Research & reports

R. E. Molenaar, Marcel Pleijte · · Netherlands

A Wageningen University Science Shop report examines measures to improve water management for the "duinlandjes", centuries-old allotment gardens in the dunes near Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands, that form part of the Zeesdorpenlandschap cultural heritage. Commissioned by the Duinlandjesvereniging de Noord association, it investigated sustainable solutions from sociocultural, hydrological and ecological perspectives. The duinlandjes are currently experiencing flooding that makes cultivation very challenging. A stakeholder analysis found that while collaboration between the association and drinking water company PWN has advanced, interactions among stakeholders remain fragmented, and it calls for the province of Noord-Holland to take an active coordinating role. The hydrological analysis identifies winter precipitation surplus as the main driver of rising groundwater, projecting that climate change will bring wetter winters and drier summers with greater groundwater fluctuation, though long-term groundwater trends remain uncertain while winter/spring water excess will probably continue. The ecological risk assessment highlights the vulnerability of surrounding dune habitats, noting that draining and diverting excess rainwater can cause habitat degradation and increased drought stress.

Joan Casanelles-Abella, Monika Egerer · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · Global

A perspective article discusses biodiversity conservation in cities as often afflicted by "suboptimal" situations where human needs and nature's needs are imbalanced or in conflict. In human-dominated landscapes, land use intensification often replaces large habitat patches critical for metapopulation stability with smaller, isolated patches, a pattern Island Biogeography Theory predicts will reduce biodiversity; this may be most extreme in cities experiencing rapid population growth and infrastructure densification, where small urban green spaces, balconies, home and allotment gardens, small forest patches and green walls, become the primary compensatory interventions for retaining habitat. However, under certain conservation frameworks (land-sparing vs. land-sharing, the SLOSS debate), such small, scattered urban green spaces may be predicted to produce suboptimal or even detrimental biodiversity outcomes if their size and isolation prevent them from sustaining viable population sizes. The article notes this "ecology of suboptimals" framing risks a futile perspective on nature conservation in densifying cities, while also considering how rethinking urban environments in light of this situation might be approached.

Daniel Etim Jacob, Imaobong Daniel Jacob, Koko Sunday Daniel, Pius Agaji Oko · Sustainable Food Connect · Global

A paper arguing that recreational planning in the Global South is constrained by Western models prioritizing ornamental aesthetics over local socio-ecological crises, producing metabolically inefficient and exclusionary landscapes, and proposing an "Agro-Blue Commons" (ABC) framework integrating food production, sustainable water management and communal leisure. The framework was tested through a qualitative meta-synthesis of four prototype cases in Lagos, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Nairobi, purposively sampled to represent diverse biomes and climate-vulnerable informal settlement types, evaluated with a Multi-Criteria Assessment focused on metabolic circularity, governance polycentricity and socio-spatial accessibility. Results show that integrating food, water and leisure together with polycentric stewardship increases urban resilience and reduces resource dependency, while the paper states that systemic change requires addressing institutional inertia and insecure land tenure to prevent speculative displacement of marginalized communities.

Patrick Sobotka · reposiTUm (TU Wien) · Austria

Set against growing urban populations, housing shortages, and ecological and social challenges, this TU Wien thesis is a design study exploring housing that supports urban agriculture through integrated vertical farming. Its aim was to develop a hybrid housing concept combining sustainable timber construction with vertical farming, using a modular timber structure intended to offer ecological benefits, short construction times, and the ability to add stories later without sealing new land. The project centers on compact apartments for young adults, students, and couples, drawing on literature review of sustainability, timber construction and vertical farming, plus analysis of selected reference projects, to produce a design concept. No quantitative evaluation results are reported.

Esteve Gaelle Giraud, Elora Bevacqua, Madeline Mercer, Nicholas Benard, Priya Nayak, Tawsha Trahan, Kathleen Merrigan · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This paper documents an early-stage Participatory Action Research (PAR) process to scale up urban agriculture in Tempe, Arizona, an arid, land-constrained city where four contiguous neighborhoods face high food insecurity and vulnerability. A transdisciplinary team of researchers, city staff and community-based organizations collaborated with residents to assess the state of urban agriculture, identify local priorities, and co-develop ten policy recommendations, through 86 food access surveys, mapping, practitioner interviews in Tempe and six other cities, and community workshops. Residents emphasized the need for urban agriculture spaces supporting food production, education, workforce development and community building, while limited funding, volunteer instability and poor communication of existing resources were identified as key barriers. Despite water scarcity and land pressures, the study argues that water-smart, strategically located urban agriculture can serve as resilience infrastructure addressing civic, environmental and social goals, and that participatory planning supported by trusted intermediaries can shape agendas before formal food policy structures exist, offering insights for other cities pursuing participatory food planning.

Hyun-Kyung Kang, Byungsook Choi · Korean Journal of Human Ecology · South Korea

This study analyzed remodeling characteristics, physical conditions and operational models across 22 housing complexes in seven countries to propose directions for enhancing communal facilities in South Korean public rental housing. International examples emphasized creating spaces for social integration, establishing community-linked welfare hubs, and developing tailored functions for specific groups such as youth and the elderly. In physical configuration, well-being-related spaces such as walking trails and community gardens were the most frequent, appearing in 67 cases, indicating strong demand for health and quality-of-life improvements. Operational programs were found to support individual health and culture activities, family care, and resident-led community initiatives, often under a partially fee-based system with limited public access. The study concluded that improving domestic communal facilities requires incorporating multi-purpose flexible spaces at the initial planning stage, converting ground-floor areas into accessible community hubs, activating underused spaces such as rooftops and corridors, and specializing welfare functions through integrated elderly healthcare and communal childcare facilities.

Thomas Anthony Pacheco · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United States

This is a non-peer-reviewed, pedagogical guide, not an empirical study, that uses food insecurity and food deserts in Los Angeles County as a case study to translate sociological theories -- including Resource Mobilization Theory, Framing Theory, Legal Consciousness Theory, Collective Action Frames, and Political Process Theory -- into organizing strategies for activists and students. It sets out practical steps for securing funding, recruiting volunteers, framing injustice, engaging policymakers, and building interventions such as community gardens.

Budi Hartono, Axel Giovanni, Muchammad Khusni Wafa, Mu'alfad Zulfikar Purwanto, Mirna Harsono · COMMUNITY Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat · Indonesia

This is a community engagement program, not an outcomes study, aimed at micro-enterprises in food security and urban farming in Indonesia that face limited business management capacity, scarce resources, and insufficient technical knowledge. Partnering with Fita Farm for its expertise in integrated agriculture, the program delivers training, hands-on mentoring, and continuous evaluation toward goals of improved business management, increased income, and greater resilience, but the abstract does not report achieved results.

Norlina Muhammad, Zanariah Kadir, Ismi Arif Ismail, Mohd Mursyid Arshad, Ahmad Aizuddin Md Rami · Pertanika Journal of professional Development and Continuing Education · Malaysia

This qualitative case study examines how employee competencies and organizational support shaped training transfer in the Sustainable Green Neighbourhood Garden Programme run by the Majlis Bandaraya Pasir Gudang (MBPG) local authority in Malaysia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six purposively selected employees across departments who participated directly in the three-month program, with data analyzed thematically. Well-structured program design, effective facilitation by agricultural and landscape officers, and organizational coordination supported learning transfer; participants reported gains in technical skills (planting, soil and fertilizer management), self-discipline, teamwork, confidence, motivation, and work attitude, along with strengthened interdepartmental collaboration and reduced work-related stress.

Julija Bakunowitsch · Urban Planning · Germany

This qualitative study examines a publicly funded urban gardening project in Dortmund, Germany, implemented as a labor-market activation measure on temporarily available land targeting employable welfare recipients. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, it combines the concept of "food justice" with valuation studies to analyze how labor, land, and exchange are valued in everyday practice. The findings reveal tensions between empowerment and dependency, care and control, and social recognition and material precarity: while participants experienced gardening as meaningful work and a source of social participation and belonging, these valuations remained bounded by welfare regulations, temporary land tenure, and charity-based food distribution. The study concludes that such temporary urban gardening projects function as sites of plural, negotiated valuation where justice is enacted only provisionally, through everyday practice, within the limits of welfare governance.

Human Sciences Research Council · Human Science Research Council SA · South Africa

A South African Human Science Research Council commentary (2026) notes that women make up the majority of urban farmers who grow food in their own backyards or lead food-security efforts within larger groups that sell or donate surplus produce, and states that the country's land reform policies require an explicitly gender-sensitive approach to support them. The abstract provides no study sample, method, or measured outcome.

Rabia Admin, Malka Shahzadi, Malika Shahzadi, Muhammed Faisal Rasheed · Social Sciences Spectrum · Pakistan

This study examines women's involvement and empowerment in agricultural activities in Lahore Cantonment, Punjab, Pakistan, based on data from 118 women engaged in agriculture, analyzed using mixed methods including descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, correlation, and multiple regression. The results show that while participation rates among women are high, women are not yet empowered, owing to existing socio-cultural and resource-based obstacles. Significant associations were found between land ownership and women's decision-making, between education and participation, and between access to credit and extension services and involvement in agricultural activities; the correlation matrix showed positive relationships among key variables, and regression analysis identified land ownership, education, and access to credit as significant predictors of women's empowerment. The paper states that changes to law, access to resources, and social support are needed to improve women's agency in peri-urban agriculture, and proposes policy measures including land rights reform, targeted educational initiatives, and improved access to resources.

Marcelo Budal Cabral, Alysson Maia Fontenele · Revista JurisFIB · Brazil

This legal article examines the significance of urban agriculture for greening cities and for greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation in Brazil. Using bibliographic and documentary research with a hermeneutic approach, it analyzes precedents including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Advisory Opinion 32/2025 (climate emergency) and the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court's Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental 708 (Climate Fund case), alongside the national Urban and Periurban Agriculture Policy and other normative texts. It concludes that ecological and climate protection duties, reinforced by these court precedents, require implementing and fostering urban agriculture in order to realize the right to a healthy climate.

Guilherme Raj, Flor Avelino, Marie-Claire Bribois · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Europe

This chapter argues that power dynamics have received limited attention in sustainability-transitions research despite their centrality to lasting societal change, and introduces two frameworks -- "power to, over, and with" and "three relations of power" -- to analyze how power relations shift over time and are constituted. Applying these frameworks to a case study of community-supported agriculture in Portugal, the analysis shows how individual and collective agency, human and non-human interactions, and historical structures of social relationships shape opportunities and barriers for transitions. It concludes that more power-aware research incorporating non-Western and Indigenous epistemologies is needed.

Tianqi Su, Yongmei · Agriculture · China

Based on multitemporal remote-sensing data from 1985 to 2015, this study examined the evolution of urban-agricultural-ecological spatial structure and water-heat-vegetation responses driven by large-scale irrigation and drainage projects in the Inner Mongolia Hetao Plain, an arid/semi-arid region of China. It built a "multifunctionality-dynamic evolution" dual-principle classification system, combining maximum-likelihood classification of individual land types with conflict-pixel-resolution merging to achieve 90.82% classification accuracy, and used a land-use transfer matrix, a standard deviation ellipse model, land surface temperature (LST) inversion, and vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) analysis. The results showed: (1) spatial structure followed a path of short-term intense disturbance followed by long-term stable optimization, with agricultural space stability increasing 4.8%, ecological core area retention exceeding 90%, and urban space expansion shifting from external encroachment to internal filling; (2) VFC increased steadily in the central area (0.8% annual growth), fluctuated with recovery in the eastern area (±12% cyclic amplitude), and improved locally in the western area (key patches up 18%); (3) the LST-VFC relationship showed spatiotemporal misalignment, with 0.8-1.2°C anomalous cooling in the central region during construction despite a 15% VFC decrease, driven by irrigation water's thermal inertia, and a disrupted linear correlation after completion due to changes in crop phenology and plastic film mulching; and (4) the irrigation and drainage projects optimized water resource allocation, constructing a hub regulation model integrated with the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus.

Nwanaforo E., Obasi C. N., Akande I. O., Nduka J. K., Offor C. C., Abdulai P. M., Udom G. J., Orisakwe O. E. · Biological Trace Element Research · ナイジェリア（オウェリ・アバ・ポートハーコート）

A study of lead, cadmium and copper in urban agricultural systems in three industrial-area Nigerian cities (Owerri, Aba and Port Harcourt), assessing spatial distribution, bioaccumulation and health risks using both deterministic and stochastic (Monte Carlo) approaches. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry found soil concentrations following Pb > Cu > Cd in Owerri and Port Harcourt but Pb > Cd > Cu in Aba, while fish and vegetables followed Pb > Cd > Cu at all three sites. The deterministic assessment found cadmium's incremental lifetime cancer risk exceeded the US EPA acceptable threshold of 1×10⁻⁶ at every site for every sample examined, identifying cadmium as the metal of greatest concern.

Yun Wu · Architecture Engineering and Science · China

Set against the backdrop of accelerating urban stock renewal in China, this paper addresses the contradiction between "quantity" and "quality" in developing high plot ratio land—where rigid plot ratio constraints create physical barriers such as insufficient lighting, chaotic circulation, and lack of public space, while demand for quality living raises requirements for spatial openness, ecology, and social inclusiveness. It analyzes design strategies including composite utilization of underground space, ecological compensation through rooftop gardens, and cross-plot three-dimensional corridors, combined with coordination of ownership division, full-process cost control, and policy tool innovation, to construct a comprehensive improvement mechanism of "physical optimization, ownership coordination, and economic balance," intended to provide a replicable design paradigm and decision-making reference for improving the quality and efficiency of existing land in high-density urban development.

Esther Reyna Molina, María Xóchitl Astudillo Miller, Yanik I. Maldonado-Astudillo, Ricardo Salazar · Discover Sustainability · Global

A systematic review using PRISMA 2020 methodology examined social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship practices in the agri-food sector as responses to socio-environmental resilience challenges facing small-scale rural producers and local food systems. It characterized these practices, evaluated their impacts across sustainability dimensions, and identified success factors and barriers. Studies on social innovation predominated over those on sustainable entrepreneurship, with experiences distributed across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. The initiatives analyzed included social agriculture, community gardens, inclusive agribusiness models, women's cooperatives and regenerative agroecological projects, with overall positive effects reported for social inclusion, community empowerment, market access, income diversification and improved environmental practices. Facilitating factors included cross-sector collaborative governance, local leadership and the capacity to combine heterogeneous resources; barriers included poorly adapted regulatory frameworks, dependency on external funding, and tensions between economic and socio-environmental objectives. The review concludes that hybrid practices combining social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship contribute significantly to rural producers' socio-environmental resilience when embedded in favorable institutional environments and supported by public policy and legal frameworks.

Quinton J, Nesbitt L, Connolly JJT, Wyly E · Urban Studies · カナダ（バンクーバー・カルガリー）

Green gentrification describes how greening a neighbourhood — with parks, community gardens and the like — can draw in higher-income households and displace or exclude marginalised residents; the authors note this has rarely been tested empirically, and that the literature has focused almost exclusively on urban neighbourhoods even though the desire for green space is often cited as a reason households move to suburbs. Surveying 104 households in gentrified downtown Vancouver and suburban Calgary new-build neighbourhoods, the study finds green factors were of similar importance to non-green factors such as safety, scenic views and ambience (and, in Vancouver, proximity to entertainment and transit). Proximity to green space mattered more than overall neighbourhood greenness, and private green space mattered more in the suburbs. Greening, in other words, is not the sole driver, and green-gentrification research needs to widen its geography beyond dense city environments.

Birhanu MW, Negussie ZT · The Scientific World Journal · エチオピア

A PRISMA-based review synthesising peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025 on the status, challenges and opportunities of home and urban vegetable gardening in Ethiopia. It frames urban and home-based gardening as a practical response to food insecurity, malnutrition and environmental degradation in rapidly urbanising areas where the search for better opportunities has driven rising unemployment and limited access to nutritious, affordable food. The barriers it identifies — limited access to land and clean water, gendered barriers to women, limited technical knowledge, inadequate extension services and weak institutional support — all hinder production and sustainability. It further notes that widespread irrigation with untreated wastewater poses significant health and environmental risks through heavy-metal contamination and soil-transmitted infectious disease. Opportunities such as using vacant urban lots, promoting vertical gardening and supporting local seed production remain untapped; government support for urban gardening has grown recently but its implementation remains inconsistent. The review also identifies a significant geographical gap within the existing literature.

Liz Ignowski, John Luis Lagdameo, Liel Gonzalez, Arma Bertuso, Pepijn Schreinemachers · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems 11(1) · Philippines (Quezon City, Metro Manila)

A quantitative survey of 300 urban food producers in Quezon City, one of the 17 cities of Metro Manila, examining who practises urban agriculture, the methods and technologies used, the challenges met and the benefits gained. Production is mainly small-scale and subsistence-oriented, with commercialisation limited except among those with access to agricultural land. Self-produced food does increase access to fruit and vegetables, but participation reflects economic vulnerability rather than food sufficiency, and both scale and commercialisation depend strongly on land access — a structural barrier in dense cities. The authors conclude that urban agriculture in Quezon City acts as a safety net rather than an income source, while also providing enjoyment and stress relief, and that urban food-security policy should be realistic about the limited role of urban food production.

Paul Emile Tchinda, Thi-Thanh-Hiên Pham · Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes 70(3) · Cameroon (one large and one medium-sized city)

Urban agriculture appears in many sustainability agendas yet has been ignored in the public policies of many African countries. Combining multi-scale mapping (city and neighbourhood) with semi-structured interviews in one large and one medium-sized Cameroonian city, this study tests how well those techniques characterise urban agriculture for local decision-making. Mapping from 5-metre SPOT satellite imagery gives a general grasp of the spatial distribution of practices, but crop types, emerging entrepreneurial practices and the temporality of crops are invisible to it and surface only through field mapping and interviews. Echoing critical remote-sensing scholarship, the authors propose a methodological framework for profiling urban agriculture and argue that the choice of research method shapes our understanding of it, so it should be made with each city's specific characteristics in mind.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 農村政策部 都市農村交流課 · Japan

MAFF's compendium on noufuku renkei (agriculture-welfare linkage): its current state, policies and cases. Defines it as work that builds confidence and purpose for people with disabilities through agriculture, and documents its widening scope to older people, those in economic hardship, people experiencing social withdrawal, and offender rehabilitation. Includes farm-workforce trends, disability population and employment figures, and cases of welfare providers entering farming.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · United States

EPA's overview page for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, created under the 2005 Energy Policy Act and expanded by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding the domestic biofuels sector, and reducing reliance on imported petroleum.

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) · CalRecycle · United States

CalRecycle's page on permanent regulations under SB 54, California's producer responsibility law for single-use plastic packaging and food service ware, requiring 100% recyclability/compostability, a 65% recycling rate, and a 25% reduction versus 2023 by 2032, with producers funding $500 million per year starting in 2027.