Current and Past Research

The Urban Farm has been supporting research since 2016, officially becoming a Living Lab in 2019 to better support and integrate research projects and priorities into our day-to-day operations.
Current projects
Goals |
This initiative supports faculty and students through teaching, learning and research-creation projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Natural dyes and fibres derived from plants have profound potential for understanding ecological, historical, social, cultural and artistic knowledge of human, plant and community relations. In particular, the Urban Farm offers a compelling context of the natural to the built environment. Plants include Indigo, Madder, Dyer's, Chamomile, Woad and Hopi Sunflower, and are foraged for courses including the Natural Dye Workshop and available to upper-level students in Fashion Capstone and MA Fashion. |
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Principal investigators |
Rachel MacHenry (MA) and Joseph Medaglia (MA) |
Project duration |
May 2022 - Ongoing |
Goals |
To install a meteorological station on the roof of the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre to monitor temperature, precipitation, wind speed/direction, humidity, and certain types of solar radiation; to use data as a teaching tool and for other research purposes. |
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Principal investigator |
Prof. Claire Oswald (PhD) |
Project duration |
August 2020 - Ongoing |
Goals |
Currently, the excess irrigation and stormwater from the Urban Farm at TMU's blue-green roof that is not held within the growing media (green) or retention layer (blue) of the roof drains into the municipal drainage system. Although investigations over the last two years indicate that the blue-green roof significantly reduces runoff, irrigation using chlorinated municipal water is required in prolonged dry periods, and nutrients from the soil substrate are likely wasted during the runoff process. This study aims to implement and investigate a blue-green roof water recirculation system for irrigating the cultivated crops on rooftop farms, adopting the strategy to further close the water cycle. |
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Principal investigators |
Afsana Alam Akhie (BSc) Dr. Darko Joksimovic (PhD) |
Project duration |
April 2023 - October 2023 |
Goals |
As part of the "Toward Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture for Net-zero Food Systems" (TOsustain) program at the University of Toronto Scarborough, our goal is to assess the state of pollinators. To do this, we will use passive nest boxes at the side of the site and check on them periodically. This will be done by placing two nest boxes that are 30cm x 10cm in size at each site to recruit cavity nesting pollinators. Sampling is passive and would not disturb any of the on-farm activities. Nest boxes would be placed in the farm at the end of May until the end of September. |
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Principal investigators |
Professor Scott MacIvor |
Project duration |
2025 - 2027 |
Goals |
As part of the "Toward Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture for Net-zero Food Systems" (TOsustain) program at the University of Toronto Scarborough, our research goal is to determine the level of crop diversity on urban farms. To do this, we plan to survey the diversity of crops being grown in urban farms throughout the GTA. We would like to count the number of crops in a 2-by-2-m sampling square randomly across your farm. We will use a high-resolution camera to image each sampling square. In each sampling location, we will also select individuals of each crop species and measure crop photosynthesis and water-use efficiency and collect a leaf at each plant. For this survey research, we will leave (temporarily) a small flag denoting the site of each survey location for future visits. |
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Principal investigators |
Professors Adam Martin and Marney Isaac |
Project duration |
2025 - 2027 |
Goals |
As part of the "Toward Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture for Net-zero Food Systems" (TOsustain) program at the University of Toronto Scarborough, our research goal is to estimate soil carbon storage potential for climate change mitigation and enhanced soil health. To do this, we would like to take soil carbon dioxide measurements from your farm. This will require 3 visits (in late May, June and July) where we will set up a soil chamber (about 20cm diameter) on the soil surface and take a measurement with a gas analyzer. This will be done at 6 locations at the farm. We will also take a small bag of soil to a depth of about 10cm. This will not disturb any plants growing nearby. We will use these samples to determine carbon storage. |
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Principal investigators |
Professor Marney Isaac |
Project duration |
2025 - 2027 |
Past projects
Goals |
The Design Fabrication Zone partnered with the Urban Farm for a second time to present the 2024 Creative in Residence program. Inspired by this year’s theme of Wind Rose, Cookie Burnell’s 3 month residency delved into the concept of growth as a dynamic force in nature and technology. Through their explorations in post-human circuits, Cookie’s work challenged the capitalist interpretations of growth that lead to environmental and social issues, instead exploring natural processes like decay and symbiosis. The residency culminated in Rare Access Point, an exhibit inside the DCC greenhouse that incorporated plant residues from the Urban Farm into wind-theme sculptures and interactive installations, ultimately engaging participants into conversation around decolonial approaches to technology and sustainability. |
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Principal investigators |
Krystyne Kontos, Emily Allan |
Artist | Cookie Brunel |
Project duration |
May 2024 - November 2024 |
Creative in Residence
Goals |
The Design Fabrication Zone partnered with the Urban Farm to present the 2023 Creative in Residence program, reflecting on the Urban Farm ecosystem as a site for creative intervention, looking to the curatorial theme of ‘decay’ as a transformative and sustaining force that fosters creativity. Over the course of 3 months the artist was guided by this theme to produce an art installation, featuring organic and inorganic waste materials from the Urban Farm, exhibited inside the greenhouse of the DCC rooftop. |
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Principal investigators |
Ashley Lewis, Krystyne Kontos, Emily Allan |
Artist | Alyssa Alikpala |
Project duration |
May 2023 - November 2023 |
Goals |
Identify the most productive varieties of fava beans across different farms in Ontario. |
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Principal investigators |
Michelle Dang, Ines Lacarne, and Sharene Shafie, (Urban Farm at TMU), Martina Schaefer (Spiral Veg Farm), Leslie Moskovits (Cedar Down Farm), Micheline Lalonde (Avling Rooftop Farm) and the Ecological Farmers' Association of Ontario (external link) . |
Project duration |
April 2022 - October 2022 |
Goals |
Natural dyes are a way to experience ecological, historical, social cultural and artistics understandings of human, plan, land, community and ancestral relations. This pilot-led, research-creation project grows several nature dye plant species at the Urban Farm Living Lab for teaching, learning, research and creative activity. |
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Principal investigators |
Joseph Medaglia (MA) and the Natural Dye Network in Northeast America (external link) . |
Project duration |
May 2022 - October 2022 |
Goals |
To investigate the performance of low-cost sensors and sensor networks for continuous and real-time monitoring of a productive green roof and gain a better understanding of rooftop hydrologic and thermal benefits analysis, including supervision of plant growth and temperature. |
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Principal investigators |
Afsana Alam Akhie (BSc) Dr. Darko Joksimovic (PhD) |
Project duration |
April 2022 - October 2022 |
Goals |
To compare the ecosystem services, such as the ability to mitigate urban heat island and the potential to manage stormwater, of a rooftop farm, a green roof and a conventional roof. |
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Final report | Hydrologic and Thermal Performance of a Full-Scale Farmed Blue-Green Roof (external link) |
Principal investigators |
Tamer Almaaitah (MSc), Dr. Darko Joksimovic (PhD) |
Project duration |
August 2020 - December 2021 |
Goals | This study aimed to find out whether adding biochar to an engineered green roof soil blend would ameliorate the soil in order to successfully grow spray-free vegetables. |
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Final report | Using biochar as an amendment for engineered green roof soil blend (external link) |
Principal investigator | Michelle Dang (Molecular Science (MSc) students and graduate research farm assistant), Ines Lacarne (Urban Farm lead field assistant) and the Ecological Farmers' Association of Ontario (external link) |
Project duration | March 2021 - November 2021 |
Goals | To monitor evapotranspiration, test various growing medium amendments and irrigation in test beds using varied green roof technology assembly. |
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Final report | Addressing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus through Enhanced Green Roof Performance (external link) |
Principal investigator | Prof. Kristiina Mai (PhD) |
Research assistants | Jeremy Lytle (BEng), Luzalen Marcos (BEng), Devon Santillo (BEng) and Jeremy Wright (BEng) |
Project duration | 2020 to 2021 |
Goals | Monitoring irrigation usage, water flow sensors, wireless soil sensors. |
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Principal investigator | Prof. Kristiina Mai (PhD)
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Research assistants | Nabeel Ahmed (MES), Martin Fernandez (BEng), Pruthal Merchant (BEng), Devon Santillo (BEng), Bethany Santos (BEng) and Abigail Sy (BEng) |
Project duration | 2015 to 2019 |
Investigators | Prof. Kristiina Mai (PhD), Maleeka Batool (BEng), Dau Ekubor (BEng) and Rose Esfandi (BEng) |
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Completed | 2019 |
Final report | Indicators for Urban Agriculture in Toronto: A Scoping Analysis (external link) |
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Investigators | Paul Coleman, health research specialist with Toronto Food Strategy, Toronto Public Health; Rhonda Teitel-Payne, co-coordinator with Toronto Urban Growers |
Completed | December 2016 |
Investigators | Muhammad Ammar Khan (BEng, Department of Civil Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University) |
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Completed | 2016 |
Investigators | M. Nabeel Ahmed (MEng, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University) |
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Completed | 2016 |
Final report | Earthworm Populations in Agricultural Green Roofs and their Influence on Soil Nitrogen, Greater Toronto Area |
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Investigators | Caitlin Santos (MASc, Environmental Applied Science and Management, Toronto Metropolitan University) |
Completed | 2016 |
Investigators | Adrian Lue (MGeog, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto) |
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Completed | 2016 |