With the rapid growth of professional intra-urban agriculture (PIUA) projects in the Global North, sponsors, projects leaders, and experts developing these projects are seeking to evaluate their sustainability. As existing assessment tools are not adapted to PIUA projects, they establish their own assessment practices. Our study examines these practices to identify their original features, criteria, and indicators used. To this end, we analysed 19 case studies of different PIUA projects. We identified four dimensions underpinning sustainability assessment, namely, internal sustainability, external sustainability, the project leader’s credibility, and the innovative nature of the project. We also shed light on the wide diversity of the 67 assessment criteria identified, as well as the qualitative nature of 78% of indicators used. In addition, our study highlights that assessment practices evolve over time as the project progresses from ideation to implementation, according to the variety of assessment situations. Our study is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of PIUA stakeholders’ sustainability assessment practices and to shed light on their specific features. Our results afford a better understanding of the way the sustainability of PIUA projects is assessed and contribute to reflection on the design of a flexible assessment tool, considering the diverse criteria and practices used by stakeholders to assess the sustainability of PIUA.

随着全球北方专业城市内农业 (PIUA) 项目的快速增长，开发这些项目的赞助商、项目负责人和专家正在寻求评估其可持续性。由于现有的评估工具不适用于 PIUA 项目，他们建立了自己的评估实践。我们的研究检查了这些实践，以确定它们的原始特征、标准和使用的指标。为此，我们分析了 19 个不同 PIUA 项目的案例研究。我们确定了支撑可持续性评估的四个维度，即内部可持续性、外部可持续性、项目负责人的可信度和项目的创新性。我们还阐明了所确定的 67 项评估标准的广泛多样性，以及所用指标中 78% 的定性性质。此外，我们的研究强调，根据评估情况的多样性，随着项目从构思到实施的进展，评估实践会随着时间的推移而演变。我们的研究首次对 PIUA 利益相关者的可持续性评估实践进行了深入探索，并阐明了它们的具体特征。我们的结果更好地理解了 PIUA 项目的可持续性评估方式，并有助于反思灵活评估工具的设计，同时考虑利益相关者用于评估 PIUA 可持续性的不同标准和实践。我们的研究首次对 PIUA 利益相关者的可持续性评估实践进行了深入探索，并阐明了它们的具体特征。我们的结果更好地理解了 PIUA 项目的可持续性评估方式，并有助于反思灵活评估工具的设计，同时考虑利益相关者用于评估 PIUA 可持续性的不同标准和实践。我们的研究首次对 PIUA 利益相关者的可持续性评估实践进行了深入探索，并阐明了它们的具体特征。我们的结果更好地理解了 PIUA 项目的可持续性评估方式，并有助于反思灵活评估工具的设计，同时考虑利益相关者用于评估 PIUA 可持续性的不同标准和实践。