Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
161 results(7 / 7)
Il ruolo delle aree non urbanizzate nei contesti metropolitani: scenari di adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici
2013Daniele La Rosa, Francesco Martinico, Riccardo Privitera · TERRITORIO · Italy
This study discusses how non-urbanized areas in metropolitan contexts can be reconsidered for new land uses, combining peripheral urban agricultural production with environmental protection for climate change adaptation and ecosystem service production. Through a review of urban planning instruments in Mascalucia, a new land-use scenario for non-urbanized areas was proposed using a land suitability model that combined land cover and fragmentation analysis.
PolicyClimate changePeri-urban agricultureBiodiversityReconceptualising gardening to promote inclusive education for sustainable development
2012Susan B. Johnson · International Journal of Inclusive Education · United Kingdom
This paper argues that a reconceptualized approach to school gardening in the UK could promote inclusive education for sustainable development. It examines the potential for children aged 5-14 to develop ecological knowledge, action competence, and environmental engagement skills through gardening. The paper suggests a curriculum framework and provides a bean crop exemplar, but it does not present empirical findings or results from an implemented program.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeBiodiversityGuerrilla Gardening - zwischen Street Art und der Rückkehr zur Natur
2012Barbara Uhlig · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · Germany
This study analyzes guerrilla gardening as a protest movement where activists plant flowers, trees, and vegetables on derelict urban spaces without owner permission. The motivations for guerrilla gardening are pragmatic, ecological, political, and aesthetic, though its artistic status is often denied. The study demonstrates that guerrilla gardening aligns with George Dickie's institutional theory of art and can be classified as art.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityDIYRealising ecological sustainability in community gardens: a capability approach
2011Alma Clavin · Local Environment · Europe
This paper reports on the multiple impacts that community garden design may have on the subjective well-being of site users, using the capability approach as a normative framework. Qualitative research conducted in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland in early 2011 yielded new explanations for both sustainable design and well-being. Two key design aspects, agency and dynamic balance, were found to enhance both the sustainability of the community garden sites and the well-being of site users.
CommunityHealthBiodiversityOrganic cycleRESOURCE RECOVERY AND MATERIALS FLOW IN THE CITY
2011Steffen Lehmann · Journal of Green Building · Europe
This paper discusses resource recovery and materials flow in cities, noting that urban farming has emerged as a valid urban design strategy in Europe, contributing to local food production, organic waste composting, and biodiversity. It reports on best practices for implementing zero waste, including adaptive re-use and design for disassembly, and identifies that the construction and demolition sector is a major waste producer. A key finding is that achieving 'zero-waste' requires strong industry leadership, new policies, effective education, and refocused research agendas.
Urban–rural linkageCompostOrganic cycleBiodiversityCommunityClimate changeFactors affecting the distribution of small mammals in an urban area
2003Philip J. Baker, RACHEL J. ANSELL, PHILLIPPA A. A. DODDS, CLAIRE E. WEBBER, Stephen Harris · Mammal Review · United Kingdom (Bristol)
This study investigated small mammal distribution across five urban habitats in north-west Bristol, including residential and allotment gardens. It found that wood mouse abundance in residential gardens was negatively related to cat abundance and distance to natural vegetation. The results suggest urban small mammal populations may be limited by predation and habitat fragmentation.
BiodiversityCommunityEstimating genetic erosion in landraces — two case studies
1996Hammer K., Knüpffer H., Xhuveli L., Perrino P. · Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 43:329-336 · Mediterranean
A classic study comparing collecting missions decades apart in Albania and South Italy, quantifying genetic erosion of landraces at 72.4% and 72.8% respectively.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityWhose Landscape? Technology, Fascism, and Environmentalism on the National Socialist Autobahn
1995Rollins W. H. · Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 85, No. 3, pp. 494–520 · Germany
Analyzes how Seifert and his team applied aesthetic and ecological principles, grounded in climax-vegetation theory, to the Autobahn, probing the entangled relationship of technology, fascism, and environmentalism under National Socialism.
PolicyBiodiversityThe ideology of the nature garden. Nationalistic trends in garden design in Germany during the early twentieth century
1992Wolschke-Bulmahn J., Gröning G. · Journal of Garden History, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 73–80 · Germany
Critically analyzes how the 'nature garden' ideology that emerged in early-twentieth-century Germany, while claiming scholarly basis, carried nationalist and native-plant preferences that fed into later Blood and Soil thinking.
PolicyBiodiversitySome Notes on the Mania for Native Plants in Germany
1992Gröning G., Wolschke-Bulmahn J. · Landscape Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 116–126 · Germany
Examines how German landscape architects' obsession with native plants produced 'landscape rules' that, under National Socialism, became tied to the planning of occupied territories and acquired xenophobic, ideological character.
PolicyBiodiversityA study of common crop pests in allotment gardens around Leeds
1979Howard J. Atkinson, Naomi Gibson, Harry C. Evans · Plant Pathology · United Kingdom (Leeds)
A survey of 140 growers across 12 allotment sites around Leeds, UK, identified a wide range of crop pests, with brassicas, potatoes, and carrots being more frequently damaged. Soil samples from 33 plots at 10 established sites and 6 plots at 2 new sites revealed potentially damaging levels of pale potato cyst nematode in 21 and 1 plots, respectively. Widespread overwintering populations of carrot fly larvae and pupae were also found in soil samples from eight sites.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityBiodiversityHealth