Research & reports

George Martin, Roland Clift, Ian Christie · Sustainability · Global

This exploratory study examined three urban cultivation sites in New York, London, and San Francisco to assess their nutritional, ecological, and social sustainability contributions. Field analysis revealed very low food outputs relative to the populations of their catchment areas, indicating that most urban food will continue to come from outside urban peripheries. The study concluded that urban food growing's sustainability benefits are more social than agronomic or ecological.

Jin-Hee Ju, Won-Tae Kim, Hui Xu, Young-Han Yoon, Eun‐Young Choi · Journal of Environmental Science International · Global

This study investigated the influence of hydrophilic polymer (HP) mixture ratio on the growth of eggplant (Solanum melongena) for lower maintenance urban agriculture via green roofs. As the hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio increased, the growth index, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width, and dry weight of shoot and root decreased. Specifically, these values were significantly lower in HP5.0% and HP10.0% treatments compared to the control, and the survival rate was lowest at 56% in the HP10.0% treatment.

Muhammad Bello Ibrahim, Nobaya Ahmad, Asnarul Khadi Abu Samah, M.S.M. Redzuan · Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia) · Nigeria

A quantitative study surveyed 217 peri-urban agricultural farmers in Kwadon, Gombe, NE Nigeria, from a population of 500, to assess their efforts in watershed sustainability and usage. Descriptive statistics indicated that the majority of these farmers are moderately sustaining the Kwadon watershed through their farming practices. The study focused on water sources, water sharing, and watershed management.

Thaís Cristina Schneider, Paulo André Niederle, Myrian Regina Del Vecchio-de Lima · Razón y Palabra · Brazil

This article analyzes urban agriculture from a communication perspective, focusing on how practitioners and non-practitioners understand its critical and alternative role regarding the modern food system. The study of Quinta da Videira in southern Brazil found that while urban agriculture is used to counter conventional food production and associated lifestyles, there are also resistances to integrating agricultural practices into the urban environment.

Michael Buxton, Rachel Carey, Kath Phelan · Water science and technology library · Australia (Melbourne)

This case study examines the relationship between urban and peri-urban systems in Melbourne, Australia, where peri-urban agricultural production faces pressure from rapid urban development. It explores three scenarios relating rural and urban land supply and demand, and land use planning techniques to limit rural land development. The study argues that stronger statutory planning measures are needed to prevent the loss of peri-urban agricultural land and enhance the resilience of city food systems.

Elizabeth Vibert · Journal of Contemporary African Studies · South Africa

This article examines the Hleketani Community Garden in Limpopo Province, South Africa, highlighting the successes of women farmers in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes. Despite these benefits, the research identifies significant structural barriers, including lack of access to resources, unfavorable policy frameworks for small-scale agriculture, and worsening climate change, that hinder small-scale farmers, particularly women.

Francesco Sottile, Fiorito Daniela, Nadia Tecco, Vincenzo Girgenti, Cristiana Peano · Sustainability · Kenya

This study aimed to propose an interpretive framework, the "Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology-Garden" (SAEMETH-G), to quantitatively guide the sustainability evaluation of school gardens. As a case study, the methodology was applied to 15 school gardens located in three regions of Kenya. The application of SAEMETH-G as an assessment tool demonstrated that sustainability evaluations of school gardens can be carried out through a participatory and interdisciplinary approach.

Alfred Wong, Alan Hallsworth · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Canada (Vancouver)

This paper examines urban/community gardening in Vancouver, Canada, from the perspective of basic farming realities such as growing season and land availability. It was found that securing low-cost land within dense urban limits, insufficient ambient temperature and water supply during the growing season, and contemporary societal structures pose significant obstacles to community gardening producing affordable food. Overcoming these fundamental hurdles carries significant negative environmental and economic consequences.

Kimberley Curtis · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This book review covers Steven McFadden's "Awakening Community Intelligence," presenting his argument for the exponential expansion of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). McFadden believes CSAs have the potential to become "community cornerstones" and function as a "network of light-giving impulses" through digital networking, addressing 21st-century challenges.

Beatriz Pineda Revilla, A.J.J. van der Valk · Urban Agriculture Magazine · Netherlands

This article examines the role of a participatory agent, a civil servant in Amsterdam East, Netherlands, whose primary task is to bridge the interests of citizens and local government within a community garden. The study focuses on citizen-led initiatives in Dutch cities.

M. A. Anderson · IEEE Spectrum · United States

A team of technologists at MIT suggests that urban agriculture may be on the verge of an Internet-enabled revolution, driven by recent technological breakthroughs such as high-efficiency blue LED lighting. This news article explores the potential future of urban agriculture.

Stefan Hebold, Andrea Frömel · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · Global

This study aimed to address the lack of scientific documentation on the forms and effects of urban agriculture by investigating the health of urban-produced plant-based foods. Raised beds were established at urban, peri-urban, and rural locations, planted with identical species, and compared with the yields from an ECF container farm hydroponic system. Yields were compared between the hydroponic system and raised beds, while raised beds were compared among themselves based on heavy metal accumulation.

Ida Åberg · · Global

This abstract introduces urban agriculture (UA) as a potential solution to the challenges of feeding rapidly growing cities sustainably and addressing unsustainability and poverty.

Charlotte Prové, Joost Dessein, Michiel De Krom · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Belgium; Poland

A study evaluating urban agriculture in Belgium and Poland argues that current governance approaches fail to reflect the importance of local context. The authors found that considering city-specific factors is crucial for urban agriculture to reach its full potential. They recommend a broader policymaking strategy that acknowledges benefits beyond food production.

Annette Voigt, T. E. Leitão, Andrew Hursthouse, Ari Jokinen, Avigail Heller, Monika Latkowska, Paulo Brito da Luz, Yvonne Christ, Béatrice Bechet, Mart Külvik, Johannes Langemeyer · · Global

This chapter presents guidance on tools for undertaking an ecological assessment with a simple, integrated, and systemic approach using sets of indicators. Agro-environmental indicators allow efficient assessment of the state, trends, and rate of change of environmental status or ecosystem services. Indicators for a garden’s suitability as a habitat depend on selected species and their demands. Gardens near the seashore require coping with difficult environmental conditions, and water requirements vary by climatic zone and crop evapotranspiration rates. Improving physical and chemical soil conditions generally enhances crop growth and reduces risks of erosion, compaction, and poor drainage. Urban gardening can expand habitat areas for particular animal species from nearby green areas. The chapter provides information on minimizing main risks from urban environmental pressures on urban gardening.

Afsana Akther, Tofael Ahamed, Tomohiro Takigawa, Ryozo Noguchi · Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy · Global

This study proposes a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis model for solid waste management in Dhaka, Bangladesh, incorporating factors such as waste-generating site locations, road networks, environmentally sensitive locations, causes of illegal dumping, and waste segregation to select suitable sites for waste disposal and composting that would support urban agriculture. Using exclusionary criteria, decision factors, and weighted standardization, the analysis produced a suitability map identifying potential composting site locations.

Patrizia Ghisellini, Marco Casazza · Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management · Global

Given cities' near-total dependence on imported resources, this paper offers a short review of research on urban agriculture, energy and urban resilience, alongside a historical overview of the evolving concept of the city-countryside relationship. It concludes that urban agriculture in its various forms partially addresses food security in both developed and developing countries and provides environmental, economic and social benefits, but states that its energetic and environmental impacts have not been adequately investigated on-site in specific locations, leaving it unclear whether urban agriculture is a sustainable option.

Özge Yalçıner Ercoşkun · · Turkey

Building on the observation that rapid urban transformation in Turkish cities has neglected and damaged local values in recent years, this paper examines traditional Turkish cities across different bio-regions under sustainable planning and design principles within an eco-cultural logic framework. Key themes are land use, accessibility, open and green space, production, water management, social cohesion, and traditional architecture, and the paper lists compact urban layout, mixed land use, pedestrian-prioritized street patterns, climate-friendly design, water and stormwater management, open-green space systems, and urban agriculture as sustainable urban planning and design principles.

Gabriela Ivonne Pérez Rodríguez, Rafael Delgado Morales, Lydia Guadalupe Bernal Negrete · · Mexico

This is a progress report on research into urban agriculture (UA) in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone (ZMG), Mexico, aimed at understanding the actions being taken to promote and develop UA there and identifying cases of success or failure. The paper presents only the first phase of a research project intended to reproduce the ZMG's UA model in the Laja-Bajío zone of Guanajuato state, consisting of a study and analysis of the current state of UA and urban gardens in the ZMG. It is organized into three sections: the first covers the current state of urban agriculture worldwide, in Mexico, and in the ZMG, including its relevance to regional development, how it develops in different countries, and public policies and their shortcomings; the second describes the desk and field research conducted in the ZMG and its results; and the third addresses the prospects for UA in Mexico and areas of opportunity.

Christopher Schliephake · Ecozon European Journal of Literature Culture and Environment · South Korea

An essay examines historical and socio-cultural shifts in urban landscapes and their cultural imagery since industrialization, then discusses bottom-up and top-down models of urban agriculture as two alternative attempts to re-embed cities within natural material cycles. It goes on to analyze the cultural urban ecology depicted in South Korean director Hae-jun Lee's film Cast Away on the Moon (2009), raising questions about what place nature holds in cities and whether working the soil can lead to regeneration.

Helen Armstrong, Abby Mellick Lopes · Water science and technology library · Global

This chapter contrasts growing cities (such as in Asia and Australia), which are destroying their rural edge, with shrinking cities (such as in Europe and North America), which are creating a new rural urbanism in their urban centres, and examines how design and mapping technology enable new typologies for peri-/inter-urban rural land. It draws on small-scale community initiatives in Penrith, Western Sydney -- Out & About in Penrith, Penrith as a Regional City Garden, and the Cooling the Commons project -- to show the potential of mobile infrastructure and temporary urbanism for Western Sydney.

Mashaallah Nabi · · Global

A theoretical discussion, focused on Iran, of rural-to-urban migration under conditions the author frames as globalized capitalism, arguing that such migration drives rapid urban growth and marginalization and that peripheral rural landscapes — farmland, orchards and wasteland near cities — come under pressure of devaluation as urban development demand rises. It emphasizes maintaining ecological systems and diversity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions with limited natural resources, and argues for a participatory, locally grounded approach to redesigning these peri-urban areas. The text presents an argument rather than an empirical study, with no site data, sample or measured outcomes given.

Thomas Elmqvist, Erik Gómez‐Baggethun, Johannes Langemeyer · · Global

A review discussing ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing settings, framing cities as both major centres of demand for ecosystem services and sources of environmental impact, arising from a tightly coupled social-ecological system. It notes that food supply from urban agricultural land and gardens has played a critical role in cities' historical development, and that urban green infrastructure — particularly trees — removes air pollutants and gases, while features such as coarse woody debris, in-channel gravel beds and wider vegetation buffers can enhance nutrient retention. It states that city authorities worldwide are seeking ways to maintain and expand green infrastructure through urban planning. The text is a review and presents no original data or case measurements.

California State Legislature · California State Legislature · United States

California's SB 1383 (2016) targets short-lived climate pollutants, setting statewide goals to cut organic waste disposal by 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025 (both from a 2014 baseline), recover at least 20% of currently disposed edible food for human consumption by 2025, and reduce dairy and livestock methane emissions 40% below 2013 levels by 2030.

国立環境研究所 · 国立環境研究所 環境展望台 · Japan

This National Institute for Environmental Studies explainer on rooftop and wall greening (revised May 2016) cites a 1985 Chubu Electric Power experiment finding 20-30% energy savings compared to traditional sunshades (yoshizu). It reports about 413.8 hectares of rooftop greening and 68.0 hectares of wall greening installed nationwide over the 15 years from FY2000 to FY2014, with FY2014 alone contributing about 26.9 hectares of rooftop and 5.0 hectares of wall greening, though FY2009 saw about a 20% year-on-year contraction. It also notes implementation challenges such as structural load assessment, root-barrier installation, and ongoing irrigation management.