Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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7626 results(93 / 306)
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPATIAL COMPOSITION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION IN THE LANDSCAPE OF ROOFTOP GARDENS
2023Hua Xu, Miki U. Kobayashi · Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) · Japan
A study (2023, Japan) conducted a psychological-evaluation experiment in which participants viewed a 360-degree view of the landscape of rooftop gardens in the Shibuya commercial district of Tokyo, examining the relationship between spatial composition and psychological evaluation. Three axes were first identified from the psychological evaluations of the rooftop garden landscape. For inward-facing rooftop gardens, the comfort factor increased with larger floor area and more plants; for street-facing rooftop gardens, the comfort factor decreased when floor area was small and the view was dominated by buildings, roads, and fences with little vegetation.
CommunityHealthPolicyGAMIFICATION IN URBAN PLANNING - EXPERIENCING THE FUTURE CITY
2023SUEDANUR ÖZDEN, ESRA ARSLANTÜRK, MEHMET SENEM, İmdat As · Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ) · Europe
Focused on a planned future city for 50,000 residents on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, this study (2023, Europe) explores a virtual reality (VR) gaming environment that lets citizens experience smart-city topics including innovative mobility approaches, drone delivery, and urban farming. It frames VR as offering a testing ground for ideas, performance simulation, and crowdsourcing input before a city is physically built, with gamification intended to incentivize citizen participation in the design process and generate a feedback loop for shaping the future city. Citizens can experience the city design through four circulation modes — walking, biking, driving, and flying — within the VR environment, and earn points by engaging with smart-city topics such as urban farming, solar energy use, and carbon neutrality. The project comprises three phases — an immersive head-mounted-display VR version of the city, edutainment/gamification, and integration into Meta's multi-user space — and the paper presents early findings, the methods and tools explored, and a discussion of VR's utility in architecture and urban planning design processes.
PolicyCommunityDigital agricultureMultifunctional agriculture in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Bibliometric review
2023Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín, Leticia Myriam Sagarnaga Villegas, Octavio T. Barrera-Perales, Juan Antonio Lugo Machado, José María Salas González · Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Agriculture and Environment · Europe
This bibliometric review analyzes the systemic structure of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) and its relationship to sustainability, based on a sample of 432 documents published on the Web of Science platform. Using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to map scientific collaboration networks, the review identified the authors, journals, and countries shaping the current knowledge structure and four thematic clusters: (a) MFA and sustainability, (b) ecosystem services and biodiversity, (c) European public policies, and (d) governance and urban agriculture. It concludes that, despite an increase in publication rates, research remains concentrated in Europe with few collaborative networks across disciplines, indicating that SDG 17 (partnerships) is not being achieved.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityBiodiversityEconomicsStrategi Pengembangan Urban Farming di Kelompok Tani Cempaka, Kota Jakarta Selatan
2023NOVI EFRIYANTI, Ratna Komala Dewi, IDA AYU LISTIA DEWI · Jurnal Agribisnis dan Agrowisata (Journal of Agribusiness and Agritourism) · Indonesia (Jakarta)
This study identifies internal and external factors and derives priority strategies for urban farming development in the Cempaka Farmers Group in South Jakarta, Indonesia, using IFE, EFE, SWOT, and QSPM matrix analysis. Among internal factors, the group's already having a defined vision and mission was the main strength (score 0.197), while insufficient urban farming production, much of it not worth selling, was the main weakness (score 0.083). Among external factors, government assistance in the form of programs, training, and agricultural tools for urban agriculture actors was the main opportunity (score 0.370), while the agricultural land not being owned by the Cempaka Farmers Group was the biggest threat (score 0.164). The resulting priority strategy is to maximize the farmer group's own activities while drawing on support from outside parties, the government, and developing technology.
EconomicsPolicyCommunityUrban horticulture
2023G. C. Moore Smith, Gilda Berruti · · Italy
This chapter explores Italian community gardens and the multiple policy frameworks that govern these activities, framing urban and peri-urban horticulture as part of a long tradition carrying social, environmental, and health benefits. It states that the drive for locally produced food is part of a recurring theme in public discussion; while few advocate national self-sufficiency, the widespread presence of locally based civic horticulture is said to raise awareness of food-production factors and to have a beneficial impact on patterns of food consumption and procurement. The chapter presents results of an investigation carried out in various parts of the country — Turin, Venice, Bologna, Siena, Rome, and Palermo — and also explores the special case of urban horticulture in greater Naples.
CommunityPolicyHealthFood educationPedagogical Transformation Through School Garden as a Living Laboratory in Public Schools in Nepal
2023Kamal Prasad Acharya, Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki, Birgitte Bjønness, Krishna Prasad Duwadi · Advances in educational marketing, administration, and leadership book series · Nepal
A participatory action research study (observe-plan-act-reflect) involving students, teachers and parents as co-researchers examined a school-garden project at a public school in Nepal. The garden functioned as a "living laboratory" for learning about flora, fauna and their interrelations, and transformed teaching into a mix of indoor and outdoor sessions. Students developed a sense of responsibility for environmental conservation and were positioned as "junior scientists" caring for the garden, with parents, teachers and students engaging in it as a co-curricular activity.
Food educationCommunityBiodiversityHealthStrategi Pengembangan Pertanian Perkotaan (Urban Farming) Tanaman Hortikultura Di Kota Sigli
2023Junaidi Junaidi, Mahadi Bahtera, Halil Akmal, Maisarah Maisarah · Jurnal Agroristek · Indonesia
This study examined income levels and the internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats affecting horticultural urban farming development in the city of Sigli, Indonesia, using descriptive and SWOT analysis. Using a census sampling method, respondents comprised 8 people total: 3 farmer-group officials and 5 horticultural farmers. The results placed Sigli's horticultural urban farming in "Quadrant I," indicating internal strengths, and the study recommends an aggressive strategy that maximizes strengths and exploits available opportunities.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsDIYContainer gardening program as a way of food augmentation: action research
2023Winalyn Denzon, Meraflor C. Estose, Krysha Camille Villanueva, Joa H. Jao · Multidisciplinary Science Journal · Global
A descriptive study surveyed 50 randomly selected respondents from designated areas on their acceptability of a container gardening program designed for BTVTED (technical-vocational teacher education) students, to gauge whether it could serve as a food augmentation strategy. Analysis using means and standard deviations found most participants were female, and acceptability was highest on the economic dimension — producing one's own food, generating income and supplying household subsistence. The researchers recommended that local governments run education campaigns to expand participation in container gardening.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareFood educationExploring Trade-Offs between Potential Economic, Social and Environmental Outcomes of Urban Agriculture in Adelaide, Australia and the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
2023Arun Kafle, James Hopeward, Baden Myers · Sustainability · Global
An integrated modelling framework using proxy measures for economic benefit (net margin), social benefit (full-time farmer employment equivalent per consumer) and environmental benefit (CO2 emission reduction) was applied to two contrasting development settings, Adelaide, Australia, and the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, to examine the characteristics of urban agriculture (UA). Using two-stage optimisation across three mechanisation levels (non-mechanised, garden tiller, garden cultivator), two purposes (gardening or commercial), two crop-value categories and two market mechanisms, the model found that no single UA form maximises economic, environmental and social (employment) objectives simultaneously: commercial UA, in which both land and labour are costed, was favoured for maximising profit or reducing CO2 emissions, while gardening-form UA was favoured for maximising employment participation. In Adelaide the model favoured commercial UA for best-case profit and carbon emissions but gardening UA for employment maximisation, while in the Kathmandu Valley the model selected gardening UA under the given assumptions.
Environmental trade-offsEconomicsCommunityUnderstanding Urban Farming as Food Security for Community Resilience: A Study in Malang City
2023Ilham Nur Hanifan Maulana, Ahmad Herlyasa Sosro Pratama, Sukardi Sukardi, Handayani Nurhayati, Della Agustina Putri, Tasya Fiane Wardah · Ecoplan · Indonesia
A qualitative case study using a literature review (via Mendeley, Zotero and Google Scholar) examined variations in how urban farming is applied to sustain food security in Malang City, Indonesia, an area facing high housing demand and land shortages. It found that urban farming can strengthen household food security, that motivation to farm, human resource capacity, and community participation are important factors in boosting self-reliant economic empowerment, and that vertical hydroponic "superblocks" have become a popular urban-farming cultivation method.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityClimate changeWinnice jako forma rolnictwa miejskiego – przykład Wiednia
2023Ada Górna · Prace i Studia Geograficzne · Europe
A discussion piece examines vineyards as a specific form of urban agriculture, focusing on their spatial and functional dimensions through a case study of Vienna. Drawing on data from the Austrian Wine Marketing Board and field observations conducted in April 2022, it analyzes Vienna — described as "the king of urban viticulture" — to determine the spatial distribution of vineyards within the city, their production structure, and the functions they perform. It concludes that viticulture and winemaking in Vienna display a multifunctionality that combines production with recreational, tourist, landscape and cultural functions, which contributes to the preservation of vineyards within the city's space.
CommunityUrban–rural linkageEconomicsIntra-Acting Food Citizenship in Community-Supported Agriculture in Finland
2023Anni Turunen, Riikka Aro, Suvi Huttunen · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics · Europe
A qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews, observation and visual material from a citizen-led Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group in Finland examined the role of materiality in constituting food citizenship. It found that materialities such as the field, time and body play a central role in CSA activities, and concluded that food citizenship should be understood not as an individual human trait but as a collective, active form of doing produced through intra-action with material-discursive arrangements.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceCSA & TeikeiEMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH TRAINING ON HYDROPONIC AGRICULTURE METHODS IN INCREASING FOOD INDEPENDENCE IN MERUYA UTARA,WEST JAKARTA
2023Fransisca Listyaningsih, Devan Adi PAWOKO, Nurul HIDAYAH · ICCD · Indonesia (Jakarta)
This activity report describes the use of limited urban land for agriculture, women's empowerment, and family food independence in North Meruya, West Jakarta, Indonesia. The activity consisted of hands-on practice of a hydroponic method usable on limited land, together with ongoing guidance provided to women and housewives.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareEconomicsAgricultura urbana como estratégia de enfrentamento da fome e para o desenvolvimento da Cidade Sustentável
2023Tailana Fraga Lima, Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio · Revista Brasileira de Tecnologias Sociais · Brazil
Using a bibliographic and documentary survey with secondary data analysis in a descriptive qualitative approach, this article systematically examines the challenges in the Brazilian population's diet posed by excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods. It discusses the relationship between agriculture in urban space and dietary readjustment and food insecurity, observing that urban agriculture can produce effects that contribute both to addressing the public health problem of hunger and to the use of urban space. It argues that occupying underused and idle sites in the city for garden development promotes integrated urban spaces accompanied by changes in eating habits and behaviors, aligned with urban planning aimed at a healthy city.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityHealthBuilding relationships back into the food system: addressing food insecurity and food well-being
2023Caroline Verfuerth, Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, Barbora Adlerová, Amy Dutton · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United Kingdom
Failures of the current food system are described as sitting at the core of multiple overlapping crises, shaping both consumption choices and food production, with low-income households disproportionately affected—their food security and access to healthy, sustainable food impacted as a result. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is framed as a bottom-up response toward agri-food system transformation, an alternative food system built on locally sold, agroecologically grown food rooted in social values, and, alongside other food citizenship movements and alternative food networks (AFNs), driven by a vision of a democratic, socially and economically just, environmentally sustainable food system. Yet low-income households are underrepresented in the CSA community. This paper reports findings from a co-produced intervention between the research team, four CSA farms in Wales, United Kingdom, and two food aid partners, seeking ways to improve CSA membership accessibility for food-insecure households: 38 households received a weekly vegetable bag for two to four months, and 16 household members were interviewed at the project's start and at the end of the harvest season. Using a food well-being framework, the study found that CSA membership holistically improved food well-being by strengthening producer-consumer relationships, increasing availability of healthy foods, helping people care for their own and their families' well-being, and building place-based food capability and literacy—results the authors use to support calls for prioritizing food well-being interventions to benefit financially excluded, food-insecure households within localized AFNs.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityWelfareEducation for sustainable development: Societal benefits of a community garden project in Tucson, Arizona
2023Nataliya Apanovich, Seth Asare Okyere, Stephen Leonard Mensah, Louis Kusi Frimpong · Societal Impacts · United States
This study examined societal benefits gained by university students participating in community-based learning through the University of Arizona Community Garden (UACG) in Tucson, Arizona, using interviews, participant observation and student activities. Findings showed the community garden provided psychosocial benefits, including social interaction and connection with nature, for the participating students.
Food educationHealthCommunitySoil management and engineering for blue-green infrastructure
2023Mark A. Goddard, Helen Glanville, Carla Comadran‐Casas, M. Ehsan Jorat, David A.C. Manning, Miranda T. Prendergast‐Miller, Kevin Stott · · Global
A book chapter on the role of soil within urban blue-green infrastructure (BGI). It outlines the characteristics of urban soils and their contribution to ecosystem services such as food production, flood mitigation, carbon storage and recreation, and discusses challenges and opportunities in managing and creating soils within urban BGI. The chapter closes with land-use-specific management recommendations and a call for greater recognition of urban soils in planning policy. It is a review/discussion chapter and reports no original data, study site or measurements.
CommunityBiodiversityClimate changePembuatan Aplikasi Mobile Untuk Meningkatkan Proses Pemasaran dan Penjualan Hasil Urban Farming, Kelurahan Balearjosari, Kota Malang
2023Rangga Pahlevi Putra, Ririen Prihandarini, Choirul Anam · JURNAL APLIKASI DAN INOVASI IPTEKS SOLIDITAS (J-SOLID) · Indonesia
A survey of the "Urfam Alam Lestari" urban farming group in Balearjosari, Blimbing District, Malang City, Indonesia, found that although the group cultivates multiple plots producing vegetables and fruit, it lacked digital media to market and sell its harvest, relying only on a WhatsApp group and unable to scale up sales. In response, a community-service team provided a mobile-application solution for marketing and sales, implemented through discussion, design of marketing/sales media, training and mentoring, and evaluation.
Digital agricultureCommunityPotential Benefits of Crowd-Collaborative Farming in Sustaining Small Scale Dairy Farming Business Performance
2023Mokoena Oratilwe Penwell, Ntuli Thembelihle Sam, Ramarumo Tshepo, Seeletse Solly Matshonisa · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Studies · Global
A conceptual paper argues that crowdsourcing and synergy (CSS) platforms could optimize activities for small-scale dairy farmers (SSDFs) in low- and middle-income economies, where market withdrawal by small farmers is disrupting producer-consumer relationships. Built on logic-based reasoning rather than empirical data, the paper contends that crowd-collaborative farming (CCF) could improve local market performance depending on member composition, and calls for further research on revenue-distribution mechanisms and for training SSDFs in CCF, particularly those facing high failure rates and debt.
CommunityCSA & TeikeiEconomicsThe Role of Agricultural Systems in Teaching Kitchens: An Integrative Review and Thoughts for the Future
2023Alexis R. Cole, Jennifer Pethan, Jason Evans · Nutrients · United States
An integrative review examines the potential role of teaching kitchens operated in collaboration with local agriculture — including farms, community gardens, vertical farms, and urban agriculture — against the backdrop of diet-related chronic disease in the United States. The paper reviews the current state of agricultural systems, the food-is-medicine concept, consumer behavior, and the roles of each sector, followed by case studies illustrating how gaps between teaching kitchens and agriculture programs have been addressed. It summarizes opportunities for combining teaching-kitchen and agriculture-program knowledge and resources, along with challenges that may arise.
Food educationHealthCommunityLa Huerta Escolar Como Estrategia Pedagógica Para Fortalecer El Aprendizaje Significativo En Los Grados Cuarto Y Quinto Del Centro Educativo La Honda De La Vereda La Honda Del Municipio De Timbío(Cauca)
2023Luis Manuel Cárdenas Cárdenas, Rafael Fernando Oyaga Martínez, Martha Luz Ortiz Padilla, Adriana Morales Salazar, Emily Juliana Tumbaco Patiño · Ingeniería e innovación · Colombia
A master's-degree research project in environmental pedagogy for sustainable development, conducted in 2020-2021 at the La Honda Educational Center in the La Honda village of Timbío municipality (Cauca), Colombia, examined school gardens as a teaching tool to strengthen environmental education and meaningful learning among fourth and fifth graders. Using qualitative, socio-critical action research, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with parents — largely via technology platforms because of pandemic confinement — along with children's drawings and participant observation. The gardens were found viable for rescuing the community's cultural tradition; a curricular proposal was built with the school garden as its center of interest, and community members were involved in creating and sustaining the garden.
Food educationCommunityThe multifunctionality concept in urban green infrastructure planning: A systematic literature review
2023Maria Korkou, Ari K.M. Tarigan, Hans Martin Hanslin · Urban forestry & urban greening · Global
A systematic literature review examines the multifunctionality concept in urban green infrastructure planning, identifying a knowledge gap in the planning literature regarding multiple ecosystem functions and a lack of methods for quantifying and monitoring ecological services and biodiversity at different spatial scales. The reviewed literature clustered into five main themes — planning methods for urban green infrastructure, assessment approaches, ecosystem services and their benefits, sustainability and climate adaptation, and urban agriculture — which the review found were interconnected. It identifies a knowledge gap in incorporating multifunctional green infrastructure into planning principles and proposes five critical elements for ensuring multiple functions: spatial distribution, optimal distance, integrated network, accessibility, and public participation and engagement.
PolicyCommunityBiodiversityClimate changeThe Role of Urban Vegetable Production to the Livelihoods Enhancement of Producers in Addis Ababa: Examination of Food, Employment and Income Effects
2023Habtamu Serbessa · International Journal of African and Asian Studies · Ethiopia
This study examined how vegetable production supplements food and income for residents of urban Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using household-level quantitative data analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Of respondents, 99.2% said vegetable production provides fresh food for their households, 41.9% earned up to 10,000 birr per production cycle, and 30.7% of producers hired up to ten employees, with seeds and pesticides being the more expensive inputs; multivariate analysis found households earning around 10,000 birr per production cycle were significantly affected by farming in residential areas (p = 0.008), and households were found to prioritize food consumption over profiting from sales.
EconomicsCommunityWelfareThe Role of Smart Technologies in Urban Agriculture
2023Marco Antonio Márquez-Vera, Brenda Eguiluz-Ruiz, Ricardo Calderón-Suárez · Advances in finance, accounting, and economics book series · Global
This book chapter examines the integration of smart technologies—IoT, AI, and data analytics—into urban agriculture. It argues that real-time monitoring, circular resource systems, intelligent irrigation, and controlled environments can improve resource efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in the face of challenges like limited arable land and conventional practices, while acknowledging costs and technology dependence as obstacles and emphasizing collaboration and education for successful implementation; no empirical data are presented.
Digital agricultureCommunitySpaces, Systems and Infrastructures: From Founding Visions to Emerging Approaches for the Productive Urban Landscape
2023Joe Nasr, Matthew Potteiger · Land · Global
Situating the proliferation of urban agriculture within a historical dialogue among foundational figures in urban and regional planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, this theoretical paper identifies fundamental strategies for designing and planning the "productive city" as a response to perceived failures in contemporary food systems. Drawing on a growing body of theory and practice for integrating urban agriculture into urban design and planning, it identifies three approaches: spatial design strategies that identify new territories for food production, systems design linking individual production spaces to broader food-system networks, and infrastructure design addressing flows of soils, water, and nutrients.
PolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkage