Research & reports

Monika Larasati P E, M.Eng. Ir. Sudaryono · · Spain (Madrid)

This study describes the planning of the Manzanares River area in Madrid, Spain, focusing on its philosophy, concepts, and principles. It notes that the river, once overlooked due to the M-30 highway, is now part of efforts to restore urban ecological elements. The research used a deductive qualitative method with content analysis of relevant literature and texts.

Redazione · ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE · Europe

This paper analyzed the characteristics of organizations that can best convey the cultural benefits of urban agriculture to the city. Through case studies in the cities of Seville and Milan, it examined the relationship between the presence of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the ways communities are organized to transmit the value of that heritage.

José Antônio Segrelles Serrano · Revistes Científiques de la University of Barcelona (University of Barcelona) · Spain

This study discusses peri-urban agriculture, Agricultural Natural Parks, and local markets in Spain as a response to the subordination of rural areas to urban expansion. Peri-urban areas suffer negative impacts from urban functions, marginalizing family farming, yet peri-urban agriculture generates valuable environmental and cultural heritage. Agricultural Natural Parks are presented as a means to ensure sustainable agricultural activity and promote efficient, profitable farming with high added value in these areas, supporting local and seasonal food consumption and increased food security.

Sevinç Bahar Yenigül · MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Architecture E-Journal · Turkey

This abstract states that as rural areas become intertwined with urban areas, new concepts related to rurality, agriculture, and agricultural production are developing.

Corrado Diamantini · City Territory and Architecture · Italy

This article discusses the role of peri-urban agriculture in maintaining the identity and sustainability of Alpine cities, which face challenges such as urban sprawl. It emphasizes that peri-urban territories in the Alps can be crucial for sustainable urban development. As evidence, a planning project for the Rotaliana Königsberg territory north of Trento, Italy, is presented, which aims to restore its agro-food vocation through the creation of a vast agricultural park encompassing much of the urbanized area.

Elke Rogge, Eva Kerselaers, Charlotte Prové · · Europe

This study explores opportunities and challenges for peri-urban agriculture, examining envisioning processes in Ghent and Kortrijk, Belgium, initiated by local authorities. Results indicate that pressure on farmland is a key issue in both contexts. Multifunctionality is complex in practice and governance, and successful envisioning processes require clear objectives, defined study areas, policy support, strong leadership, and reliable data.

Luca Salvati, Pere Serra, Serena Rugiero, Alberto Sabbi · Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia · Europe

This article discusses the relationship between landscape and peri-urban agriculture and the implications of sustainable land management for fringe land quality. It proposes a framework to evaluate the latent nexus between agro-forest systems and human settlements in southern Europe. Eco-sustainable planning integrated with multifaceted research and policy dimensions is a relevant approach to urban fringe sustainability. Permanent assessment of these factors allows for the implementation of different development scenarios.

Nicolás Cuvi · Americanae (AECID Library) · France (Paris)

The journal "Letras Verdes" called for reflections on biodiversity and urban agriculture, but many proposals were not published due to their technical report nature and lack of reflection on the meaning of these spaces. However, the article by Ana Cristina Torres et al., "Exploring the human-nature relationship: urban agriculture, conservation sciences, and the city," analyzes community gardens in Paris. In these spaces, dedicated to urban agriculture, the meaning of "nature" is redefined while new meanings about the city are constructed.

· · Italy

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) document from 2004 recognized the strategic value of peri-urban agriculture, describing these areas as complex territories with important economic, environmental, and social roles. The document also noted that peri-urban areas may include less favored areas, entitling local farmers to additional indemnity for natural or environmental limitations.

Gražina Janulytė-Bernotienė · Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering · Europe

A conceptual paper positioning the Lithuanian tradition of green architecture as both a perception of landscape identity and of human-nature coexistence, treated as a field of cultural activity that extends beyond urban planners, architects, or landscape architects. It examines the urban expression of green architecture in Lithuanian cities, identifying two branches with different origins running from urban agriculture to city landscape. The paper argues that future development of green architecture should be tied to the concept of a self-sufficient city that ensures renewal of both artificial and natural structures, and that Lithuanian cities need to grow the intensity of green structures in parallel with urban intensity.

Alice Pozzati · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy

A case study of Turin, Italy's agricultural history examines the now-vanished farmstead "La Grangia" as a way to recover the city's largely forgotten agricultural past, distinct from its better-known industrial image. More than six centuries after its construction, the site's agricultural past has been revived through the activity of the "Movimento per la Decrescita Felice" (Happy Degrowth Movement), which obtained management of part of the Giardino Morbillo — built on the former farmstead's grounds — from the Turin municipality, for a shared urban garden project. The piece notes that such remaining traces of the past are often not recognized as historic-architectural heritage worth preserving.

· Wikipédia (français) · France

This French Wikipedia article on urban agriculture (agriculture urbaine) describes the Parisculteurs program, launched by the City of Paris in 2016, which inventories greenable spaces (walls, basements, rooftops, flat land) and runs annual project calls (appels à projets) to accelerate urban farming installations. The article does not give detailed statistics such as budget figures or the number of selected projects.

Ville de Paris · Ville de Paris (Parisculteurs) · France

This official overview page for Paris's Parisculteurs urban-agriculture program states it launched in 2016 with a charter targeting 100 hectares of urban farming; the program has since realized nearly 36 hectares across more than 70 projects (with a similar number in development). A 2013 study by APUR (the Paris urban planning agency) confirmed rooftop agriculture potential, and by 2014 about 11 hectares were already used for urban agriculture, only 0.3 of which were on building structures. Around thirty public and private partners and 14 local authorities currently participate.

Flor Ccorahua balboa, Sylvie Clarimont · · Spain

This abstract discusses the re-evaluation of nature's role in and around cities, driven by global sustainable development challenges like environmental preservation and food security. It notes that agriculture is increasingly used to reconcile urban and natural spaces due to its recognized multifunctional character. The emergence of new agricultural spaces in intra-urban and peri-urban areas of major cities in both developed and developing countries reflects a shift in local policies towards integrating cities with nature.

Aurora Cavallo, Benedetta Di Donato, Rossella Guadagno, Davide Marino · RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA · Italy (Rome)

This paper examines the characteristics and dynamics of urban agriculture in Rome, Italy, aiming to propose a taxonomy of urban agriculture types. It presents a preliminary analysis using criteria to classify the functional and relational features of agricultural activities within the urban phenomenon. The study attempts to reconstruct causal relationships between agricultural production models and their spatial and functional forms in the urban dimension.

M. Antonio Zárate Martín · Anales de Geografía de la Universidad Complutense · Spain (Madrid)

This paper is based on investigations for urban greenspace planning and the opportunities of urban agriculture for feeding a growing population. It also results from urban environmental improvement activities conducted with the School of Engineer Agronomists of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Through urban agriculture cases, the paper analyzes alternatives for recovering constructed spaces and increasing inhabitants' quality of life.

Michael J. Roth, Miryam Frixen, Carlos Tobisch, Thomas Scholle · · Germany (Dortmund)

This study analyzed how urban agriculture can stimulate and support urban renewal in an economically declined neighborhood in Dortmund-Hörde, Germany, using a case study. A project path was developed using participatory action research to involve residents and stakeholder groups, fostering collective stewardship for urban agriculture forms. The research concluded that synchronously combining research, planning, design, and implementation with intense feedback loops can achieve synergies for academic knowledge on urban agriculture's potential performance in sustainable development, as well as benefits for the case-study area and individual urban gardeners.

Maria Boștenaru Dan · Open Journal of Ecology · Italy (Pavia)

The Green Revolution Game is employed in teaching at Karlsruhe University in Germany and Ohio University in the US. This game is used not only for simulation but also as a basis for generating data for study projects, analyzing educational approaches, the applicability of game theory for simulating water scarcity hazards in rice cultivation, and its transferability from India to the context of high-yield rice and urban agriculture in Pavia, Italy.

Rocío Pérez-Campaña · European Planning Studies · Spain

This research analyzed land-use transformations of peri-urban agricultural deltas and vegas in Andalucía, Spain, focusing on medium-sized cities between 1956 and 2007. It also assessed their consideration in regional spatial planning. The findings indicate that these landscapes are changing land use and sometimes disappearing, receiving meagre attention and vague consideration in spatial planning.

Giuseppe Cinà, Francesco Di Iacovo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy

This paper examines urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Italy, identifying challenges in its planning, including the traditional exclusion of agricultural areas from territorial planning and the lack of local agricultural policy. The study highlights a disconnect between top-down policies and bottom-up practices, noting that numerous autonomous initiatives have emerged due to insufficient regional and local planning solutions. The authors conclude that overcoming the limitations of the top-down planning system, particularly in governance and inclusiveness, is a primary challenge for Italy.

Daniele La Rosa, Riccardo Privitera · Acta Geobalcanica · Italy (Catania)

This paper evaluates the provision of Ecosystem Services (ES) along three urban-rural transects in the metropolitan area of Catania, southern Italy. Land-use categories were assessed using GIS spatial analysis for their potential ES provision. Results indicate that agricultural lands are the most important landscape features for providing ES, both in terms of their spatial extension and the number of services offered.

Valerio Moretti, Adele Sateriano, Marco Zitti, Luca Salvati · · Europe

This article discusses the relationship between landscape and peri-urban agriculture and its implications for rural area management in the northern Mediterranean basin. It proposes a framework to evaluate the links between agro-forest systems and expanding urban settlements. The study advocates for a sustainable land management perspective in policies to preserve fringe land from excessive settlement scattering and landscape fragmentation, contributing to systemic and multi-scale approaches for territorial policies and integrated management of peri-urban agricultural landscapes.

Wojciech Sroka, Bernd Pölling · Zeszyty Naukowe SGGW w Warszawie - Problemy Rolnictwa Światowego · Europe

This paper evaluated the potential and importance of agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis and the Upper Silesian Metropolis, two large European metropolitan areas. Urban agriculture was shown to be an important spatial component, with almost 40% of these areas consisting of agricultural land. Analysis revealed that their agricultural potential is comparable to the overall regions in terms of average farm size, employment ratio, and intensity of animal and plant production. The study concluded that agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis has significantly higher production potential than in the Upper Silesian Metropolis, despite similar natural environments.

Emanuele Blasi, Clara Cicatiello, Barbara Pancino, Silvio Franco · Agricultural and Food Economics · Italy

Peri-urban agriculture is exposed to pressures toward diversification and multifunctionality, developing differently depending on territorial features. A paper studies the case of Trentino, an Italian Alpine region where the ratio of urban to rural domain is heavily skewed toward the latter and farms face environmental problems that jeopardize their competitiveness in mainstream markets, comparing the development of alternative food chains there with other Italian peri-urban areas. The mountain environment makes it difficult for farms to standardize products to large retailers' requirements, but alternative food chains endorse and communicate to the market the typicality of products and farmers' savoir-faire, the two main factors of added value. Survey data from short food chain consumers show they are inherently more attentive to these product cues, as a result of a lifestyle more attached to identity and origins, and prouder of their territory. These findings confirm that, given its structural and cultural traits, alternative food markets in the Trentino area are meaningful for the survival and development of the local agricultural sector.

Luisa Pedrazzini · TERRITORIO · Europe

This dossier compiles contributions from an international workshop, "Spatial and Landscape Planning and Design in EU and Lombardy," held at Politecnico di Milano in June 2013. It presents experiences from the EU, Île-de-France, Lombardy, and the United States, highlighting the distinctive features of peri-urban space and landscape and the potential of peri-urban agriculture.