatial characteristics of urban agriculture and its regulation in a Chinese global city. The results show diverse types of urban agriculture coexisting and interacting, forming a socio-biologically rich heterogeneity of precarious practices that are overlooked by local authorities yet contribute to stewardship, social development, community engagement, and the preservation of agricultural heritage. The article presents policy insights and advocates for government involvement in recognizing the social significance of urban agriculture.
CommunityPolicyAzioni Verdi per città innovative. Il nuovo Paesaggio Agroalimentare \nGreen Actions for innovative cities. The new Agri-Food Landscape
2022Emanuele Sommariva, Nicola Canessa, Giorgia Tucci · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe
An article links the role of ecosystem services to growing research and development funding attention to green infrastructure and urban greening strategies, positioning ecosystem services as a new parameter for assessing urban green infrastructure and re-naturalization processes that counteract climate-change effects such as flooding and heat islands while promoting conservation, resilience, and biodiversity of natural habitats. It identifies urban agriculture and community gardens as playing an important role in securing socio-ecological benefits at the local level and promoting access to healthy, "Zero Km" food sources. Drawing on the European project Creative Food Cycles, the article outlines ideas for circularity and recycling of waste across the food chain.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityClimate changeEstrategias de Custodia del Territorio a través de huertos urbanos: indicadores descriptivos para extrapolar la experiencia del IMGEMA en Córdoba
2022Rafael Bláquez Madrid, Ricardo Martín de Almagro, José Mora Jordano, Ángel Lora González, Encarnación Taguas Ruiz · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Barcelona)
This entry records a paper on territorial stewardship strategies through urban gardens, presenting descriptive indicators meant to extrapolate the experience of IMGEMA (Córdoba's municipal environmental management body) in Córdoba, Spain, published in Cuadernos de Ordenación del Territorio, No. 5, 2022, by authors Rafael Bláquez Madrid, Ricardo Martín de Almagro, José Mora Jordano, Ángel Lora González, and Encarnación Taguas Ruiz. Only this bibliographic information is available; the record contains no description of methods or findings.
CommunityPolicyProspects for Rooftop Farming System Dynamics: An Action to Stimulate Water-Energy-Food Nexus Synergies toward Green Cities of Tomorrow
2021Cheng C., Aviso K.B., Tan R.R., Aviso K. · Sustainability (MDPI), 13(16):9042 · Asia
A study developing a system-dynamics model of a rooftop farm in Taipei City to analyze the socio-environmental benefits of rooftop agriculture (improved food access, community ties, energy savings, reduced flood risk). It frames rooftop farming as a practical solution for strengthening water-energy-food nexus synergies in greener cities.
Organic cycleCommunityPolicyBiodiversityまちづくり団体による都市農業の市場外流通支援の特徴と課題
2021· 都市計画論文集（公益社団法人 日本都市計画学会）56巻2号 · Japan
A peer-reviewed paper analyzing how community-development organizations support off-market distribution (direct and contract sales) of urban agriculture, using cases in Kashiwa and Kokubunji. It provides scholarly context for public-private farmers-market and local-food efforts such as Kobe's EAT LOCAL KOBE.
PolicyCommunityEconomics都市農業をめぐる情勢について
2021農林水産省 農村振興局農村計画課都市農業室 · 農林水産省（都市農地活用支援センター セミナー資料） · Japan
A Ministry of Agriculture briefing on the current state and policy trends of urban agriculture. It summarises trends in urban farmland area, productive/specified-productive green space, measures under the Urban Agriculture Promotion Act, and initiatives toward diverse functions such as citizen farms, experience farms and agriculture-welfare collaboration — a baseline reference for municipalities designing urban-agriculture policy.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityFood educationLong-Term Development of Urban Agriculture: Resilience and Sustainability of Farmers Facing the Covid-19 Pandemic in Japan
2021Yoshida S., Yagi H. · Sustainability 13(8):4316 · Japan
Drawing on a survey of 74 farms in Tokyo, the study revealed conditions for farm resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between short-term resilience and long-term farm development. More than half of the farms increased sales, and short-term resilience contributed to farmers' intentions for long-term development and farmland preservation.
EconomicsPolicyCommunityPractices in building housing and settlements in the Nazi era. Case study: Breslau
2021Störtkuhl B. · Architectus, No. 3(67), pp. 25–37 · Germany
Studies how the self-build Reichsheimstätten, originating as a late-Weimar crisis measure, became central to Nazi housing policy aimed at 're-rooting' the population in German soil, using Breslau as a case study.
PolicyCommunityA qualitative comparative analysis of collaborative governance structures as applied in urban gardens
2021Molenveld A., Voorberg W., Van Buuren A., Hagen L. · Public Management Review · Netherlands
Fuzzy-set QCA of 14 Dutch urban gardens with partnerships among citizens, public authorities, and private actors, identifying financial independence, institutionalization, and a small core volunteer group as key to garden durability.
PolicyCommunityThe global rise of urban rooftop agriculture: A review of worldwide cases
2021Appolloni E., Orsini F., Specht K., Thomaier S., Sanyé-Mengual E., Pennisi G., Gianquinto G. · Journal of Cleaner Production 296:126556 · Global
Systematic review of rooftop agriculture cases worldwide, mapping diverse business forms including commercial and social models, and their integration into urban food policy and planning.
EconomicsPolicyAssociations between Food Policy Councils and Policies That Support Healthy Food Access: A National Survey of Community Policy Supports
2021Lange S. J., Calancie L., Onufrak S. J., Reddy K. T., Palmer A., Warnock A. L. · Nutrients 13(2):683 · United States
National survey showing that the presence of food policy councils is associated with local policies supporting healthy food access, including for food-insecure populations, underscoring their role in food system governance.
PolicyWelfareHealth団地内のコミュニティスペースが地域の繋がりに与える影響に関する研究
2021千葉 舞優, 西村 亮彦 · 景観・デザイン研究講演集 No.17 · Japan
Using Odakyu's regenerated Hoshinotani Danchi as a case study, this research examines the planning and operation of community spaces including the Hatamusubi rental farm, Kissaten Laundry café, and childcare support facilities, showing how movement between facilities generates small-scale exchange including the surrounding area.
CommunityPolicyHealth農地保全等にかかる検討報告書
2021世田谷区 · 世田谷区 検討報告書 · Japan
Setagaya's review report from its urban-agriculture and farmland-conservation PT after the 2022 productive-green-area issue, outlining the current state and future direction of publicly supported urban farmland use including buy-out conservation, agriculture-welfare collaboration, ward allotments and community farms such as Tamaribatake.
PolicyCommunityWelfareFood educationGlobal mapping of urban-rural catchment areas reveals unequal access to services
2021Cattaneo, A., Nelson, A., McMenomy, T. · PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) 118(2) · Global
The foundational paper on the Urban-Rural Catchment Areas (URCA) typology, mapping the urban-rural continuum worldwide as 30 classes (7 city sizes × 3 travel-time bands) and showing unequal access to services.
PolicyEconomicsEconomic and Social Development along the Urban-Rural Continuum: New Opportunities to Inform Policy
2021Cattaneo A., Adukia A., Brown D.L., Christiaensen L., Evans D.K., Haakenstad A.M., McMenomy T., Partridge M., Vaz S., Weiss D.J. · World Development / World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9756 · Global
About 25% of the world's people live in the peri-urban areas of small and mid-size cities. Proximity to large cities is strongly correlated with lower poverty, while mid-size-city fringes face a 'peri-urban penalty'. Establishes URCA as a core policy framework.
PolicyEconomics