Title: Pathways to circular and regenerative urban agriculture through stakeholder-informed approaches. / Conventional agriculture typically relies on linear production systems that degrade soil and undermine sustainable resource management and climate change mitigation. Urban and peri-urban agriculture has the potential to shift from conventional approaches towards circular strategies that enhance soil health.
Title: Effect of Land Use Changes on Air Quality: Impacts of Urbanization, Urban Vegetation, and Agriculture / Rapid urbanization in urban areas is transforming natural landscapes into impervious surfaces, resulting in changes to the physical properties of these surfaces. Changes in surface physical properties impact local temperature and convection, which in turn affects air quality.
Proof-of-Concept funded through URBAG project, January 2024-June 2025. What is hindering nutrient circularity in urban argiculture? The impoverished state and quality of the urban and peri-urban agricultural soil undermines nutrient circularity. Nutrient recovery is of no use unless soil is healthy!!
On July 2023, URBAG participated at the X International Conference of Life Cycle Assessment in Latin America (CILCA 2023) with the presentation "Unlocking the potential of municipal solid waste compost for urban and peri-urban agriculture: Nutrient recirculation in metropolitan areas". It was the tenth edition of this conference, which is intended for users of tools based on life cycle thinking at different levels.
On July 2023, URBAG participated at the International Conference of Industrial Ecology (ISIE) with two presentations. Juan David Arosemena presented his research which aims to determine the capacity and environmental impacts of supplying macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from composting organic municipal solid waste. Gara Villalba presented the A decision approach to evaluate the design and implementation of green infrastructures in urban environments.
Title: The potential of local food, energy, and water production systems on urban rooftops considering consumption patterns and urban morphology / The external resource dependency of urban areas results in the externalization of environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Implementing food, energy and water production systems on urban rooftops (roof mosaics) can potentially help cities become more self-sufficient but depends on the city's urban morphology.
S'ha preparat un breu resum de l'estat de l'art i consideracions per l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona sobre els impactes de les infraestructures verdes urbanes en la qualitat de l'aire. A continuació, es descriuen alguns dels punts que es tracten en aquest document.
On the 17th of March 2023, URBAG conducted a workshop session in the second Edible City Network Conference held in Barcelona. The session was focused in presenting a comprehensive vision of the current urban agriculture challenges and opportunities, by considering both social and environmental perspectives, while employing the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona as case study.
The agricultural land of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has been reduced from 20% to 8-9% over the past decades, despite urban gardening being supported by municipal actions. Urban agriculture constitutes a nature-based solution to several societal challenges.
Title: Displaying geographic variability of peri-urban agriculture environmental impacts in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona: A regionalized life cycle assessment / Peri urban agriculture (peri-UA) can supply food locally and potentially more sustainably than far-away conventional agricultural systems. It can also introduce significant environmental impacts depending on the local biophysical conditions and resources required to implement it.