Research & reports

ByBi · ByBi · Norway

An introduction to 'The Pollinator Passage', launched in 2015 by Oslo beekeeping organization ByBi with funding from the Norwegian Environment Agency, mobilizing citizens to create flowering 'stepping stones' across the city — from large flowering farming areas to balcony flower pots — to build urban pollinator habitat. Since its launch, Norway has adopted a National Pollinator Strategy, Oslo has established an Urban Agriculture Program and a roof/facade greening strategy, and ByBi now manages pollinator-friendly practices in the city's cemeteries and the three royal gardens of Oslo.

· Wikipedia · Global

A Wikipedia article on 'victory gardens' — vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at homes and in public parks during World War I and II to supplement food rations and boost civilian morale. In the US during WWI, over 5 million gardens were established, with produce valued at more than $1.2 billion by war's end. In WWII, the US had 18 million victory gardens by May 1943 (12 million urban, 6 million farm-based), accounting for about one-third of US vegetable production; in 1944, 9-10 million short tons were harvested, matching total commercial fresh-vegetable production. In Britain, allotments roughly doubled to about 1.4 million by 1943.

· Wikipedia · Global

A Wikipedia article on care farming, the use of farming practices to provide healing, mental health, social, or educational care. It cites the 19th-century Riddrie farm school in Scotland (1866-1871), where of 158 boys admitted, 64 were later considered to be living respectable and productive lives, though the program ended due to financial constraints. It references practices in the UK, Netherlands, US, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium (Flanders) without giving specific farm-count or participant statistics, and notes potential benefits for offender rehabilitation and as an adjunct therapy for anxiety and depression, while stressing the need for more rigorous research.

· Wikipedia · Global

Experiential learning is defined as learning through experience, or more specifically learning through reflection on doing, distinguished from classroom-based learning by the learner's active role. David A. Kolb systematized the modern theory in the 1970s, building on the work of Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget. Learning is described as a cycle of four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation, with genuine learning requiring active engagement, reflection, analytical skills, and decision-making/problem-solving skills.

Kremer, Peleg, Borowiak, Craig, Scolio, Madeline · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · 米国（ペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィア）

US community gardens embody a conundrum: vital to community well-being and integral to urban social infrastructure, yet profoundly vulnerable through insecure land tenure, fragmented policy support and systemic disinvestment. This reflective essay examines the Philadelphia Garden Data Collaborative (PGDC), a multistakeholder initiative documenting, protecting and advocating for community-managed green space, from the authors' position as participant researchers. It traces the shift from grassroots mapping to coordinated data stewardship, which enabled both emergency interventions (such as preventing sheriff-sale evictions) and long-term preservation strategies, and examines the ethical dilemmas of collecting sensitive community data where bureaucratic neglect has rendered gardens invisible and where visibility can expose them to new risks. It concludes that data can strengthen advocacy and inform policy, but must be coupled with secure tenure mechanisms and sustained public investment.

Pearson, Natalie · British Food Journal · 英国（食を育てる人びとへの質的調査）

It is often argued that growing one's own food reduces household food waste by raising appreciation of food, but focused research on this is lacking. Using thematically analysed qualitative surveys with a privileged sample of food gardeners, this study finds the relationship more complex than proposed: for these gardeners, growing their own food can also decrease appreciation of food and create waste because of the challenges of growing, processing and storing it. Food gardening could nonetheless become an instrumental waste-prevention practice if growing is made easy and convenient, gardeners are given opportunities to work together, more channels exist for sharing surplus, and cooking skills improve. Its contribution is to critique the assumption that growing your own always leads to appreciation of food and less waste.

Chifunda Emmanuel Felix, Kifunda Christina Felix · Cogent Food & Agriculture · タンザニア

A paper on urban and peri-urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam examined through the gender dynamics of the people working in it. The bibliographic record (authors, journal, DOI) was verified at the source, but the abstract could not be retrieved, so only the scope of the topic is described here.

Rduch Paulina, Hodor Katarzyna, Wilkosz-Mamcarczyk Magdalena · Cities · ポーランド・チェコ

A study of Katowice (Poland) and Brno (Czech Republic) examining how family allotment gardens function as greenery in city centres, together with the legal regulations that govern them. Drawing on statistical and cartographic data, it shows a downward trend in the area of allotment gardens within cities.

Bhaskaran Varsha, Nilon Charles H. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · インド

A paper framing home gardens in Bengaluru as everyday environmental stewardship by residents. The bibliographic record was verified at the source, but the abstract could not be retrieved, so only the scope of the topic is described here. The same authors have published related work on home gardens and urban wildlife in the city.

Ricardo Robins · Fundación Rosa Luxemburgo (Oficina Buenos Aires) · Argentina

A reported feature tracing the origins of Rosario's Urban Agriculture Programme (PAU) through interviews with founder Antonio Lattuca: the first community garden in the Saladillo Sur neighborhood in 1987, the 1990 municipal ordinance creating the Community Gardens Programme, and the PAU's formal launch in 2002. It reports the programme today spans 12 parks and community gardens across roughly 40 hectares, with over 150 families harvesting about 650,000 kg of agroecological vegetables a year, and profiles the Tablada Park Garden (opened 2008, 3 ha, 20 workers).

Municipalidad de Rosario · Municipalidad de Rosario · Argentina

A Rosario municipal procedural page describing a free training-visit programme for institutions and civic organizations to tour the city's gardens and Park Gardens and learn about agroecological practices, run by the Productive Spaces Coordination unit under the Social Economy Sub-secretariat. Appointments are booked at six district municipal centers on Wednesdays 9:00-13:30, with the programme's legal basis cited as Decree 2561/2004 and Ordinance 9044/13.

Municipalidad de Providencia · Municipalidad de Providencia · Chile

A municipal announcement for the 2026 Harvest Festival (Festival de la Cosecha), organized by the Municipalidad de Providencia in Santiago, Chile. The free family event runs from 10:00 to 18:00 on June 20, 2026, at the Espacio Verde Urbano on Padre Mariano 140, featuring a producer market of seasonal vegetables, seeds, and artisanal products, live cooking demonstrations, a home garden workshop, puppet shows, a giant squash competition, and musical performances.

Aguiari I. · Agriculture and Human Values · イタリア

Debates on food and agriculture have long noted the depoliticising pull of neoliberal governance, technocratic regulation and consumer-oriented solutions. Collective action in grassroots agrifood initiatives is well studied, but how politicisation actually emerges is not. Treating the political as an ever-present dimension of social relations, the author uses political semiotics to trace how politicisation and depoliticisation unfold in everyday communication, drawing on participatory mind-mapping workshops co-created with three community agriculture initiatives in Italy. Politicisation is encouraged where relational interaction, contextual interpretation, symbolic expression and an orientation toward collective action reinforce one another.

Nkrumah B. · Urban Science · アフリカ（都市部・系統的レビュー）

A systematic review of the irony between abundant arable land and persistent hunger in African cities. It asks why a disproportionate share of urban residents do not produce their own food, even as food insecurity rises with heavy reliance on market-bought food, high poverty and rapid urbanisation, screening peer-reviewed literature via PRISMA and five inclusion benchmarks to clarify the debate on low uptake of urban agriculture.

Hadi A.A., Pratiwi P.I., Budiarti T., Arifin H.S., Pratiwi N.K., Alhakim M.A. · Tájökológiai Lapok · インドネシア・ボゴール（都市部・近郊）

Set against urbanisation that has cut farmland and limited access to fresh vegetables, this study evaluates garden towers as a vertical landscape element for community-based vegetable production. Using a descriptive-evaluative approach, it assesses 105 garden-tower units distributed to 21 women farmers groups in and around Bogor, Indonesia, and discusses their contribution to food availability and social-ecological resilience in dense settings.

Rao X., Zahid A., Ye X., Jain D., Duffield N. · Urban Informatics · 国際（論考）

A Perspective arguing that controlled environment agriculture (CEA), driven by venture capital and profit-maximising imperatives, has delivered limited scalability, narrow crop diversity and minimal engagement with spatial equity — the fair distribution of food infrastructure across urban geographies. It calls for repositioning CEA not as a standalone technological fix but as a component of urban infrastructure delivering co-benefits for food justice, public health and environmental resilience.

Hinch J. · Southeastern Geographer · 米国フロリダ州タンパベイ

This study builds an equity-focused, GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis model integrating socioeconomic, logistical and environmental variables to assess community garden suitability across census tracts in Tampa Bay. High-suitability tracts cluster somewhat in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, existing gardens align moderately with modelled suitability, and the paper shows both the utility and the limits of spatial models in equitable urban agriculture planning.

Olabode K., Lewińska K., Komorowicz I. · Environmental Geochemistry and Health · ポーランド南部・ズウォティストク（旧鉱山地域）

Quantifies total arsenic, gastric-phase in vitro bioaccessible arsenic (IVBA) and direct-soil-exposure risks for children and adults in mining-affected allotment gardens in Złoty Stok, southern Poland, applying deterministic calculations and Monte Carlo simulation to incidental soil ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation of resuspended particles. Total As ranged 433–1148 mg/kg and IVBA 4.5–23.5%. Under the total-As multi-pathway scenario median hazard indices were 5.50 for children and 0.62 for adults (P05/P95: 2.26/15.18 and 0.29/1.89). Median total cancer risk was 1.78×10⁻⁴ for children and 1.06×10⁻⁴ for adults, with 80.0% of simulated child profiles and 54.0% of adult profiles at or above 10⁻⁴. Ingestion and dermal contact accounted for nearly all modeled risk while inhalation was negligible; applying IVBA to the ingestion pathway alone cut the median ingestion-related hazard quotient and cancer risk by 89.3%. Total soil As and soil ingestion rate were the principal positive risk drivers, body weight inversely associated.

Huq F.F., Deacon L. · Discover Sustainability (Springer), 6:696 · Global

A systematic review of 37 studies examining how community gardens affect food access, urban resilience, and community well-being, with research interest peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies inequitable access and weak policy integration as key barriers and calls for inclusive, interdisciplinary, long-term planning.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A thematic review synthesising global trends, innovations, governance frameworks and pathways to sustainability in urban agriculture, mapping the field's current state and future directions including citizen participation, policy support and environmental challenges.

Neumann V., Schmid B., El Benni N., Finger R. · Land Use Policy · Switzerland

Survey of 500 members of community-supported agriculture and allotment gardens in Switzerland showing social capital has a significantly positive effect on members' perceived benefits, highlighting the social value of collective urban food production.

Langerman S., Juarez N., Magan I. M. · Journal of Urban Health 102:857-871 · Global

Scoping review of 42 studies (1990-2024) on urban agriculture interventions for refugees and immigrants, identifying five domains (well-being, physical health, ecological, economic, sociological), with social outcomes most common.

Ashikuzzaman M., Swapan M.S.H., Zaman A.U., Song Y. · Landscape and Urban Planning · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

Analysis of 187 YouTube videos reveals urban rooftop farming in Dhaka is a growing grassroots movement with fragmented institutional oversight; farmers in mixed land-use neighborhoods show the strongest motivation and seek government policy guidelines.

Liu Y., Chanse V., Chicca F. · Urban Science (MDPI), Vol. 9, No. 8, Article 305 · New Zealand (Wellington)

This study quantifies Wellington, New Zealand's community gardens' capacity to meet post-disaster vegetable demand in terms of weight and nutrient content, finding current gardens insufficient alone but identifying substantial potential through expanded urban agriculture land use.

(Open Research Community) · ResearchGate, Discover Sustainability (Springer Nature) · Global

2025 review article examining urban agriculture's contribution to food security and mechanisms of achievement. Analyzes through empirical evidence the benefits and challenges, income generation effects, and improvements in fresh food access for low-income households.