Juan David Arosemena and Guido Evangelista presented their work at the LCA FOOD 2024 Conference held in Barcelona in September 2024. The main focus of this conference is to assess the sustainability of agrifood systems and guide them to improving their environmental performance. This forum also includes the social and economic pillars of sustainability.
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!!
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.
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.
Title: Incorporating user preferences in rooftop food-energy-water production through integrated sustainability assessment / We propose an integrated process that includes participatory processes and a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of environmental, social and economic indicators.
Optimizing urban resources through circular economy principles offers the opportunity to close loops and improve production systems, but an assessment of these systems through a combination of circularity and environmental tools is missing from the literature.