Life cycle assessment of a micro aquaponic system for educational purposes built using recovered material

Maucieri, Carmelo; Forchino, Andrea Alberto; Nicoletto, Carlo; Junge, Ranka; Pastres, Roberto; Sambo, Paolo; Borin, Maurizio

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.097

Cited by 56 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…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]. Finally, Forchino et al [44] and Maucieri et al [22] investigated the environmental impacts of aquaponics, where the production of fish and vegetables are integrated, paying attention to different production techniques [44] as well as the potential use of aquaponics as an educational tool [22]. On the other hand, Grard et al [47] quantified the ecosystem services provided by rooftop gardens that use organic waste flow from the city as a substrate, thereby improving urban metabolism and enhancing the local circular economy.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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%

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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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Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Quantifying the Sustainability Of Ufpmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sanyé‐Mengual¹,

Orsini²,

Gianquinto³

2018

Sustainability

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“…A comprehensive framework and a classification system is needed in that respect. One possible classification was suggested by Maucieri et al [11], based on different design principles: main stakeholder, size, operational mode of the aquaculture compartment (RAS, flow through), water cycle management (coupled, de-coupled), water type, type of implemented hydroponic system and the use of space.…”

Section: Defining Types Of Aquaponicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Points in Aquaponics

Junge

König²,

Villarroel

et al. 2017

Water

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118

102

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Global environmental, social and economic challenges drive the need for new and improved solutions for food production and consumption. Food production within a sustainability corridor requires innovations exceeding traditional paradigms, acknowledging the complexity arising from sustainability. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how to direct further activities, to develop technologies as potential solutions for questions related to climate change, loss of soil fertility and biodiversity, scarcity of resources, and shortage of drinking water. One approach that promises to address these problems is controlled environment agriculture. Aquaponics (AP) combines two technologies: recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) and hydroponics (plant production in water, without soil) in a closed-loop system. One challenge to the development of this technology is the conversion of the toxic ammonium produced by the fish into nitrate, via bacteria in a biofilter, to provide nitrogen to the plants. However, as this Special Issue shows, there are many other challenges that need to be addressed if the goal of the technology is to contribute to more sustainable food production systems.

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“…Increasing the water flow caused lower lettuce production and fish FCR and higher total fish weight gain and protein efficiency ratio (PER). Although Dediu et al (2012) used a micro AP system, the data obtained were in line with bigger AP systems, indicating, as confirmed by Maucieri et al (2018), that micro AP systems reliably mimic fullscale units.…”

Section: Effects Of Water Recirculation Periodmentioning

confidence: 81%

Hydroponic systems and water management in aquaponics: a review

et al. 2017

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Aquaponics (AP), the integrated multi-trophic fish and plants production in quasi-closed recirculating system, is one of the newest sustainable food production systems. The hydroponic component of the AP directly influences water quality (in turn influencing fish growth and health), and water consumption (through evapotranspiration) of the entire system. In order to assess the role of the design and the management of the hydroponic component on the overall performance, and water consumption of the aquaponics, 122 papers published from 1979 to 2017 were reviewed. Although no unequivocal results were found, the nutrient film technique appears in several aspects less efficient than medium-based or floating raft hydroponics. The best system performance in terms of fish and plant growth, and the highest nutrient removal from water was achieved at water flow between 0.8 L min -1 and 8.0 L min -1 . Data on water consumption of aquaponics are scarce, and no correlation between the ratio of hydroponic unit surface/fish tank volume and the system water loss was found. However, daily water loss was positively correlated with the hydroponic surface/fish tank volume ratio if the same experimental conditions and/or systems were compared. The plant species grown in hydroponics influenced the daily water loss in aquaponics, whereas no effect was exerted by the water flow (reciprocating flood/drain cycle or constant flow) or type (medium-based, floating or nutrient film technique) of hydroponics.

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Life cycle assessment of a micro aquaponic system for educational purposes built using recovered material

Cited by 56 publications

References 47 publications

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

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

Strategic Points in Aquaponics

Hydroponic systems and water management in aquaponics: a review

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