Environmental assessment of an integrated rooftop greenhouse for food production in cities

Sanjuan-Delmás, David; Llorach-Massana, Pere; Nadal, Ana; Ercilla-Montserrat, Mireia; Muñoz, Pere; Montero, J.I.; Josa, Alejandro; Gabarrell, Xavier; Rieradevall, Joan

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.147

Cited by 124 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In terms of crop efficiency, the integrated rooftop greenhouse (T6) enlarges the crop period for summer products (e.g., tomatoes), as the location of the greenhouse on the top of a building and the use of the building's residual heat for the greenhouse ensures viable year-round temperatures for producing the crop without additional energy input [35]. Furthermore, the integrated rooftop greenhouse (T6) employs rainwater harvested on the roof of the building to satisfy the water demand of the crop [29]. Regarding water efficiency, the two aquaponics case studies (T3 and T4) are also an example of a novelty that boosts water efficiency by combining the water flow for two systems, i.e., crop production and aquaculture, thereby decreasing the overall water demand of the two systems [30,50].…”

Section: Delving Into the Most Common Novelties In Uamentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities

et al. 2019

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Compared to rural agriculture, urban agriculture (UA) has some distinct features (e.g., the limited land access, alternative growing media, unique legal environments or the non-production-related missions) that encourage the development of new practices, i.e., "novelties" or "innovations". This paper aims to (1) identify the "triggers" for novelty production in UA;(2) characterize the different kinds of novelties applied in UA; (3) evaluate the "innovativeness" of those social, environmental and economic novelties; and, (4) estimate the links between novelties and sustainability. The study was based on the evaluation of 11 case studies in four Western European countries (Italy, Germany, France and Spain). The results show that the trigger and origin of new activities can often be traced back to specific problems that initiators were intended to address or solve. In total, we found 147 novelties produced in the 11 case studies. More novelties are produced in the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability than in the economic. In most cases, external stakeholders played an important role in supporting the projects. The analysis further suggests that innovativeness enhances the overall sustainability in urban agriculture projects.Goldstein et al. [7] defined UA as follows: "Most broadly, urban agriculture refers to growing and raising food crops and animals in an urban setting for the purpose of feeding local populations." Guided by this definition, we focus our research on this type of agricultural or horticultural production that is taking place either within the city or in very close proximity to it. UA as an InnovationDespite the early origin of UA in cities, it has often been considered an "innovative" way to address current urban problems. Therefore, this raises the following question: If UA is not new, why is it so often considered innovative? Pfeiffer et al. [8] indicated that many aspects of urban agricultural production are indeed very similar to those of small-scale rural farms and not entirely new, while other factors set UA apart from traditional agricultural operations. In their study, Pfeiffer et al. also described the distinct features of UA, such as the limited and nontraditional land access, the usage of urban soils and alternative growing media, the unique legal and political environments, the non-production-related missions, and the involvement of nontraditional farmers, which force the development of new practices. Prain and De Zeeuw [9] confirmed and complemented those findings by elaborating that the key factors for innovation in UA are those factors, such as multiple livelihood strategies, lower community cohesion, fewer possibilities for integrated agriculture, and quick market access, which differentiate urban from rural agriculture. They identified a direct correlation between urban settings and innovation processes in UA. Those specific conditions and characteristics drive urban operations to develop unique new practices adapted to the urban context.

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Section: Delving Into the Most Common Novelties In Uamentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities

et al. 2019

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“…To date, most of these studies have focused on the quantification of the environmental impact of urban agriculture case studies, whereas the literature on social and economic sustainability studies is still limited. The quantification of environmental sustainability has been performed for multiple studies, from the system to the national level, paying particular attention to the comparison with conventional food production [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint methods have been employed most frequently in these studies.…”

Section: Quantifying the Sustainability Of Ufpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results depended mostly on the type of UFP and the geographical location. Studies in warm climate areas highlighted the efficiency of UFP cases and the potential environmental benefits from minimizing the distance between producers and consumers (i.e., reduced transport, packaging and food losses) [16,17,21,45,50]. On the contrary, studies in mild climate cities found that the UFP typology and the productivity of the system would determine whether UFP has environmental benefits compared to conventional food systems [18,31].…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the Sustainability Concept of Urban Food Production from a Stakeholders’ Perspective

Sanyé‐Mengual¹,

Orsini²,

Gianquinto³

2018

Sustainability

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Urban Food Production (UFP) initiatives are expanding worldwide to enhance urban food production while contributing to the development of sustainable cities in a three-bottom perspective (environment, society, economy). Although the sustainability aspects of UFS have been addressed in the literature, there is a need to set a sustainability framework for UFP based on the concepts and the understanding of the stakeholders as a basis for quantifying their sustainability and for developing effective policy-making. This paper evaluates the concepts of the UFP sustainability from a stakeholders' perspective through participatory methods and network analyses. Two different workshops were organized in the city of Bologna (Italy), where mind-mapping exercises to define the environmental, economic and social sustainability elements of UFP were performed. This bottom-up approach unveiled a comprehensive and complex vision of sustainable UFP, the relevance of certain sustainability elements and key aspects to take into consideration for the development of UFP and effective policy-making. The existence of bidimensional and tridimensional concepts indicated priorities, synergies and trade-offs among the dimensions of sustainability. The multi-scalar nature of UFP suggested that specific policies can be supported by global schemes (e.g., Sustainable Development Goals) and that UFP can be a local tool for democracy and equity at lower scales.

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“…These existing RTGs are constructed on roofs that are isolated from buildings. However, this kind of RTG can also be integrated (i-RTG) into a building, using the residual hot and cold air supplied by the building to provide an optimum range of temperatures for the crops and even using the greywater or rainwater collected in or on the building for irrigating the crops (Cer on- Palma et al, 2011;Nadal et al, 2017;Pons et al, 2015;Sanjuan-Delm as et al, 2018).…”

Section: Urban Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

A study on air quality and heavy metals content of urban food produced in a Mediterranean city (Barcelona)

Ercilla-Montserrat

Muñoz

Montero

et al. 2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

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a b s t r a c tUrban agriculture is growing in cities and is rising to the roofs of buildings. The potential food contamination is a key issue to be resolved to guarantee the health of consumers, and it affects both urban agriculture promoters and consumers. Crop contamination from the soil can be overcome by adopting a soilless cultivation system that, with good management practices, can also avoid contamination from the fertirrigation system and pest treatments. It has recently increased the number of soilless cultivation systems in cities due to the good features it offers. This study focuses on the potential contamination of heavy metals in hydroponic lettuce crops due to atmospheric pollution in high-traffic areas. The contents of heavy metal in the air and the lettuce leaves were measured at 4 sites: a periurbanintegrated rooftop greenhouse, a periurban rooftop, an urban courtyard and an urban rooftop. Highvolume sensors were used to assess air contamination. Lettuce leaves were analysed to evaluate the heavy metal concentrations.The results show that the heavy metal concentration in lettuce leaves is also below the EU-legislated limit in all studied cases. Specifically, the concentrations below the detectable analytic values were <0.02 mgNi/kg, <0.008 mgHg/kg, 0.005mgAs/kg and <0.005 mgCd/kg. The Pb concentration ranged from 0.0060 mg/kg to 0.0244 mg/kg. Although the chosen sampling locations were close to high-density roads and they are more vulnerable to a high concentration of metals, in the 4 sampling points heavy metal concentration in the air were less than 50% of the limits established in the legislation as the lower assessment threshold. This study concludes that the heavy metal content in the air of Barcelona is low and is not a source of contamination for urban crops including high traffic areas.

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Environmental assessment of an integrated rooftop greenhouse for food production in cities

Cited by 124 publications

References 31 publications

How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities

How Can Innovation in Urban Agriculture Contribute to Sustainability? A Characterization and Evaluation Study from Five Western European Cities

Revisiting the Sustainability Concept of Urban Food Production from a Stakeholders’ Perspective

A study on air quality and heavy metals content of urban food produced in a Mediterranean city (Barcelona)

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