Research & reports

Vittori Antisari, Livia; Dipartimento Di Scienze E Tecnologie Agroambientali, University Of Bologna, Bologna, Serena Carbone, Ferronato, Chiara; Dipartimento Di Scienze E Tecnologie Agroambientali, University Of Bologna, Bologna, Simoni, Andrea; Dipartimento Di Scienze E Tecnologie Agroambientali, University Of Bologna, Bologna, Vianello, Gilmo; Dipartimento Di Scienze E Tecnologie Agroambientali, University Of Bologna, Bologna · Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) · Italy (Bologna)

Concentrations of heavy metals (Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, Zn) were determined in topsoil, plants, and moss tissues in the suburban area of Bologna, Italy, due to an urban waste incinerator and other atmospheric emission sources. No correlation was found between metal content and the incinerator plant's distance. The pollution load index (PLI) for soil and moss indicated low environmental pollution, but the highest values in sites downwind of the incinerator and in a craft area indicated moderate pollution.

Giovanni Attili · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Italy (Rome)

This study focused on community gardens in Rome, Italy, which largely result from informal appropriation practices. While these gardens can enhance environmental and social quality of life, they require institutional support and present a crucial challenge for urban planning. The study highlights the need to explore tensions between social practices and institutional powers, and questions how public policy can legitimize these self-guiding societal expressions.

Daniele La Rosa, Francesco Martinico, Riccardo Privitera · TERRITORIO · Italy

This study discusses how non-urbanized areas in metropolitan contexts can be reconsidered for new land uses, combining peripheral urban agricultural production with environmental protection for climate change adaptation and ecosystem service production. Through a review of urban planning instruments in Mascalucia, a new land-use scenario for non-urbanized areas was proposed using a land suitability model that combined land cover and fragmentation analysis.

Jill L. Edmondson, Zoe G. Davies, Sarah A. McCormack, Kevin J. Gaston, Jonathan R. Leake · The Science of The Total Environment · Europe

A study of Leicester, a mid-sized city in the United Kingdom (73 km², 56% greenspace), analyzing how land-cover type (herbaceous, shrub or tree cover) affects soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Topsoil SOC was measured in domestic gardens and non-domestic greenspaces and compared with surrounding extra-urban agricultural land, then mapped citywide. Average SOC storage across the city's greenspace was 9.9 kg/m² to 21 cm depth; SOC under trees and shrubs in domestic gardens exceeded all other land-cover types, with median total storage of 13.5 kg/m² to 21 cm depth — more than 3 kg/m² higher than any other land-cover class in domestic or non-domestic greenspace, and 5 kg/m² higher than arable land. Land-cover did not significantly affect SOC in non-domestic greenspace overall, though values under trees were higher than under pasture and arable land, while shrub and herbaceous cover were higher only than arable land. The study concludes that greenspace management affects SOC stocks, that trees only marginally increase stocks in non-domestic greenspaces but may enhance them in domestic gardens, and that greenspace topsoils hold substantial SOC stores requiring protection from further expansion of artificial surfaces such as patios and driveways.

Susan B. Johnson · International Journal of Inclusive Education · United Kingdom

This paper argues that a reconceptualized approach to school gardening in the UK could promote inclusive education for sustainable development. It examines the potential for children aged 5-14 to develop ecological knowledge, action competence, and environmental engagement skills through gardening. The paper suggests a curriculum framework and provides a bean crop exemplar, but it does not present empirical findings or results from an implemented program.

Barbara Uhlig · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · Germany

This study analyzes guerrilla gardening as a protest movement where activists plant flowers, trees, and vegetables on derelict urban spaces without owner permission. The motivations for guerrilla gardening are pragmatic, ecological, political, and aesthetic, though its artistic status is often denied. The study demonstrates that guerrilla gardening aligns with George Dickie's institutional theory of art and can be classified as art.

Alma Clavin · Local Environment · Europe

This paper reports on the multiple impacts that community garden design may have on the subjective well-being of site users, using the capability approach as a normative framework. Qualitative research conducted in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland in early 2011 yielded new explanations for both sustainable design and well-being. Two key design aspects, agency and dynamic balance, were found to enhance both the sustainability of the community garden sites and the well-being of site users.

Steffen Lehmann · Journal of Green Building · Europe

This paper discusses resource recovery and materials flow in cities, noting that urban farming has emerged as a valid urban design strategy in Europe, contributing to local food production, organic waste composting, and biodiversity. It reports on best practices for implementing zero waste, including adaptive re-use and design for disassembly, and identifies that the construction and demolition sector is a major waste producer. A key finding is that achieving 'zero-waste' requires strong industry leadership, new policies, effective education, and refocused research agendas.

Lucy Bastin · · United Kingdom

Against a backdrop where about 90% of UK residents already live in towns or cities, and roughly 60% of the world's population is projected to live in urban areas by 2030, this essay argues that public land such as parks and allotments can easily be lost without a vocal set of "owners" to speak for it. It notes that most of the UK's "natural" areas have historically been created, managed, or modified by humans, and that overlooked brownfield sites can serve as valuable refuges for insect and plant species that can no longer persist in a countryside dominated by industrialized agriculture.

Sara Strajnar · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe

An abstract from a graduation thesis (2008, Europe) on two types of "small-scale agriculture" in water-protected areas in and around Ljubljana, Slovenia — allotment gardens and private vegetable gardens — states that these gardens matter for environmental protection because of their production intensity and large number of gardeners. The author investigated gardening habits in detail, combining field-work data with numerous measurements of phytopharmaceutical (pesticide) products and nutrients in soil and vegetables.

Kim Geun Ho, Tongbuhm Cho, 김미향 · Journal of the Korean housing association · Europe

Seven eco-villages in Germany, Denmark, and the UK were selected for field surveys of settlement background, social and economic aspects, architectural specifications, recycled energy, and landscape characteristics of external spaces, analyzing the landscape characteristics of community gardens and common spaces and the ecological symbolism of landscapes created by residents. The eco-village landscapes were found to intend neither a return to primitive society nor control of nature through technology but rather coexistence with nature, with primitive nature symbolically restored and residents who share this outlook intending to cultivate this common sense together, landscape creation playing an important role in establishing a shared relationship between human living and nature.

김근호, 조동범, 김미향 · · Europe

A field survey of seven eco-villages in Germany, Denmark, and the UK examined each settlement's background, social and economic aspects, architectural specifications, recycled energy use, and the landscape characteristics of external spaces, analyzing the ecological symbolism of the landscapes residents created. It concluded that eco-village landscapes were oriented neither toward returning to primitive society nor toward controlling nature through technology, but toward coexistence with nature, with primitive nature symbolically restored and community garden landscape design expressing a meaningful relationship between human life and nature.

Philip J. Baker, RACHEL J. ANSELL, PHILLIPPA A. A. DODDS, CLAIRE E. WEBBER, Stephen Harris · Mammal Review · United Kingdom (Bristol)

This study investigated small mammal distribution across five urban habitats in north-west Bristol, including residential and allotment gardens. It found that wood mouse abundance in residential gardens was negatively related to cat abundance and distance to natural vegetation. The results suggest urban small mammal populations may be limited by predation and habitat fragmentation.

Hammer K., Knüpffer H., Xhuveli L., Perrino P. · Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 43:329-336 · Mediterranean

A classic study comparing collecting missions decades apart in Albania and South Italy, quantifying genetic erosion of landraces at 72.4% and 72.8% respectively.

Rollins W. H. · Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 85, No. 3, pp. 494–520 · Germany

Analyzes how Seifert and his team applied aesthetic and ecological principles, grounded in climax-vegetation theory, to the Autobahn, probing the entangled relationship of technology, fascism, and environmentalism under National Socialism.

Wolschke-Bulmahn J., Gröning G. · Journal of Garden History, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 73–80 · Germany

Critically analyzes how the 'nature garden' ideology that emerged in early-twentieth-century Germany, while claiming scholarly basis, carried nationalist and native-plant preferences that fed into later Blood and Soil thinking.

Gröning G., Wolschke-Bulmahn J. · Landscape Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 116–126 · Germany

Examines how German landscape architects' obsession with native plants produced 'landscape rules' that, under National Socialism, became tied to the planning of occupied territories and acquired xenophobic, ideological character.

Howard J. Atkinson, Naomi Gibson, Harry C. Evans · Plant Pathology · United Kingdom (Leeds)

A survey of 140 growers across 12 allotment sites around Leeds, UK, identified a wide range of crop pests, with brassicas, potatoes, and carrots being more frequently damaged. Soil samples from 33 plots at 10 established sites and 6 plots at 2 new sites revealed potentially damaging levels of pale potato cyst nematode in 21 and 1 plots, respectively. Widespread overwintering populations of carrot fly larvae and pupae were also found in soil samples from eight sites.