Research & reports

Miguel A. Simón, Aída de · · Spain (Madrid)

The "Green Line" project in Chamartín, Madrid, Spain, aims to solve urban problems of a lack of transversal connections and green spaces. This project is configured as a network of architectural pieces that respond to existing urban situations in Chamartín, traversing the Castilla neighborhood from east to west and connecting it with adjacent neighborhoods. The main element of the network is a central urban agriculture production, research, and development center, carried out in two towers that form part of Madrid's urban garden network.

Patrizia Papetti, Sara Spognardi, Enrica Iannucci, Ilenia Bravo, Claudio Beni · International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making · Italy (Tor Mancina)

The demonstration garden of Tor Mancina, Italy, engages schools and local communities to test sustainable agricultural practices. It conducts experiments on the phytostimulant and pest repellent effects of plant extracts for crop protection. These activities aim to instill positive values regarding food, agriculture, and the environment in youth, while also seeking to improve crop performance and safeguard biodiversity.

Ryszard Nakonieczny · Polish Journal of Landscape Studies · Poland (Katowice)

This study analyzes historical examples of allotment gardens and sports/recreational grounds in Katowice, Poland. It highlights the importance of Schreber’s and Jordan’s gardens for the city's appeal and ecology, representing the human-nature relationship in 20th-century cities. The author also describes personal urban activities aimed at raising awareness of green areas' benefits for city dwellers.

Dimitra Babalis · Florence Research (University of Florence) · Europe

This chapter uses a comparative analysis of European examples to define characteristics and typologies of pocket park design. It argues for establishing concrete concepts and guidelines for a new typology of pocket parks to improve spatial relationships and societal conditions.

Clare Nash · RIBA Publishing eBooks · United Kingdom (Bristol)

Ashley Vale in Bristol is a unique place featuring a city farm, allotments, a permaculture project, and a farm cafe selling locally sourced foods. The entire development is built on a concrete slab, formerly an industrial warehouse site. A "Homezone" scheme on the street improved its appearance by installing planters and organizing parking.

Perrine Hamel, François Mancebo, Clément Feger, Stéphanie Hamel · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

This chapter presented three case studies illustrating how nature's benefits have been incorporated into urban planning decisions, specifically urban agriculture policy in Nantes and Bordeaux, France, and an integrated urban water management strategy in Melbourne, Australia. The cases demonstrated that urban green space provides multiple benefits, including efficient water management, food production, recreation opportunities, and biodiversity protection. Key opportunities and barriers for incorporating urban nature into planning were identified.

gökçe öcal · Journal of Planning · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study focuses on the Roma Garden, one of Istanbul's last remaining urban gardens, within the context of "DIY urbanism." In Istanbul, historical gardens are threatened by municipal policies favoring urban development, leading to the formation of "DIY" urban gardens on public land since 2013. These gardens operate without legal ties to the local state, and the destruction of urban public space over the last decade is noted as having paved the way for DIY public gardens as spaces of solidarity and shared knowledge.

남진보, 김근호 · · United Kingdom

This 2019 study examined community-led gardens for particulate matter (PM) abatement in London, UK, as case studies for addressing PM problems, using place-keeping theory as its analytical framework and analyzing the gardens' management structures. It found that strong governance backed by local policy support is key to addressing PM issues, alongside stakeholder partnerships, community-generated supplementary funding, regular evaluation through community monitoring, and long-term maintenance. The study concludes that community garden management should take a self-sustaining structure built on strong governance, and recommends policies that encourage community involvement in decision-making, expand external funding including from private and business sectors, provide PM-monitoring tools and education (for example via universities), and plant low-maintenance vegetation to sustain gardens against funding and labor shortages.

Laura Petruskeviciute · · United Kingdom

This case study examines DOT TO DOT©, a social innovation project run in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, from 2017 to 2018 and funded by the EU's European Social Fund Aspiring Communities programme. A cross-disciplinary initiative involving intergenerational groups from the local creative community — social entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, and youth — it temporarily reused ecologically vacant sites, aiming to improve the lives of disadvantaged communities through regenerative design and live projects built with reclaimed waste materials. The experimental site was planned across three areas: (a) a Community Garden growing edible plants (phase 1), (b) a Remake Station (phase 2), and (c) a sensory woodland, combining somatic learning tools, research-by-doing, experimentation through reuse, and collaborative design modeling that integrated spatial, visual, quantitative, and qualitative data. The project states its aim as generating knowledge exchange and live demonstrations relevant to local community development, in support of integrated decision-making and bottom-up governance for healthy outdoor environments.

Sofia Biffi, Cleandho Marcos de Souza, L. G. Firbank · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · United Kingdom

Seventeen urban food production sites of varying sizes in and around Leeds, UK, selected from an open-source database, were surveyed using pitfall traps to assess the abundance and diversity of epigeal invertebrates (beetles, springtails, and spiders) in relation to soil characteristics (organic carbon, moisture content, pH) and site area; soil productivity was assessed by growing radish (Raphanus sativus) under uniform conditions. The study found no correlation between epigeal invertebrate abundance or diversity and either site area or soil characteristics. The authors state this indicates there is, as yet, no evidence that urban food production sites are too small to draw on ecosystem services delivered by epigeal invertebrates.

Celmeli T., Sari H., Canci H., Sari D., Adak A., Eker T., Toker C. · Agronomy 8(9):166 · Turkey

Compared protein, fat, fatty acids, selenium, iron, and zinc in 10 bean landraces and 5 modern varieties from Turkey. Landrace LR05 surpassed modern varieties in selenium, zinc, and protein, highlighting landraces as nutritional breeding resources.

Klepacki P., Kujawska M. · Journal of Ethnobiology 38(1):123-137 · Poland

Surveys 46 allotment gardeners in three Polish cities, recording 257 botanical taxa (ornamental, food, medicinal), demonstrating urban allotment gardens as significant reservoirs of botanical and landscape diversity in cities.

Casals J., Rivera A., Figàs M. R., Casañas C., Camí B., Soler S., Simó J. · Frontiers in Plant Science 9:1491 · Mediterranean

Compares lettuce landraces and modern varieties under Mediterranean winter organic farming, evaluating their agronomic and use value from the combined viewpoints of breeders, consumers and farmers.

Gullino P., Battisti L., Larcher F. · Sustainability (MDPI) 10(5), 1625 · Italy

Evaluates the multifunctionality of peri-urban farming in the Turin metropolitan area from a sustainability perspective, presenting a method to quantify multifunctional values across food production, landscape, ecosystems and socio-culture.

· Land · Germany (Halle)

A spatially explicit assessment of urban ecosystem services in Halle (Saale), Germany, combining biotope and land-use data with hemeroby and accessibility to map local provisioning capacity.

Adolfo Ibáñez‐Justicia, S. Teekema, Wietse Den Hartog, Frans Jacobs, M. Dik, Arjan Stroo · Journal of Medical Entomology · Netherlands

This study measured the effectiveness of a mosquito control campaign targeting the invasive Asian bush mosquito (Aedes japonicus japonicus) in eight allotment garden complexes in Lelystad, Netherlands, between 2015 and 2016. Control actions, combining source reduction and larvicide application, significantly reduced Ae. japonicus larval abundance across all treated gardens. Rain barrels were identified as the most frequent breeding sites.

Emrah Yalçınalp, Özgür Demirci · Türk Tarım ve Doğa Bilimleri Dergisi · Turkey (Trabzon)

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the edible plant potentials of three different urban parks in Trabzon, Turkey, by questioning users' approaches. Introducing edible landscapes in urban parks is believed to help urban residents feel closer to nature and contribute to their awareness of ecology and environmental conservation.

Marek Kopacki, Krystyna Rysiak, Mariusz Szmaraga · Annales Horticulturae · Poland (Lublin)

This 2014 study near Lublin, Poland, evaluated the decorative qualities and health of Tithonia rotundifolia in urban plantings, including a botanical garden and allotment gardens. Observations at the end of the vegetation period revealed disease symptoms, and mycological analysis of dead plant parts identified isolates of fungi from eleven genera. Dominant and dangerous pathogenic genera, Alternaria alternata and Botrytis cinerea, were found to affect T. rotundifolia.

Cindy Melissa Torres Peña · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

"SOS Polinizadores" is an educational project aimed at fostering knowledge and study of pollinating insects in ecosystems among students, teachers, and the broader educational community, including their impact on our lives and current threats. It also seeks to raise awareness about environmental problems and the sustainability of nearby ecosystems like parks, gardens, and urban and peri-urban vegetable gardens. The project was carried out in eight educational centers in Madrid in Spring 2017, with a guide provided for future implementation in other centers.

Paweł Szumigała, Karolina Szumigała · Economic and Regional Studies / Studia Ekonomiczne i Regionalne · Europe

This study analyzed the influence of urban farming and urban gardens in selected cities in North America and Europe on urban landscapes through a case study. Urban farming is gaining popularity, with dozens of diverse urban gardens existing in Poland. It was shown that these gardens satisfy the aesthetic, scenic, ecological, social, and economic needs of small communities, enriching the urban landscape with new, seasonally changeable enclaves of utility and aesthetic greenery.

Laurence Baudelet-Stelmacher · In Situ · France

This article traces the emergence and development of the French community garden movement, which began in 1997 with the establishment of the "Jardin dans tous ses états" network. Over 20 years, the movement has expanded significantly in major metropolitan areas and rural settings across France, influenced by North American community garden models. It has addressed environmental respect, participatory democracy, and the need for social connection.

Céline Tanguay, Jean Louis Yengué, José Serrano · VertigO · France

Focusing on the Tours urban agglomeration in France, this article analyzes how an urban agriculture project takes shape, both politically and technically. It argues that feeding city dwellers is only a pretext for addressing economic issues (structuring a sector), social issues (social cohesion), and environmental issues (biodiversity, protection of soil and groundwater), and that the success of an urban agriculture project therefore depends on mobilizing all actors involved in urban planning. This multifunctional territorial vision, the article argues, can overcome the persistent divide between environmental and food objectives given their converging underlying goals, and it proposes linking biodiversity conservation with food production through a "green, blue and food network" (trame verte, bleue et alimentaire, TVBA).

Cabral I., Keim J., Engelmann R., Kraemer R., Siebert J., Bonn A. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · Germany (Leipzig)

Assessed ecosystem services such as climate and water regulation and habitat provision across 30 allotment plots and adjacent community gardens in Leipzig, finding highest plant species richness in medium-intensity managed plots.

Amélie Robert, Jean Louis Yengué · Environment and Ecology Research · France

This case study investigated the Bergeonnerie allotments in Tours, France, through in situ observations, user surveys, and interviews with municipal stakeholders. It found that these allotments provide not only provisioning services like food but also cultural ecosystem services, serving as a source of well-being for gardeners and a place for walking, sociability, and education for other people. Municipal stakeholders confirmed these broader benefits, indicating allotments offer more than just vegetable cultivation.

Attila Tóth, Axel Timpe · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe

This paper presents and discusses the application of figure-ground plans combined with complex land-use maps as a tool for spatial analysis of urban agriculture in European cities and their multifunctional green infrastructure, using 'Urban Atlas' data. Urban fabric, agriculture, and non-agricultural open spaces were analyzed and compared in selected cities and metropolitan areas, including Dublin, Ruhr Metropolis, Geneva, and Sofia. The results reveal the scale and land-use diversity of metropolitan regions and different spatial patterns of urban agriculture at both regional and central urban levels.