The impact and future of edible landscapes on sustainable urban development: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Edible landscapes provide a series of benefits for the sustainable development of a city, and therefore, in recent years, their development has become a fashion which has stimulated research. However, there is a need for a comprehensive, integrated, literature review, to increase people's knowledge of edible landscapes for a sustainable future. Therefore, this paper conducts a systematic review through the Preferred Reporting Initiative for Systematic Evaluation and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). This study was conducted using Web of Science and Google Scholar, and 41 eligible articles were selected from the 2004 articles originally identified from the years 1975–2022. These articles were related to the topics of (1) ecology, (2) food safety, (3) social, economic and healing benefits, (4) construction, and (5) understanding, motivation, and evaluation. The findings suggest that, first, the creation of edible landscapes in different urban areas of the world can have different effects, with most studies showing that the creation of edible landscapes in urban areas can increase ecological diversity. Despite this, some individual studies draw different conclusions. Secondly, most studies show that the development of edible landscapes in urban areas is beneficial for increasing food production and thus improving urban food security, provided that the land is not contaminated. Again, some studies have found that developing edible landscapes in urban areas has social and economic benefits. However, without a reasonable management mechanism, this process is prone to contradictions and thus unproductive. Therefore, urban land policies, land contamination, and management issues in different countries have limited the further development of urban edible landscapes. This study suggests that future research on edible landscapes can be conducted in the areas of land policy, land pollution control, and management mechanisms to solve these problems and promote further development.