Allotment gardens provide cooling benefits to residents of European cities

The inhabitants of European cities are increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change. Urban design choices impact the phenomenon of urban heat islands (UHI) - higher temperatures in urban areas compared with surrounding rural zones. European cities are particularly vulnerable to UHI due to high population density, infrastructure concentration, an ageing population and increasing heatwave frequency and intensity. There is therefore an urgent need to mitigate UHIs through urban planning policy and climate adaptation strategies. The cooling role of blue-green infrastructure (urban networks of waterways and green spaces) has been demonstrated, but the role of urban agriculture, and allotments in particular, is less well studied.

A recent large-scale spatial study of urban agriculture in Europe explored the cooling impacts of allotments in European cities. To better understand allotments' impacts, the researchers looked at the area cooled, maximum cooling distance and intensity, the number of people benefitting from cooling, the difference between urban and peri-urban agriculture, and other spatial factors.

The study area comprised 682 of the 929 European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs, which each comprise a city and its commuting zone) and used data from the 2020 and 2021 Urban Audits of quality of life indicators developed by Eurostat and local and national authorities (now known as 'City data collection'). Only FUAs containing allotments and meeting certain thermal data criteria were included.

The method followed five key steps. First, the average land surface temperature (LST) from 2019 to 2024 was calculated to assess the cooling potential of allotments. Second, allotments in individual FUAs were identified to create a dataset for comparison with temperature data from step 1. Third, the ability of allotments to cool surrounding urban areas was evaluated by integrating spatial analyses of temperature (step 1) and allotment locations (step 2). Fourth, allotments were categorised based upon their integration within larger blue-green infrastructure and the organisation of the cooled urban area, to standardise comparisons between FUAs. Finally, population spatial distributions were overlaid onto the cooled areas to estimate the number of people benefiting from the cooling potential of allotments.

The study used Google Earth Engine to provide LST data, using standardised criteria, and OpenStreetMap land cover data to identify allotments. The Local Climate Zones (LCZ) framework from the World Urban Database Global LCZ Map was applied for comparison across FUAs.

The main findings of the study were that:

• allotments in Europe are estimated to cool the area inhabited by approximately 4.1 million people;
• each square kilometre of allotments cools an estimated average of 8,221 people;
• on average, the area cooled is approximately 2.8 times the area of the allotment;
  
• the cooling effect of allotments is felt a maximum of 106.8 metres away;
• within the cooled area, temperatures are reduced by 2.84°C; and
• urban agriculture has a greater cooling efficiency (23%) than agriculture on the outskirts of cities ('peri-urban agriculture'). Cooling efficiency was calculated as the ratio of 'cooled area' to 'allotment area'.

Only 5% of allotments within FUAs were found in areas with the highest heat risk. 43% were integrated into other blue-green infrastructure that could enhance the cooling effect. However, standalone allotments showed a cooling efficiency similar to allotments strengthened by infrastructure.

In terms of the current distribution of allotments across Europe, the researchers point out that although the greatest concentration of allotments is in Central and Eastern Europe, this does not reflect where the greatest cooling efficiency is observed. The cities where allotments are estimated to have the highest cooling efficiency are in Benelux, western Germany, northern Italy and parts of Spain. The research finds this is due to a higher number of allotments near densely populated areas and smaller allotment sizes, which allows for wider allotment dispersal throughout cities.

The authors recommend that spatial policies should prioritise locating smaller allotments in city centres, to enhance heat resilience in densely populated cities and their surrounding commuting zones. The authors propose a set of indicators that could be used to inform policymaking, to identify where allotments would contribute most to UHI mitigation.

Reference:

Budzik, G., Sylla, M. and Schulp, C.J.E. (2026) Cooling benefits of Urban agriculture to inhabitants-mapping cooling potential of allotments in European functional urban areas. Journal of Environmental Management, 397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128275