Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
17 results
Urban Farming Microinterventions: Design-Led Case Studies from Poland
2026Aleksandra Nowysz, Łukasz Szczepanowicz · Sustainability · Poland
This paper examines the effectiveness of urban farming microinterventions through three design-led case studies in Poland. The cases include "Blooming Structure" (2018, Warsaw), a temporary hydroponic installation; "Micro-cultivation" (2018, Warsaw), a shopfront vertical demonstration farm; and "Micro-cultivation 2" (2019), modular cultivation furniture. The analysis combined project documentation with practice-based observations, applying five interpretive dimensions: spatial fit, technical feasibility, communicative legibility, replicability, and social programming. Findings indicate that successful microinterventions align legible cultivation infrastructure with high visibility, accessibility, and participatory formats that support skills transfer and copying-based scaling. Limitations of this study include the small sample size and its concentration on projects from Poland.
DIYCommunityFood educationDigital agriculturehydro ponos - Die vertikale Farm auf dem Flakturm im Augarten Eine Symbiose zwischen Bestand und Neubau
2025Grassl, Philipp · reposiTUm (TU Wien) · Europe
The diploma thesis "hydro ponos" at the Vienna University of Technology addresses a new type of agriculture in Vienna's urban context. The project proposes a hydroponic system in a vertical farm, choosing the vacant Flakturm (anti-aircraft tower) in Augarten as the construction site. The study suggests a solution for the city by utilizing the existing Flakturm as a storage and supply element and adding a new timber skeleton structure as an extension.
Digital agricultureUrban–rural linkageClimate changeEconomicsA Tale of Soft Spaces and Seeds Under the Snow
2025Francesca Gotti, Yona Catrina Schreyer · field · Italy (Bergamo)
This essay describes two alternative spatial practices implemented in Bergamo, Italy: "Software-ing Spaces," a living-designing-building residency in a former monastery, and "Seeds Under the Snow," an experimental laboratory for knowledge exchange and innovative methods within Bergamo's social gardens. Both projects aim to challenge systemic procedures in the construction sector and develop spatial ideas based on empathy, synchronizing place, resources, users, and builders.
CommunityDigital agricultureFood educationPflanzMit! - Das Urban Gardening Network
2025Storey, Benjamin · TIB Repositorium · Germany
The PflanzMit! project is an innovative initiative aiming to involve urban populations in the care and design of their green environment. The app enables users to organize and collaboratively work on planting and maintaining urban green spaces, strengthening social fabric and fostering a sense of community. The app offers organizational tools for group formation and task distribution, as well as practical aids like care tips, plant identification by photos, and AI-supported plant recommendations based on local conditions.
CommunityDIYDigital agricultureHow to Monitor a School Garden With Micro Bit
2024Alejandro Carlos Campina López, Antonio Alejandro Lorca Marín, María Ángeles de las Heras Pérez, Emilio José Delgado Algarra · Advances in linguistics and communication studies · Spain
This chapter provides a comprehensive guide for setting up and programming sensors to monitor a school garden using Micro Bit boards. The project aims to meet the digital competence and computational thinking requirements specified in the Spanish curriculum (LOMLOE). By systematically monitoring parameters such as soil moisture, temperature, humidity, light intensity, and soil pH, students can make informed decisions about garden management.
Food educationDigital agricultureGIS-Based Digital Twin Model for Solar Radiation Mapping to Support Sustainable Urban Agriculture Design
2024Matteo Clementi, Valentina Dessì, Giulio Maria Podestà, Szu-Cheng Chien, Barbara Ang Ting Wei, Elena Lucchi · Sustainability · Italy (Milan)
This study proposes an open-source Digital Twin model based on a geographical information system (GIS) for optimizing solar radiation mapping in urban agriculture design. The model considers complex microclimatic variables in urban environments and integrates available open data with in-situ measurements to develop a set of maps for urban farmers and designers. Initially tested on a neighborhood in Milan, Italy, the model's replicability and effectiveness were verified.
Digital agricultureClimate changeUrban–rural linkageLambeth plots: Two mapping projects highlighting existing and potential city spaces for food growing
2024Janie Bickersteth, J. F. S. Ferro, Marjorie Landels, Stephanie Robson · · United Kingdom
Incredible Edible Lambeth (IEL) is undertaking two mapping projects in Lambeth, UK, to identify and make available hidden food production niches. Six walking trails highlight existing food growing in community gardens and green spaces, distributed to pharmacies, GP surgeries, and schools. The 'Lambeth plots' project, in collaboration with Arup, combines GIS analysis with citizen-led mapping to reveal food growing potential across the entire borough.
CommunityPolicyHealthDigital agricultureConsumer perceptions and preferences for urban farming, hydroponics, and robotic cultivation: A case study on parsley
2024Giovanbattista Califano, Anders Crichton-Fock, Charles Spence · Future Foods · United Kingdom
Consumer attitudes toward novel fresh herb cultivation methods, including urban farming, hydroponics, and robotic cultivation, were explored among 148 participants in the UK. Urban farming was the preferred method, followed by hydroponics, with robotic cultivation being the least favored. High consumer environmental concern positively influenced acceptance of parsley from urban farming, while food technology neophobia negatively impacted consumer acceptance of hydroponic and robotic cultivation methods. The exploratory nature of this study may limit the generalizability of its results.
EconomicsUrban–rural linkageDigital agricultureAlgorithmic Food Justice
2023Lara Houston, Sara Heitlinger, Ruth Catlow, Alex Taylor · Policy Press eBooks · United Kingdom (London)
Workshops critically experimented with the possibilities and challenges of blockchain as an infrastructure for food abundance and reparative work, using fictional scenarios set in a London transformed into a city farm by 2025. This experimentation suggested that blockchain presents challenges to such restorative and sustainable work. For participants, reparation involved working in the aftermath of social and environmental collapse to bring into being more-than-human-value systems that radically decentered human knowledge and experience.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityDigital agricultureClimate changeEvaluating the impacts of nutrients recovery from urine wastewater in Building-Integrated Agriculture. A test case study in Amsterdam
2023Michele D’Ostuni, C. Stanghellini, A. Boedijn, Leonardo Zaffi, Giuseppina Pennisi, Francesco Orsini · Sustainable Cities and Society · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
The feasibility of using urine and greywater streams as nutrient solutions in a theoretical model of Building-Integrated Agriculture in Amsterdam was evaluated. Results showed it is feasible to use urine and greywater as nutrient solutions; however, treated urine had higher macronutrient concentrations than literature fertilizer recipes, requiring dilution with increasing amounts of greywater to match N or P concentrations. Consequently, P deficiencies in plants or excessive N concentration were found in the final wastewater-based nutrient solution.
Limited or null effectOrganic cycleDigital agricultureCyber-gardening the city
2023Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto · · Europe
This article introduces the Urban Algae Canopy, an innovative architectural system that redefines farming and horticulture within urbanism. It proposes agriculture as a tool for reprogramming Milan's public realm and challenges the separation between urban and rural conditions. The Urban Algae Folly aims to integrate technical and scientific research with societal needs through architectural design.
Digital agricultureClimate changeUrban–rural linkageThe Unwanted Heritage of Prefabricated Wartime Air Raid Shelters—Underground Space Regeneration Feasibility for Urban Agriculture to Enhance Neighbourhood Community Engagement
2021Paweł Matacz, L. Świątek · Sustainability · Poland (Szczecin)
This article addresses the problematic heritage of Nazi German underground air raid shelters in Szczecin, Poland, by exploring their revitalization for urban agriculture. Through inventory and analysis, a modular hydroponic plant-growing system adapted to these prefabricated spaces was proposed. This solution aims to overcome negative associations, strengthen food sovereignty, initiate bottom-up community activity, and build social ties in residential neighborhoods.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceDigital agricultureUrban–rural linkageSDG Implementation through Technology? Governing Food-Water-Technology Nexus Challenges in Urban Agriculture
2021Sandra Schwindenhammer, Denise Gonglach · Politics and Governance · Germany
This qualitative and participatory case study in Germany examined the governance implications of an emerging technology in urban agriculture that connects wastewater treatment and agricultural production for urban hydroponics. The analysis found that while this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, it simultaneously creates new sector interlinkages between water and food, leading to policy demands that necessitate more integrated policymaking.
Governance failureDigital agriculturePolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceSustainability and education through social networks. Presence and visibility of the school garden on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
2021Juan-Francisco Álvarez-Herrero, María Encarnación Urrea Solano, Rosabel Martínez-Roig · IJERI International Journal of Educational Research and Innovation · Spain
This study examined the presence and visibility of school gardens on social media in Spain by analyzing the last 100 posts with #huertoescolar on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Educational centers primarily documented school garden activities on Twitter, followed by Facebook and Instagram. School gardens were mainly used for practical application of academic content and fostering environmental awareness, but greater integration with Sustainable Development Goals is still needed.
Food educationCommunityDigital agricultureHigh-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam: An Actor Network Analysis
2020Mosen Farhangi, Margherita Turvani, Arnold van der Valk, G.J. Carsjens · Sustainability · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
An ethnographic study in Amsterdam, Netherlands, analyzed barriers to the integration of high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA) into urban planning processes. The research revealed a lacking connection between planning actors and HTUA technology developers.
Governance failurePolicyDigital agricultureAn inter- and transdisciplinary, multiscale and mixed methods pathway to study Smart Agriculture in Italy
2020Rosalia Filippini, Sylvie Lardon, Stefano Corsi · · Italy
This chapter designs an inter- and transdisciplinary, multiscale, and mixed-method framework for analyzing Smart Agriculture (SA) in urban-rural relationships across Italian case studies. It proposes SA as an experimental field for cooperation among decision-makers, civil society, and academia to improve urban-rural links in metropolitan regions. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture and rural-urban links is central to this approach.
Digital agricultureUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agriculturePolicyMicroclimates of Urban Reproduction: The Limits of Automating Environmental Control
2019Andy Lockhart, Simon Marvin · Antipode · United Kingdom (Sheffield)
This article explored the phenomenon of automated environmental control, using three sites in Sheffield, UK: a botanical glasshouse, a luxury hotel, and a university plant growth research lab. The study identified technical and ecological tensions and limits of indoor environmental control at each site, which restrict the scope of automation. It also showed that maintaining desired conditions required considerable hidden labor and energy.
Limited or null effectDigital agricultureClimate change