Research & reports

Andrea Colantoni, Ilaria Zambon, Maria Gras, Enrico Maria Mosconi, Alessandra Stefanoni, Luca Salvati · Sustainability · Europe

This study uses multivariate analysis to identify the socioeconomic transformations shaping cropland distribution in the Athens metropolitan region, Greece, from 1960 to 2010. The share of cropland in total municipal area increased moderately, with a non-linear relationship to distance from downtown Athens: the highest cropland rates occurred 20-30 km from the inner city. Decade-by-decade multivariate regressions using 11 predictors per municipality found distance from downtown, soil and climate quality, population growth rate, and competing land use to be the factors most associated with cropland change. Competing land use drove cropland decline during the first urbanization phase (1960-1980), while population growth became positively associated with cropland in a later phase (1990-2010); per-capita urban land was negatively correlated with cropland in 1960 and 1970 but positively in 2010, suggesting a shift from a monocentric toward a more dispersed metropolitan structure.

Generalitat Valenciana · Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) · Spain

A law enacted by the Generalitat Valenciana on 6 March 2018 to protect the Huerta de València, published in the official state gazette (BOE) on 20 April 2018 and in effect from 13 March 2018. It consists of 47 articles across 8 chapters, aiming to preserve, restore and revitalize the huerta as a space with agricultural, environmental, landscape, historical and cultural value, while promoting economically viable farming in the metropolitan area of Valencia.

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.

Pere Serra, David Saurı́, Luca Salvati · Landscape Research · Spain (Barcelona)

A quantitative approach was proposed to analyze peri-urban agriculture (PUA) dynamics in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, profiling farm types and related landscape structures. Results indicated that PUA is based on five typologies with varying territorial values, reflecting diverse economic relevance, socio-environmental weight, and landscape prominence. A conservation strategy is proposed to preserve the residual PUA landscape by promoting a polycentric functional network of farming with natural vegetation.

HENKE Roberto, VANNI Francesco · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Italy

This 2017 article analyzed the role of peri-urban agriculture in Italy through a comparative study of seven metropolitan areas, using micro-data from the sixth Italian agriculture census. It identified six typologies of market-oriented farms. The study found that a significant share of farms in Italian urban poles are passively absorbed by urban expansion, indicating a challenge to their economic viability. However, the most reactive farms are diversifying and supplying social and economic services.

Barbora Duží, Bohumil Frantál, Marian Simón Rojo · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe

This article provides a theoretical and conceptual introduction to urban agriculture in Europe, reviewing its diverging issues from a geographical perspective. It discusses urban agriculture within the context of urban and rural transformations, urban regeneration, agricultural restructuring, and land-use conflicts. The paper summarizes current research and presents main trends and concepts, emphasizing the challenges they pose to geographers.

Judith Schicklinski · · Europe

This chapter discusses the reasons behind the re-appropriation of public space and its relation to urban food production. The commodification and privatization of public spaces are considered a spatial structure that transforms spaces into strategic resources. The urban gardening movement in European cities has drawn attention to using common green spaces for urban food production.

Evelyn Gustedt · Challenges in Sustainability · Germany

This article reflects on traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany, focusing on gardening in spaces subject to land lease agreements, tenancy, or illegal land take. The author examined various definitions, the historical development of urban gardening, and the values users relate to these activities. Based on a literature review, observations, and discussions, the author concludes with considerations on these gardening movements in relation to urban sustainable developments.

Viviana Ferrario · TERRITORIO · Italy (Padova)

This paper examines the renewed general interest in agriculture as a food producer, possibly due to conditions posed by the crisis of the late 2000s. It uses the recent case of a large agricultural area in the southwest quadrant of Padova, known as 'Basso Isonzo', to update territorial interpretations and design strategies in light of the increasing importance of food production, transformation, and consumption.

Stephanie Nuria Spijker, Constanza Parra · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · Europe

This paper discusses the potential of social innovations to transform urban green spaces in Groningen and London, applying the concept of socio-ecological practices to urban and guerrilla gardening. Based on document analysis, interviews, and garden observations, the study examines links between behavioral drivers, social innovation, and green space governance. It finds that underlying motivations like values and self-efficacy contribute to place-keeping transformations, suggesting socio-ecological practices can generate socially innovative physical, social, and policy changes in urban green space governance.

Ida Åberg, Sophia E. Hagolani‐Albov · · Europe

This study states that urban agriculture is a phenomenon occurring in built environments that does not necessarily disrupt the city's form and function. It mentions the close proximity to nature in urban areas but does not elaborate on its details in the abstract.

Lidia Poniży, Kamila Stachura · Quaestiones Geographicae · Poland (Poznań)

This case study of Poznań, Poland, examines urban spatial policy regarding allotment gardens. It finds that despite their importance as green infrastructure, allotment gardens receive little attention in city plans and policies, and face threats from investment pressure due to an underestimation of their role. The study emphasizes that preserving these gardens relies on local spatial planning.

Bernd Pölling, Marcus Mergenthaler · Sustainability · Germany (Ruhr Metropolis)

This empirical study investigates determinants of diversification strategies among 123 urban farmers in Germany's Ruhr Metropolis using binary logit models. "Deepening" strategies (e.g., direct sales) are encouraged by larger farm sizes, high-value production, organic farming, and livestock. "Broadening" strategies (e.g., tourism, care farming) are prevalent on smaller farms with horses and higher grassland shares. Proximity to the city increases the likelihood of both diversification types.

Luca Salvati, Lorenza Gasparella, Michele Munafò, Raoul Romano, Anna Barbati · Annals of Silvicultural Research · Italy (Rome)

This paper quantified the impact of urban expansion on the Roman Campagna's landscape characteristics between 1974 and 2008. Using spatial pattern analysis and multi-factor analysis to assess changes in landscape composition and structure, the study found that the distinctive features of the Roman Campagna landscape are now blurred. A generalized landscape mixité was generated by the juxtaposition of different fragmented land uses.

Marlinde Koopmans, Daniel Keech, Lucie Sovová, Matthew Reed · Moravian Geographical Reports · Europe

This paper analyzed urban agriculture (UA) and place-making in Ghent, Brno, and Bristol, using a spatial lens across three case studies. It revealed that local authorities struggle to find space for UA, leading to its frequent, often temporary, emergence in marginal areas vulnerable to planning changes. The analysis exposed inherent tensions within UA, conceptualized as tensions between abstract space and concrete place narratives. It was suggested that UA, as a collective socio-cultural process, can transform functionally replicable spaces into unique places, contributing to place-making, and urban planning should secure physical spaces and create possibilities for local autonomous governance.

Wioletta Biel, Anna Jaroszewska · Scientia Agricola · Poland (Szczecin)

This study determined the nutritional value of leaves from four berry species (raspberry, blackberry, chokeberry, and sea buckthorn) collected from allotment gardens in Szczecin, Poland. Sea buckthorn leaves were the richest in protein, raspberry leaves in lipids, and all four were rich in crude and dietary fiber. The leaves showed desirable Ca:P and Na:K ratios, suggesting potential as mineral sources for bone formation and hypertension treatment, with sea buckthorn leaves also being a safe source of iron.

Zohreh Hamrang · · Italy

This study indicates that peri-urban territory provides a wide range of functions and services for surrounding urban areas, contributing to the quality of life in urban regions. These include food production, recreational services, and other services related to cultural landscape management, which in turn contribute to the ecological capacity of the landscape. Peri-urban agriculture (PUA) is characterized by two elements: intensified production with high productive value, and an extensive lifestyle with environmentally guided land use.

Elena Domene Gómez, Francesc Coll, Marta Garcia-Sierra · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Barcelona)

Informal vegetable gardens have proliferated in Barcelona's urban periphery since the 1980s, serving as leisure spaces and food sources, and are a relevant form of agriculture. However, these "unregulated" spaces are not considered in urban and peri-urban agriculture promotion policies. A GIS methodology mapped these gardens in the Barcelona metropolitan area for 2009 and 2015, showing an increase in occupied surface during the recent economic crisis. The study evaluates contradictions leading municipal managers to eliminate or regulate these informal spaces, attributing them partly to the subjectivity of the urban and peri-urban agriculture concept and its supposed multifunctionality.

Rocío Pérez-Campaña, Luis Miguel Valenzuela Montes · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · Spain

This paper presents a method for assessing and visualizing existing nodes in the field pattern of a peri-urban agricultural landscape. The method was applied in the Vega del Guadalfeo in southern Spain, and the results showed an innovative map of the Vega, which can be interpreted as its eco-structure, a node-based model representing the ecological value of the peri-urban agricultural landscape.

María Hernández Hernández · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

A book chapter on Spain examines the historical shift in city-countryside relations, analyzing the factors behind the paradigm change since the late 20th century and the strategies (agri-food policy, local development, governance, land stewardship) and tools (agrarian parks, social agriculture, urban gardens) used to sustain farming in peri-urban areas, based on a literature review of scientific publications, regulatory frameworks, and initiatives. It concludes that quality, authentic local farm production represents an opportunity for peri-urban territories and historic agricultural landscapes.

RESET · RESET · France

Article from the German web media outlet RESET describing La Caverne, an underground farming project by startup Cycloponics in a disused 3,500 m² Paris car park. It grows mushrooms, endives, and microgreens, with yields ranging from 2 kg for herbs up to 300 kg for endives depending on the crop. The project uses energy-efficient LED-lit hydroponics, won the City of Paris's 'Parisculteurs' competition, and plans deliveries by electric bike and fully electric vehicles.

Eva Olsson, Eva Kerselaers, Lone Søderkvist Kristensen, Jørgen Primdahl, Elke Rogge, Anders Wästfelt · Sustainability · Europe

A study focusing on peri-urban land in Gothenburg (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), and Gent (Belgium) analyzed the relationship between peri-urban food production and urban resilience. It found that arable farming has declined in all three areas since 2000 due to urban expansion and recreational land use changes. While policies for farmland preservation exist, strategies for local food production are not expressed in current planning documents, and competing land uses and high dependence on global food systems reduce peri-urban food production and improvements in urban food security.

Sandra María Fonseca da Costa, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Russell Good, Ivana Sentić, S. Treija, Jasminka Rizovska Atanasovska, Hervé Bonnavaud · · Europe

This chapter provides an understanding of the position of allotment and community gardens within the urban fabric across Europe. It offers insights into their diverse locations, relationships to other green spaces, reciprocal impact on the urban landscape and people, and their role in green infrastructure, including functions, connectivity, and accessibility for residents.

Giovanni Sanesi, Giuseppe Colangelo, Raffaele Lafortezza, Enrico Calvo, Clive Davies · Landscape Research · Italy (Milan)

This study assessed land use changes and policy impacts on urban green infrastructure (UGI) in the Metropolitan Area of Milan, Italy. Since the 1970s, policies have led to the creation of 10,000 hectares of new forests and green systems, such as Boscoincittà and Parco Nord Milano, to address green space loss. The research, part of the Emonfur project, aims to identify effective measures for increasing UGI quality and quantity.

Malin Gustafsson, Matilda Olsson · · Netherlands (Schiedam)

This thesis focuses on a design proposal for a multifunctional foodscape in a peri-urban area on the city edge of Schiedam, in the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam-The Hague, Netherlands. The proposal includes food production, education, and recreation, aiming to transform peri-urban areas into multifunctional zones and exemplify their role as transition zones between urban and rural landscapes. An empirical pre-study was conducted, focusing on urban farming in Rotterdam, dairy farming in Midden-Delfland, and greenhouse horticulture in Westland.