Ecological network analysis of growing tomatoes in an urban rooftop greenhouse

Abstract

Urban agriculture has emerged as an alternative to conventional rural agriculture seeking to foster a sustainable circular economy in cities. When considering the feasibility of urban agriculture and planning for the future of food production and energy, it is important to understand the relationships between energy flows throughout the system, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and make suggestions to optimize the system. To address this need, we analyzed the energy flows for growing tomatoes at a rooftop greenhouse (RTG). We used life cycle assessment (LCA) to identify the flows within the supply chain. We further analyzed these flows using ecological network analysis (ENA), which allowed a comparison of the industrial system to natural systems. Going beyond LCA, ENA also allowed us to focus more on the relationships between components. Similar to existing ENA studies on urban metabolism, our results showed that the RTG does not mimic the perfect pyramidal structure found in natural ecosystems due to the system's dependency on fossil fuels throughout the supply chain and each industry's significant impact on wasted energy. However, it was discovered that the RTG has strong foundational relationships in its industries, demonstrating overall positive utility; this foundation can be improved by using more renewable energy and increasing the recycling rates throughout the supply chain, which will in turn improve the hierarchy of energy flows and overall energy consumption performance of the system.

Features and Functions of Multifunctional Urban Agriculture in the Global North: A Review

“…With reference to the urban energy balance, the distribution and presence of green infrastructures throughout the urban fabric may significantly reduce the so-called urban heat island effect, both resulting in improved city liveability and reduced heat associated mortality during warmer seasons (Qiu et al, 2013). On a smaller scale, when building-integrated agriculture takes place (e.g., in rooftop greenhouses), an integrated building metabolism was shown to improve water, energy and carbon fluxes, while also supplying a range of ES (Piezer et al, 2019).…”

Circular economy in Latin America: A systematic literature review

“…Another topic that marked some trend in this documentary review in this last period of time is la bioengineering, which is related to the applicability of engineering tools to technical solutions to different biological problem areas, such as nitrogen removal and recovery integrated in wastewater treatment systems (Lin, Guo, Shah, & Stuckey, 2016), the challenge of finding a substitute for chlorinated products that meet all sustainability criteria in the extraction of bituminous binder from mineral matter in asphalt mix in the road industry (Ziyani, Boulangé, Nicolaï, & Mouillet, 2017), generation of high value‐added products from lignocellulose as a suitable alternative to petroleum resources in terms of environmental preservation, sustainability (Piezer et al, 2019) and CE (Cubas‐Cano, González‐Fernández, Ballesteros, & Tomás‐Pejó, 2018), or how the bio‐refinery can be used to obtain high‐value products from organic waste such as ground coffee (Mata, Martins, & Caetano, 2018).…”

“…Of the rest of the articles (31), 12 articles deal with an individual topic, three bioeconomics, and waste management, and with two articles, the topics of barriers to CE and effectiveness of CE, which were also addressed in the numeral of concepts and barriers to a CE. The 12 articles of individual topics mark a trend towards the variability of the concept as such of CE, and within the different topics addressed, all in group are part of the CE, climate change (COP 21, 2015), efficiency (Haas et al, 2016), resource management (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2016), sustainability (CEPAL, 2016), cycle of life (Rigamonti, Falbo, Zampori, & Sala, 2017), urban agriculture (Piezer et al, 2019), from cradle to cradle (Diani, Pievatolo, Colledani, & Lanzarone, 2019), ecodesign (Mendoza, Gallego‐Schmid, Schmidt Rivera, Rieradevall, & Azapagic, 2019), material management (Akanbi et al, 2019), models of business (Pieroni, McAloone, & Pigosso, 2019), circular integration (Walmsley et al, 2019), and energy policies (Millward‐Hopkins & Purnell, 2019).…”

“…Of the rest of the articles (31), 12 articles deal with an individual topic, three bioeconomics, and waste management, and with two articles, the topics of barriers to CE and effectiveness of CE, which were also addressed in the numeral of concepts and barriers to a CE. The 12 articles of individual topics mark a trend towards the variability of the concept as such of CE, and within the different topics addressed, all in group are part of the CE, climate change (COP 21, 2015), efficiency (Haas et al, 2016), resource management (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2016), sustainability (CEPAL, 2016), cycle of life (Rigamonti, Falbo, Zampori, & Sala, 2017), urban agriculture (Piezer et al, 2019), from cradle to cradle (Diani, Pievatolo, Colledani, & Lanzarone, 2019), ecodesign (Mendoza, Gallego-Schmid, Schmidt Rivera, Rieradevall, & Azapagic, 2019), material management (Akanbi et al, 2019), models of business (Pieroni, McAloone, & Pigosso, 2019), circular integration (Walmsley et al, 2019), and energy policies Finally, as an exercise to compare the most common topics with respect to the individual or less than four articles which were grouped, it could be observed that searching as such for the definition or concept of CE, independently of the search methodology, conceptual variability diverts the object of the search towards its conceptual derivations framed in the functioning or applicability of its principles and its own definitions mainly and not, as a complex or conceptual whole Figure 5, which definitively suggests that a definition as such is not completely determined, let alone standardized or homogenized.…”

Tools for Edible Cities: A Review of Tools for Planning and Assessing Edible Nature-Based Solutions

“…Like NBS, eNBS have great potential to provide a series of co-benefits (e.g., wellbeing and biodiversity) enhancing the natural capital and management of urban resources but with a focus on the food system. This concerns mainly water, nutrients, and energy and can contribute to a more circular urban metabolism and circular economy principles [21].…”