Putting rooftops to use – A Cost-Benefit Analysis of food production vs. energy generation under Mediterranean climates

Benis, Khadija; Turan, Irmak; Reinhart, Christoph; Ferrão, Paulo

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2018.02.011

Cited by 65 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In other studies, the need for certification standards to enable soil-less food production in the EU is expressed as well. Certification is, for example, mentioned as a measure to foster consumer trust and justify premium product prices [19,46,59].…”

Section: Economic Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technical feasibility is a common barrier for different innovative food production approaches, and might be a reason why some developments do not advance beyond prototypes [35]. That is why the sustainability of new approaches to urban agriculture is often just calculated in models [28,36,37] and existing studies on aquaponics, rooftop greenhouses, vertical and indoor farming focus on the technological feasibility, production-process optimization or lifecycle analysis [19,23,36,38].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Will We Eat and Produce in the Cities of the Future? From Edible Insects to Vertical Farming—A Study on the Perception and Acceptability of New Approaches

et al. 2019

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Global challenges such as climate change, increasing urbanization and a lack of transparency of food chains, have led to the development of innovative urban food production approaches, such as rooftop greenhouses, vertical farms, indoor farms, aquaponics as well as production sites for edible insects or micro-algae. Those approaches are still at an early stage of development and partly unknown among the public. The aim of our study was to identify the perception of sustainability, social acceptability and ethical aspects of these new approaches and products in urban food production. We conducted 19 qualitative expert interviews and applied qualitative content analysis. Our results revealed that major perceived benefits are educational effects, revaluation of city districts, efficient resource use, exploitation of new protein sources or strengthening of local economies. Major perceived conflicts concern negative side-effects, legal constraints or high investment costs. The extracted acceptance factors deal significantly with the "unknown". A lack of understanding of the new approaches, uncertainty about their benefits, concerns about health risks, a lack of familiarity with the food products, and ethical doubts about animal welfare represent possible barriers. We conclude that adaptation of the unsuitable regulatory framework, which discourages investors, is an important first step to foster dissemination of the urban food production approaches.

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Section: Economic Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Will We Eat and Produce in the Cities of the Future? From Edible Insects to Vertical Farming—A Study on the Perception and Acceptability of New Approaches

et al. 2019

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“…Other indicators can be added such as land use (Benis et al. ), ecosystem services (e.g., biodiversity and stormwater runoff), economic investment, and social benefits (e.g., social inclusion and employment creation) that have to be weighed along with their environmental implications to obtain a more holistic picture of sustainability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Orsini and colleagues () determined the great potential of rooftop food production in a city, and Sanyé‐Mengual and colleagues () environmentally and economically assessed the implementation of a rooftop greenhouse in a building. Benis and colleagues () analyzed food production versus photovoltaic (PV) energy generation on rooftops in a mixed‐use neighborhood. Armendariz‐Lopez and colleagues () and Cucchiella and Dadamo () estimated the life cycle cost (LCC) and the environmental performance of PV systems in different building roofs, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Productive Cities: Environmental Assessment of the Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus of the Urban Roof Mosaic

Toboso‐Chavero

Nadal

Petit‐Boix

et al. 2018

J of Industrial Ecology

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Summary Cities are rapidly growing and need to look for ways to optimize resource consumption. Metropolises are especially vulnerable in three main systems, often referred to as the FEW (i.e., food, energy, and water) nexus. In this context, urban rooftops are underutilized areas that might be used for the production of these resources. We developed the Roof Mosaic approach, which combines life cycle assessment with two rooftop guidelines, to analyze the technical feasibility and environmental implications of producing food and energy, and harvesting rainwater on rooftops through different combinations at different scales. To illustrate, we apply the Roof Mosaic approach to a densely populated neighborhood in a Mediterranean city. The building‐scale results show that integrating rainwater harvesting and food production would avoid relatively insignificant emissions (13.9–18.6 kg CO2 eq/inhabitant/year) in the use stage, but their construction would have low environmental impacts. In contrast, the application of energy systems (photovoltaic or solar thermal systems) combined with rainwater harvesting could potentially avoid higher CO2 eq emissions (177–196 kg CO2 eq/inhabitant/year) but generate higher environmental burdens in the construction phase. When applied at the neighborhood scale, the approach can be optimized to meet between 7% and 50% of FEW demands and avoid up to 157 tons CO2 eq/year. This approach is a useful guide to optimize the FEW nexus providing a range of options for the exploitation of rooftops at the local scale, which can aid cities in becoming self‐sufficient, optimizing resources, and reducing CO2 eq emissions.

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“…Nonetheless, important economic aspects of producing in rooftop greenhouses should be considered, as they may require special construction materials, components, and struc-tural support to satisfy building codes and withstand strong wind loads and substantial sun exposure (Meier et al, 2013). Numerous studies assess the impact of building rooftop greenhouses in urban settings from an economic (Benis et al, 2018;Sany e-Mengual et al, 2015), environmental (Jones and Gilbert, 2018;Nadal et al, 2017;Sanjuan-Delm as et al, 2018;Sany e-Mengual et al, 2018), social (Davis, 2011), and educational (Nadal et al, 2017;Sany e-Mengual et al, 2014) perspective. In addition, a number of commercial operations have demonstrated the economic viability of rooftop greenhouses for urban food production (e.g., Gotham Green Farms, Lufa Farms).…”

Section: Physical Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled Environment Food Production for Urban Agriculture

Gómez¹,

Currey²,

Dickson³

et al. 2019

horts

102

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The recent increased market demand for locally grown produce is generating interest in the application of techniques developed for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to urban agriculture (UA). Controlled environments have great potential to revolutionize urban food systems, as they offer unique opportunities for year-round production, optimizing resource-use efficiency, and for helping to overcome significant challenges associated with the high costs of production in urban settings. For urban growers to benefit from CEA, results from studies evaluating the application of controlled environments for commercial food production should be considered. This review includes a discussion of current and potential applications of CEA for UA, references discussing appropriate methods for selecting and controlling the physical plant production environment, resource management strategies, considerations to improve economic viability, opportunities to address food safety concerns, and the potential social benefits from applying CEA techniques to UA. Author’s viewpoints about the future of CEA for urban food production are presented at the end of this review.

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Putting rooftops to use – A Cost-Benefit Analysis of food production vs. energy generation under Mediterranean climates

Abstract: Putting rooftops to use-A Cost-Benefit Analysis of food production vs. energy generation under Mediterranean climates The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters.

Cited by 65 publications

References 51 publications

How Will We Eat and Produce in the Cities of the Future? From Edible Insects to Vertical Farming—A Study on the Perception and Acceptability of New Approaches

How Will We Eat and Produce in the Cities of the Future? From Edible Insects to Vertical Farming—A Study on the Perception and Acceptability of New Approaches

Towards Productive Cities: Environmental Assessment of the Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus of the Urban Roof Mosaic

Controlled Environment Food Production for Urban Agriculture

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