Research & reports

Joshua Zeunert · UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) · Australia

Urban public green spaces typically require external budgets for maintenance, with most projects costing municipal authorities more money than they generate, making them economically unproductive. For instance, the Adelaide Parklands annually costs AU$9 million for maintenance while generating less than AU$1 million in income. Maintenance spending on public green spaces in the USA, UK, and Australia has been declining, a trend accelerated since the 2008 global financial crisis.

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.

Monroy Quevedo, Katherin Mayerli · · Colombia (Bogotá)

A mixed-methods study in UPZ Marruecos, Rafael Uribe Uribe Locality, Bogotá, Colombia, investigated the impact of urban agriculture on the food and nutritional security of participating families. Based on interviews and surveys with 10 participants, urban agriculture was found to contribute to families' food and nutritional security by increasing the availability of safe food and improving physical access. Participants perceived higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, tubers, cereals, and legumes, leading to greater dietary diversity.

Ranjan Datta · Cogent Education · Global

Community garden activities play a significant role in bridging formal and informal learning, especially in urban children's science and environmental education, by promoting relational methods that integrate food security, social interactions, community development, environmental activism, and cultural integration. An auto-ethnographic study revealed that community garden-based practices adhere to forms of agency such as embracing diversity, sharing power, and trust building as part of everyday learning.

Joe Nasr, June Komisar · · Global

This chapter reflects on the re-emergence of food and agriculture as an urban concern for planners and designers, examining public discourse through exhibitions. It analyzes recent exhibits highlighting the relationship between food and cities, using the "Carrot City: Designing for Urban Agriculture" exhibition as a case study. The authors, as co-curators, reflect on lessons learned from staging this exhibition, which traveled across three continents.

Leila A. Graves, Harrison Hughes, Meena M. Balgopal · Journal of Agricultural Education · Global

This case study examined the implementation of a horticulture-based curriculum by two 3rd grade teachers and two STEM coordinators. While one STEM coordinator found the curriculum addressed academic science standards and provided relevant inquiry activities, the other STEM coordinator and teachers believed garden plants did not address science standards and only supported enrichment. This highlights a divergence in perception regarding the curriculum's alignment with academic standards.

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.

Sheri L. Johnson, Dalila Cardona, J. H. C. Davis, Benjamin Gramling, Chelsea Hamilton, Ray G. Hoffmann, Sabrina J. Ruis, Douglas J. Soldat, Steve Ventura, Yan Ke · Progress in community health partnerships · Global

This study used community-based participatory research to explore backyard gardening practices and soil lead concentrations in urban neighborhoods. Interviews with 20 adult gardeners revealed perceived benefits but few initial concerns about lead exposure, despite children's active involvement. Soil lead concentrations from 17 residential properties ranged from 7 to 3,234 mg kg-1, significantly higher than commercial soils (6 to 13 mg kg-1), indicating a contamination risk.

Paredes Guzmán, Germán Ricardo · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This project aims to describe different methods of establishing and producing urban agriculture, focusing on sustainability and food security for the vulnerable population of Altos de Cazucá, Soacha municipality, Colombia. This population is affected by forced displacement due to armed conflict, resulting in increased poverty and malnutrition, with a chronic malnutrition rate of 30% in children compared to the national average of 8%. The project proposes to apply participatory action research methodologies and techniques to develop an urban production model that addresses these issues.

Manase Kudzai Chiweshe, Kudzai MacMillan Muzanago · · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This exploratory study analyzed the emergence of sack potato farming as an alternative empowerment platform for urban women in Zimbabwe, using qualitative methodologies and secondary literature. It found that sack potato production, which gained prominence in Zimbabwe in 2013, can increase food security and income for urban households and promotes micro-economic enterprises among urban women.

Francesca Ostuzzi, Peter Conradie, Lieven De Couvreur, Jan Detand, Jelle Saldien · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · Global

This case study explored opportunities for 47 Industrial Design Engineering students to share open-ended urban gardening design solutions during a two-week intensive course, using Instructables.com. Open sharing of local solutions triggered global discussions and reported instances of re-appropriation. However, the study also showed difficulty in keeping students engaged in global discussions, with online activity dropping to near silence after a few weeks, and challenges in tracking re-appropriation cycles.

Erika Augustinsson · Stat & Styring · Global

This abstract suggests that microcredits, crowdfunding, and urban farming may be significant social innovations of our time, comparable to 20th-century kindergartens, maternal care, and fire departments. It posits that the state's role is changing, focusing more on creating opportunities and relinquishing control.

Hollis J. Laird · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · Global

This paper reviews the effects and evaluation methods of garden-based nutrition education programs, noting their positive impacts on children, including increased knowledge, preference, and consumption of fruits and vegetables, and increased self-efficacy. It identifies a lack of standardized evaluation methods for these programs as a limitation. The paper also describes the evaluation of the Enright Community Garden's nutrition education component for children.

Carolin Retzlaff‐Fürst · Universal Journal of Educational Research · Global

At the University of Rostock's educational garden in Germany, second-semester pre-service teacher students were interviewed and tested about their subjective well-being in connection with garden activities, as part of an argument that school gardens can support health education not only in lower grades but also in 11th and 12th grade. The study found that garden activities had highly positive effects on the students' self-esteem.

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.

Sarah Jurkiewicz · Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) · Global

This study analyses two cultural initiatives in Kuwait City -- one organizing walking tours, another creating an urban garden in a public park -- as new forms of reclaiming urban space. It examines the entrepreneurial frameworks, from "social entrepreneurship" to "commons," through which these initiatives are articulated, but finds that despite their aim of constructing participatory spaces, the initiatives have nevertheless been targeted toward a particular stratum of Kuwaiti society -- chiefly middle-class Kuwaitis with a cosmopolitan outlook.

Tracey Adams · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · Global

A University of Nebraska study examined whether urban farming could support future food security through a literature review and hands-on work on small farms. Mapping community garden locations in Omaha, Nebraska against the city's median household income found that urban farming is prevalent even in poverty-affected areas, despite Omaha being surrounded by extensive rural farmland.

Mohsen Kalantari, Somaye Ghezelbash, Bamshad Yaghmaei · Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences · Global

A survey of citizens' expectations and attitudes toward participating in rooftop garden (green roof) development, examined in relation to behavioral, social and demographic variables, was conducted across districts of Zanjan city, Iran, in 2016. A questionnaire was administered to 313 randomly selected residents, with data analyzed using chi-square tests and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Respondents identified the main perceived benefits and barriers of green roofs; while people expressed interest in installing rooftop gardens, no volunteers came forward to do so. Financial and technical support from municipalities and urban managers was the main expectation residents held.

Sin-Ae Park, A-Young Lee, Geung‐Joo Lee, Daesik Kim, Wan Soon Kim, Candice A. Shoemaker, Ki-Cheol Son · 원예과학기술지 · Global

A literature review aiming to identify research trends and characteristics of horticultural activity interventions. Searching databases including Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Academic Search Premier, the Research Information Sharing Service, and the Korean National Assembly Digital Library, the authors identified 14,414 journal articles published before April 2014 and selected 509 for review. Participants aged 8 to 64 were the most commonly studied, and interventions usually combined activities such as outdoor gardening, indoor planting, and crafts with live, artificial, or pressed flowers. Short-to-medium programs of 11-20 sessions were most frequent, typically lasting 60-120 minutes per session. Most studies focused on psychological or emotional effects such as emotional intelligence, self-esteem, stress, and depression, and the authors call for further research analyzing methodology, specific outcomes, and the strengths or weaknesses of existing studies.

E.N. Sabiiti, Constantine Bakyusa Katongole · Water science and technology library · Uganda

Wakiso district, the peri-urban area surrounding Kampala, Uganda's capital city (population about 1.51 million), ranks first nationally in poultry production and second in pig production, accounting for 7.4% and 6.3% of the national chicken and pig populations respectively. The chapter finds that agricultural land in these peri-urban areas is increasingly at risk from urban encroachment, driven by population growth, distorted land values, a construction boom, and expanding recreation and leisure facilities competing with farming for land, which is likely to adversely affect the city's food security.

Sin-Ae Park, A-Young Lee, Geung‐Joo Lee, Daesik Kim, Wan Soon Kim, Candice A. Shoemaker, Ki-Cheol Son · Horticultural Science and Technology · Global

A literature review on the outcomes of horticultural activity interventions — gardening activity, gardening programs, allotment gardens, urban agriculture, horticultural therapy — searched databases including Web of Science and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses, initially identifying 14,414 journal articles published before April 2014 and selecting 509 for review. Studies most often targeted people aged 8 to 64, short-to-medium term programs of 11-20 sessions were most frequent, medium-duration interventions of over 60 to 120 minutes were common, and most studies focused on psychological or emotional effects such as emotional intelligence, self-esteem, stress, and depression.

Insa Theesfeld, Nicole Rogge, Theesfeld, Insa, Rogge, Nicole · · Global

This paper applies collective-action theory to urban gardens, arguing that in developed countries in particular they emerge less from economic competitiveness or a desire for regional food than from a lack of participation in city development and limited opportunities for democratic use of public space and socializing. It presents criteria for describing this development and for distinguishing degrees of collectively used resources across gardens, and demonstrates the criteria's applicability using three pilot case studies, showing that urban garden movements can offer participants the chance to build new regional identities through sharing time, knowledge and participation in public decisions.

Irina Stanishevskaya · Educational Media Reviews Online · Global

A media review covers the documentary Inhabit (2015, 92 min), directed by Costa Boutsikaris and produced by Emmett Brennan. It opens with a quote by permaculture co-originator Bill Mollison — "All we need to live a good life surrounds us: sun, wind, people, buildings, stones, sea, birds, and plants" — and explains permaculture as combining "permanent" and "agriculture" to adapt ecosystem principles to agriculture and living in harmony with nature. Citing figures that the US applies 900 million tons of pesticides annually and loses about 3 tons of topsoil per acre per year, the film introduces people who apply permaculture principles to farms, orchards, gardens, landscape and playground design, including Ben Falk (founder of the Whole System Design Permaculture Research Farm, Vermont), Eric Toensmeier and Lisa Depiano (Massachusetts), Lisa Fernandes (Maine), Steve Whitman (New Hampshire), and Dwaine Lee, an urban designer in New York involved with the Five Boroughs Green Roof on Randall's Island.

B. Borra, R. van Veenhuizen, Marc Schut, Andrew Adam‐Bradford · Coventry University Open Collections (Coventry university) · Global

A report on the collaboration between RUAF (the urban agriculture resource centre) and The Spontaneous City International (SPcitI), begun in 2015 in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis. It focuses on the Mafraq region of northern Jordan, where an inventory of the role of food and agriculture was commissioned by the International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNGI). The two organizations describe building partnerships linking urban agriculture and urban planning in cities of the Global South.

Tkachenko Kirill · HORTUS BOTANICUS · Russia

This study analyzed records of plant introductions over the past 60 years to the North American and Himalayan sections of the Alpinarium (rock garden) at the Peter the Great Botanical Garden in Russia. Around 385 plants from 61 families were introduced during this period: the exposition held about 130 species from 51 families in the 1960s, 254 plants from 55 families twenty years later, and 249 taxa from 52 families in the early 21st century, and following a major reconstruction and collection addition starting in 2010, the exposition comprised 200 species from 54 families as of 2015.