What is the nature of evidence regarding relationships between urban agriculture and gentrification? A systematic map protocol

Urban agriculture — A necessary pathway towards urban resilience and global sustainability?

Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, has experienced increases in the prices of basic food commodities since 2002, with the sharpest increase noticed over the period 2007–2011. Major factors contributing to this trend include rapid growth in the demand for food due to the increase in population, urbanisation, drought (climate changes) impacts in the agricultural areas of Uganda and a sharp increase in the cost of living driven by inflation. The increase in food prices has made it difficult for many low income earners in Kampala to meet their daily food requirements. In response, urban and peri-urban agriculture is making a very important contribution to the general food supply of the city. Besides making a significant contribution to the food basket of Kampala city, urban and peri-urban agriculture represents an important economic activity within the city. Emerging policy and planning frameworks support the continued positive contribution of urban and peri-urban agriculture. To that effect Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) now recognizes urban agriculture as a land use system and a vital policy issue. However, more is still needed from the public, urban authorities, urban planners and policy makers to strengthen this vital sector. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of urban and peri-urban agriculture and its contribution to the food supply crisis in Kampala city, as well as the process of developing policies to enable urban agriculture in Kampala city.

Along the rapid pace of urbanization, urban agriculture is increasingly recognized as an important tool of sustainable food and nutrition supply, while contributing to the resilience and sustainability of cities from various dimensions. From a governance point of view, it is fundamental to systemically assess the urban agriculture based on local context for evidence-based food planning. In China, values of urban agriculture are being noticed in recent years, with attempts emerging to involve urban agriculture in urban planning and agriculture strategies. However, clear definition to identify the scope and holistic approaches to assess and monitor local urban agriculture are still lacking. The paper took Chengdu as the study area, to conduct a thorough assessment of the foundation, capacity, practices, functions, opportunities, and challenges of the urban agriculture locally. Building on these results, the study further developed an indicator framework tailored to Chengdu’s conditions and city objectives, for in-depth evaluation and monitoring of local urban agriculture by themes, following which a pilot in-depth assessment was conducted in Chengdu using the indicator framework. The outcome of this research for the first time provided an overall characterization of the urban agriculture in Chengdu and assessment tools tailored to urban agriculture in Chinese cities, establishing a good basis for strategic local food system planning and contributing to the formation of the Chinese paradigm in urban agriculture research.

This study investigates the climate change adaptation strategies employed by urban crop and livestock farmers in Ghana. With the increasing recognition of climate change threats to agricultural productivity and food security, it is crucial to understand urban farmers’ adaptation strategies. Through a mixed-methods approach—surveys of 191 urban farming households using a questionnaire and interviews of 13 key informants using an interview guide, data were collected from farmers in urban Ghana. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics from the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and presented in tables. The qualitative data were analysed manually based on themes and content and presented in narratives. The results indicated a significant relationship between urban farmers’ educational status and gender and their sources of climate change adaptation information. Urban farmers’ climate change adaptation strategies include planting more improved and less indigenous crop varieties and rearing of more exotic and less local breeds of animals. Again, to buffer animal production against climatic diseases, urban farmers treat their animals through vaccination, giving animals pills, disinfecting pens, and spraying animals’ bodies with chemicals. Access to agricultural extension services is the main challenge in urban farmers’ climate change adaptation. The study underscores the importance of enhancing farmers’ resilience through targeted interventions, including capacity-building initiatives, access to climate information and financial resources, and the integration of climate-smart agricultural practices into urban planning and policy frameworks. In addressing these challenges and promoting adaptive strategies, urban crop and livestock farmers in Ghana can enhance their resilience to climate change and contribute to sustainable urban agriculture and food security. This study, therefore, contributes to the urban agriculture and climate change literature by drawing attention to how crop and animal farmers in the urban neighbourhood adapt to climatic stressors.

Food security is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the Global North, especially in urban areas. Because such areas do not always have good access to nutritionally adequate food, the question of how to supply them is an urgent priority in order to maintain a healthy population. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as sources of local fresh food, could play an important role. Whereas some scholars do not differentiate between peri-urban and urban agriculture, seeing them as a single entity, our hypothesis is that they are distinct, and that this has important consequences for food security and other issues. This has knock-on effects for food system planning and has not yet been appropriately analysed. The objectives of this study are to provide a systematic understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North, showing their similarities and differences, and to analyse their impact on urban food security. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification and comparison of their spatial, ecological and socio-economic characteristics. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact on food security in relation to the four levels of the food system: food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The results show that urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North indeed differ in most of their characteristics and consequently also in their ability to meet the food needs of urban inhabitants. While urban agriculture still meets food needs mainly at the household level, peri-urban agriculture can provide larger quantities and has broader distribution pathways, giving it a separate status in terms of food security. Nevertheless, both possess (unused) potential, making them valuable for urban food planning, and both face similar threats regarding urbanisation pressures, necessitating adequate planning measures.

Strategic planning to integrate urban agriculture in Palestinian urban development under conditions of political instability

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) has become a key component of the survival strategies of poorer sections of the population while also providing a significant contribution to the urban fresh food supply chain. The positive impacts of this industry include improved nutrition and health, an improved environment for living, increased entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation. Urban agriculture is one of the most effectual concepts of sustainable development. It improves the quality of urban environment through greening and reduction in pollution. In many developed and also in some developing countries, local authorities start to recognize the role of urban agriculture for local economic development, enhancing urban food security and offering recreational services to urban citizens. In a developing country like Bangladesh, where a huge number of people face food insecurity, practice of urban and peri-urban agriculture can play a vital role in supplying fresh foods. Urban planners in developing countries should pay more attention to peri-urban agricultural practices which could assist in improving urban environment, generating employment and reducing future food insecurity. The aim of the study is to determine the suitability of the study area for urban and peri-urban agriculture in DMDP area. As it is not possible to conduct the study for the whole DMDP area within a limited time, the study has narrowed down to Gazipur, Kaliganj, Rupganj and Narayanganj Upazilas. Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Vol. 5, Dec 2012, pp. 69-77

The activities of urban farming in Southeast are still limited and scattered. In order to give valuable insights into the urban agriculture of Southeast Asia and to support researchers, we need to know in details the available options and gaps in this research direction that will serve future researchers. Thus, in this study, a review is conducted to map the research landscape into a coherent taxonomy. The research procedure focuses on all these subject matters related to urban farming system activities, technology application and their use in the urban farms and smallholder farming activities in Southeast Asia. These studies selected from the three major digital databases, namely, the ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus. The study selection process consists of research into literature sources, followed by three iterations of screening and filtering, excluded duplicate articles, screening the titles and abstracts and reading of the full-text articles. The final included result is 88 articles, which will be adopted on in this study. Further, a review in details of the layout of the research landscape of literature is conducted into a cohesive classification with its descriptive analysis. We also identify the essential characteristics of this emerging field in the following aspects: benefits of using urban farming activities in Southeast Asia, challenges hindering utilization, and recommendations to improve the acceptance and use of urban farming applications in literature.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, urban agriculture, which refers to various forms of agricultural production within or surrounding the city, gained more attention from scholars worldwide. Given the multiple benefits associated with urban agriculture, these practices were adopted to address the adverse impacts in various dimensions, such as food security, health, and well-being. Simultaneously, urban agriculture also was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, influencing the practice from both theoretical and practical perspectives, which expanded the scope of research in this field across various disciplines and perspectives. Consequently, it is difficult to track the topic and scope of the current research status as a basis for developing research about urban agriculture in the future. However, a systematic review that consolidates the current state of knowledge to support advanced research had not yet been conducted. Our paper aimed to fill this gap by employing a bibliometric analysis of articles in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) to examine the research landscape of urban agriculture and Covid-19. VOSviewer was the main platform adopted to conduct the bibliometric analysis in order to construct the research landscape based on three scopes, namely, main contributors (authors, sources, organisations, and countries), hot issues, and research themes. The analysis revealed that the WoSCC had indexed a total of 214 articles, with an increasing number of publications from 2020 to 2022. Although studies on urban agriculture and Covid-19 were conducted worldwide, authors and organisations from developed countries, especially the United States, were the primary contributors to article publications. The journal “Sustainability” was the main source of published articles about urban agriculture and Covid-19, receiving the highest number of citations. Research on urban agriculture and Covid-19 was conducted under eight crucial research themes associated with the food sector, benefits for health and well-being, climate change and air quality, marginalised communities, practising the community garden, practising home gardening, lessons learned from the policies and projects, and innovation and technology. Despite research being conducted on urban agriculture and the Covid-19 pandemic within different themes and geographical contexts, the majority of studies primarily focused on the benefits and behaviour change associated with urban agriculture practices to mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19 in terms of the food system and mental health. This finding is consistent with the keywords co-occurrence analysis, which identified “food security/insecurity” and “resilience” as the main hot issues. In addition, most of the other high-frequency keywords also were associated with the food system and well-being. Based on these findings, research on urban agriculture during Covid-19 generally concentrated on the crucial problems associated with Covid-19, especially for the food sector and health, rather than urbanization, which had been the primary focus in earlier times. Finally, we provide recommended ways forward for future studies in this field by offering insights into the current scope of the research landscape on urban agriculture and Covid-19, which had been neglected in previous studies.

Automobiles are ubiquitous in the modern world, and chemicals leaching from car tires and from the tire wear particles produced during driving can be toxic to the environment, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. 6PPD-Quinone (6PPD-Q), a recently identified tire and tire wear particle leachate, has been identified as highly toxic to coho salmon and other aquatic species. Research on the distribution and impacts of 6PPD-Q in aquatic ecosystems is rapidly developing, while research on 6PPD-Q in other environmental media is just beginning. With research efforts developing on many fronts, there is a need to better map emerging knowledge about this toxin. To do that, we ask the question: "What research exists on the presence of the 6PPD-Q in different environmental media (water (freshwater), soil, sediment, and air, including dust)?" The ultimate purpose of this systematic map is to generate a literature catalog that serves as a searchable database about 6PPD-Q in different environmental media. The systematic map will follow the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence guidelines and conform to the Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES). Relevant English language only literature searches will use a search string using the specified Boolean description of our PECO elements (Population: Environmental media water, soil, sediment, air: including dust; Exposure: N/A; Comparator: N/A; Outcome: The presence of 6PPD-Q/ The concentration of 6PPD-Q). Two bibliographic databases, Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection and ScienceDirect, will be searched. Additional literature will be located through searches of targeted search engines and specialist websites. Screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts will be completed in series using established eligibility criteria. The results of the systematic map will contain a searchable open-access database formatted in Microsoft Excel. Furthermore, the outcome will be presented in a global map of the geographical distribution of included studies and their PICO/PECO elements, including a narrative synthesis, descriptive statistics, tables, and figures.

This chapter examines the biophysical, socio-economic, environmental and human health dimensions of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Dakar city (Senegal) and identifies structural threats to urban agriculture, including those already induced, or have the potential to be induced, by climate change. Urban agriculture, which provides an important source of fresh vegetables and other fresh products for the city is being increasingly marginalised due to a combination of factors including diminished soil and water quality, increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall, urban encroachment and pollution from industrial sources. A lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities between local and national governments hinders the ability to protect urban agricultural land from urban encroachment and a lack of access to credit by farmers adds to their ability to cope with the multitude of other pressures. Dakar is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the northern, western and southern sides with no room for expansion, including any potential expansion of urban agriculture. Ground water in this urban zone is steadily deteriorating due to nitrate pollution of shallow groundwater in soil aquifers combined with increasing saltwater intrusion. Recycling of untreated wastewater for use in urban agriculture, a common practice in Dakar and other cities in Africa has increased the incidence of food-borne contamination. For example, recent microbial sampling of water showed a very high proportion of sites (87 %) with contamination levels above World Health Organisation standards for irrigation without restriction. Solid and liquid waste management is one of the biggest problems Dakar is facing as are many other cities of developing countries. Climate change will further impact urban agriculture. Shortening of cold periods favorable to vegetable cropping in semi-arid areas, increasingly hotter summers, more frequent flooding and drought periods, and higher incidence of pest and diseases are among the potential impacts of climate change. Coastal zones of the city are particularly under threat due to the rising sea level with negative consequences of coastal erosion and salt-water intrusion in lowlands. Projection models show a strong warming trend in the region. Conversely, there is no agreed trend of rainfall prediction at present but deficits are anticipated by general circulation models. Adaptation strategies of farmers include lifting the ground surface with landfill in order to better cope with flooding (specifically for flower cultivation), development of soil and soilless micro gardens in boxes, crop diversification and use of hybrid seeds. Urban agriculture has the potential to contribute to climate change adaptation through reinforcement of urban agricultural systems resilience, water recycling, buffering thermal and hydraulic shocks, providing safe and nutritious food, recycling wastes and conserving biodiversity. Despite its huge potential to reduce poverty and make the city more resilient to impacts from climate change, urban agriculture is not high on the urban planning agenda. Recommendations are formulated towards taking into consideration urban agriculture in national and local planning, strengthening capacities of stakeholders and awareness at all levels of society on the economic, social and environmental role of urban agriculture can play in sustainable development and greening of the city and its economy.

Actors’ perception of urban agriculture can affect the way urban agricultural decisions are made and implemented either positively or negatively, with or without the actors being aware of it. The way actors perceive urban agriculture is influenced by actors’ interests, limited or unlimited information about urban agriculture, policy and legal frameworks. This study used a case-study design to examine the effects of actors’ diverse perception of urban agriculture on the governance of urban agriculture. Purposefully selected 60 respondents participated in-depth interviews in the wards of Daraja Mbili and Lemala. Farmers and agricultural officers perceived urban agriculture positively because their livelihoods and professional interests were related and relied on the practice of urban agriculture. Urban planners and agricultural officers perceived agriculture positively and negatively depending on the way agricultural activities affected the environment or were compatible with non-agricultural activities. The implementation of policy and enforcement of bylaws relating to urban agriculture was not successful because urban planners and environmental officers were skeptical about the value of urban agriculture. Doing urban agriculture in the environmentally sensitive areas was against environmental bylaws, but the area was encroached upon by the farmers who had no alternative land for farming. Land use hurdles for doing urban agriculture were rarely addressed by urban planners who had no evidence of the benefits of urban agriculture to city authority compared with revenue and employment opportunities from real estate developments. We conclude that the farmers’ and non-farmers positive and negative perception of urban agriculture stem from their interests, limited or unlimited information about urban agriculture. Government officials’ perception of urban agriculture is influenced by their carrier and work obligations. Despite the presence of policy acknowledging urban agriculture and environmental bylaws for regulating urban agriculture, actors cannot really govern urban agriculture if they perceive it negatively.

BackgroundForests provide an essential resource that support the livelihoods of an estimated 20% of the global population. Forests are thought to serve in three primary roles to support livelihoods: subsistence, safety nets, and pathways to prosperity. While we have a working understanding of how poor people depend on forests in individual sites and countries, much of this evidence is dispersed and not easily accessible. Thus, while the importance of forest ecosystems and resources to contribute to poverty alleviation has been increasingly emphasized in international policies, conservation and development initiatives and investments—the strength of evidence to support how forests can affect poverty outcomes is still unclear. This study takes a systematic mapping approach to scope, identify and describe studies that measure the effect of forest-based activities on poverty outcomes at local and regional scales. This effort builds upon an existing systematic map on linkages between conservation and human well-being in order to make this process more efficient. We will conduct a refined and updated search strategy pertinent to forests-poverty linkages to glean additional evidence from studies outside the scope of the original map. Results of this study can be used for informing conservation and development policy and practices in global forest ecosystems and highlight evidence gaps where future primary studies and systematic reviews can add value.MethodsWe build upon the search strategy outlined in McKinnon et al. (Environ Evid 1–25, 2016) and expand our search to cover a total of 7 bibliographic databases, 15 organizational websites, 8 existing systematic reviews and maps, and evidence gap maps, and solicit key informants. All searches will be conducted in English and encompass all nations. Search results will be screened at title, abstract, and full text levels, recording both the number of excluded articles and reasons for exclusion. Full text assessment will be conducted on all included article and extracted data will be reported in a narrative review that will summarize trends in the evidence, report any knowledge gaps and gluts, and provide insight for policy, practice and future research. The data from this systematic map will be made available as well, through an open access, searchable data portal and visualization tool.

BackgroundTropical coral reefs cover ca. 0.1% of the Earth’s surface but host an outstanding biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services to millions of people living nearby. However, they are currently threatened by both local (e.g. nutrient enrichment and chemical pollution of coastal reefs, arising from poor land management, agriculture and industry) and global stressors (mainly seawater warming and acidification, i.e. climate change). Global and local stressors interact together in different ways, but the presence of one stressor often reduces the tolerance to additional stress. While global stressors cannot be halted by local actions, local stressors can be reduced through ecosystem management, therefore minimizing the impact of climate change on reefs. To inform decision-makers, we propose here to systematically map the evidence of impacts of chemicals arising from anthropogenic activities on tropical reef-building corals, which are the main engineer species of reef ecosystems. We aim to identify the combinations of chemical and coral responses that have attracted the most attention and for which evidence can be further summarized in a systematic review that will give practical information to decision-makers.MethodsThe systematic map will follow the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence Guidelines and Standards for Evidence Synthesis in Environmental Management. We will search the relevant literature using English terms combined in a tested search string in two publication databases (Web Of Science Core Collection and Scopus). The search string will combine terms describing the population (tropical reef-building corals) and the exposure (chemicals). We will supplement this literature with some more obtained through search engines, specialist websites, and through a call to local stakeholders. Titles, abstracts, and full-texts will then be successively screened using pre-defined eligibility criteria. A list of pre-defined variables will then be extracted from full-texts. Finally, a database of all studies included in the map with coded metadata will be produced. The evidence will be described in a map report with text, figures and tables, and a matrix showing the distribution and frequency of included study into types of exposure and types of outcomes will be computed to identify potential knowledge gaps and knowledge clusters.

In recent years, researchers have increasingly recognized the need to bridge Western and Indigenous knowledge systems to strengthen research in wildlife conservation. Historically, this arena has not made space for Indigenous knowledge holders to share components of their knowledge systems with agency and to support their own self‐determination as equal partners. Since time immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have been developing, maintaining and refining their own knowledge systems, based on intimate knowledge and relationships with the lands, airs, and waterways. There remains enormous potential for Western scientists to engage in equitable knowledge exchange and co‐production with Indigenous Peoples. This applies to species such as boreal caribou Rangifer tarandus caribou, known by the Dene name, tǫdzı; which hold ecological value and cultural importance for both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people in the boreal region of Canada. To gain an overarching perspective of this species, we will create a systematic literature map that will examine peer‐reviewed and grey literature involving spatial mapping of all species of caribou Rangifer tarandus based on Indigenous knowledge. This map will (a) characterize available data and previously engaged knowledge holders and (b) identify positive experiences that exemplify best practices for knowledge co‐production. Searches will be conducted in English in selected databases. Search strings will be tested against a collection of benchmark papers of documents previously chosen to determine strings with maximum sensitivity and specificity. Results will be reviewed through the: (1) title and abstract; and (2) full text. All screening decisions will be recorded in a database, with 10% of full‐text screening decisions validated. Items retained for inclusion in the systematic map will be coded using a list of coding questions. Ten percent of coding outcomes will be validated by a second reviewer. The systematic map will employ a narrative synthesis approach that will compare retained studies against a list of best practices from the current proposal. It will examine case studies that performed well according to the list and contribute to a repository of previously documented Indigenous knowledge about caribou to support projects involving Indigenous and Western knowledge co‐production.