Nature-Based Solutions for Agriculture in Circular Cities: Challenges, Gaps, and Opportunities

Canet-Martí, Alba; Pineda-Martos, Rocío; Junge, Ranka; Bohn, Katrin; Paço, Teresa A.; Delgado, Cecília; Alenčikienė, Gitana; Skar, Siv Lene Gangenes; Baganz, Gösta F. M.

doi:10.3390/w13182565

Cited by 24 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(207 reference statements)

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“…UA is compatible with the proposals of the circular economy movement [38], where the optimization of processes based on durable, recyclable, and renewable resources is prioritized. Thus, models that integrate food production with organic waste management have a high potential to encourage the reuse of nutrients and the development of byproducts.…”

Section: Urban Agriculture As a Sustainable Actionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review

Bennedetti

Sinisgalli

Ferreira

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Urban agriculture (UA) can be used as an action to promote sustainability in cities and inform public health policies for urban populations. Despite this growing recognition, its implementation still presents challenges in countries in the Global North and Global South. Background: In this context, this systematic review aims to identify the development of frameworks for the implementation of UA as a sustainable action and its main opportunities and shortcomings in meeting urban socio-environmental demands. Methods: In this review, using the PRISMA protocol, we evaluated 26 studies on the interplay between UA and sustainability surveyed on the Web of Science to provide an overview of the state of the art. Conclusions: In summary, it was possible to identify many key challenges in UA adoption, which regard air and soil contamination, availability of green areas, layout of urban infrastructure, food distribution, among others. Due to numerous socio-economic and environmental contextual factors in cities, especially when comparing realities of the Global North and Global South, there is a need to develop a model that can be adaptable to these different contexts. Thus, it is recognized that the concept of sustainability does not present a universal understanding and that in its search it could be argued that one of the most important gaps is still to address social issues in relation to environmental ones.

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Section: Urban Agriculture As a Sustainable Actionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review

Bennedetti

Sinisgalli

Ferreira

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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“…For the further removal of specific pollutants, TWs can be combined with activated carbon units, advanced oxidation processes, and membranes. The reclaimed water can be used for the irrigation or fertigation of street trees and urban parks (NBS 39,40,41), urban agriculture (NBS 47, 49, 51) [37], or any other unit to cover water needs.…”

Section: Connected Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

Hullebusch

Bani

Carvalho³

et al. 2021

Water

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Cities are producers of high quantities of secondary liquid and solid streams that are still poorly utilized within urban systems. In order to tackle this issue, there has been an ever-growing push for more efficient resource management and waste prevention in urban areas, following the concept of a circular economy. This review paper provides a characterization of urban solid and liquid resource flows (including water, nutrients, metals, potential energy, and organics), which pass through selected nature-based solutions (NBS) and supporting units (SU), expanding on that characterization through the study of existing cases. In particular, this paper presents the currently implemented NBS units for resource recovery, the applicable solid and liquid urban waste streams and the SU dedicated to increasing the quality and minimizing hazards of specific streams at the source level (e.g., concentrated fertilizers, disinfected recovered products). The recovery efficiency of systems, where NBS and SU are combined, operated at a micro- or meso-scale and applied at technology readiness levels higher than 5, is reviewed. The importance of collection and transport infrastructure, treatment and recovery technology, and (urban) agricultural or urban green reuse on the quantity and quality of input and output materials are discussed, also regarding the current main circularity and application challenges.

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“…Thus, cities will expand at the expense of agricultural land [3], causing the abandonment of productive areas [4]. This transition will require cities to be more sustainable, reuse natural resources, and adapt their infrastructure systems [5,6]. Until now, urban planning focused electricity, water and other infrastructure supplies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lettuce Production under Mini-PV Modules Arranged in Patterned Designs

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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The growing need for clean energy and food production are favoring the use of underused spaces, such as rooftops. This study aims to demonstrate the compatibility of the use of rooftops both for the production of photovoltaic energy and for the production of food, despite the fact that both compete for the same resource, sunlight (rooftop agrivoltaic). In the experiment reported in this study, which was carried out in Almería (Spain) during the spring and summer of 2021, three shade treatments were tested for a lettuce crop, produced by photovoltaic modules with different arrangements: concentrated shade (CS), scattered shade (SS) and full sun (FS). This experiment was repeated in two seasons with high radiation levels and temperature. The results show that in these environmental conditions, the cultivation of plants that demand little sunlight, such as lettuce, is compatible with the shading produced by photovoltaic panels. In addition, it is shown that the same percentage of the area covered with shade (22%), but using mini-PV modules arranged in patterns, improves the productivity (fresh weight, dry matter, number of leaves, maximum length and dry matter of roots) of lettuce cultivation, both in spring and summer.

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Nature-Based Solutions for Agriculture in Circular Cities: Challenges, Gaps, and Opportunities

Cited by 24 publications

References 79 publications

Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review

Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review

Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

Lettuce Production under Mini-PV Modules Arranged in Patterned Designs

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