Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\nNew environmental strategies are emerging for cities to become more self-sufficient, such as hydroponic crop production. The implementation of such systems requires materials that usually originate in countries with low labour costs and other legal regulations. To what extent could these strategies be shifting problems across the globe? To answer this question, we performed a comprehensive environmental and social assessment of the various extended soilless systems used to grow vegetables on urban roofs.<\/p>\n
Methods<\/strong><\/p>\nThree different growing media constituents were chosen for this study: perlite, peat and coir; which are produced in three countries, Turkey, Germany and the Philippines, respectively, and are imported to Spain. By using a life cycle assessment, we evaluated the environmental performances of the production and transport of these growing media. Additionally, we performed a social life cycle assessment at different levels. First, we used the Social Hotspots Database to analyse the constituents in aggregated sectors. Second, we performed a social assessment at the country and sector levels, and finally, we evaluated primary company data for the social assessment of the constituents through questionnaires given to businesses.<\/p>\n
Results and discussion<\/strong><\/p>\nThe coir-based growing medium exerted the lowest environmental burden in 5 out of 8 impact categories because it is a by-product from coconut trees. In contrast, perlite obtained the highest environmental impacts, with impacts 44 to 99.9% higher than those of peat and coir, except in the land use. Perlite is a material extracted from open-pit mines that requires high energy consumption and a long road trip. Regarding the social assessment, peat demonstrated the best performance on all the social assessment levels. In contrast, coir showed the worst scores in the Social Hotspots Database and for the impact categories of community infrastructure and human rights, whereas perlite displayed the lowest performance in health and safety. Nevertheless, coir and perlite evidenced much better scores than peat in the impact subcategory of the contribution to economic development.<\/p>\n
Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\nThis study contributes to a first comparison of three imported growing media constituents for urban rooftop farming from environmental and social perspectives to choose the most suitable option. Peat appears to be the best alternative from a social perspective. However, from an environmental standpoint, peat represents a growing medium whose availability is aiming to disappear in Germany to preserve peatlands. Therefore, we identify a new market niche for the development of local growing media for future rooftop farming in cities.<\/p>\n
\nCatal\u00e0:<\/h3>\n
Prop\u00f2sit<\/strong><\/p>\nEstan sorgint noves estrat\u00e8gies ambientals perqu\u00e8 les ciutats siguin m\u00e9s autosuficients, com la producci\u00f3 de cultius hidrop\u00f2nics. La implementaci\u00f3 d’aquests sistemes requereix materials que solen originar-se en pa\u00efsos amb baixos costos laborals i altres regulacions legals. Fins a quin punt aquestes estrat\u00e8gies podrien estar canviant els problemes a tot el m\u00f3n? Per respondre a aquesta pregunta, vam realitzar una avaluaci\u00f3 ambiental i social completa dels diferents sistemes sense s\u00f2l utilitzats per conrear verdures en cobertes urbanes.<\/p>\n
M\u00e8todes<\/strong><\/p>\nPer aquest estudi es van triar tres substrats de cultiu de creixement diferents: perlita, torba i fibra de coco; que es produeixen en tres pa\u00efsos, Turquia, Alemanya i Filipines, respectivament, i s’importen a Espanya. Mitjan\u00e7ant l’\u00fas d’una avaluaci\u00f3 del cicle de vida, vam avaluar els resultats ambientals de la producci\u00f3 i el transport d’aquests substrats de cultiu. A m\u00e9s, vam realitzar una avaluaci\u00f3 del cicle de vida social a diferents nivells. En primer lloc, vam utilitzar la Base de Dades de Punts d’Acc\u00e9s Social per analitzar els substrats en sectors agregats. En segon lloc, vam realitzar una avaluaci\u00f3 social a nivell de pa\u00eds i sector, i finalment, vam avaluar les dades prim\u00e0ries de l’empresa per a l’avaluaci\u00f3 social dels electors a trav\u00e9s de q\u00fcestionaris donats a les empreses.<\/p>\n
Resultats i discussi\u00f3<\/strong><\/p>\nEl medi de cultiu basat en fibra de coco va exercir la c\u00e0rrega ambiental m\u00e9s baixa en 5 de les 8 categories d’impacte perqu\u00e8 \u00e9s un subproducte dels cocoters. En canvi, la perlita va obtenir els majors impactes ambientals, amb impactes entre un 44 i un 99,9% superiors als de torba i fibra de coco, excepte en l’\u00fas del s\u00f2l. La perlita \u00e9s un material extret de mines a cel obert que requereix un alt consum energ\u00e8tic i un llarg viatge per carretera. Pel que fa a l’avaluaci\u00f3 social, la torba va demostrar el millor rendiment en tots els nivells d’avaluaci\u00f3 social. En canvi, la fibra de coco va mostrar les pitjors puntuacions a la Base de Dades de Punts Socials i per a les categories d’impacte de la infraestructura comunit\u00e0ria i els drets humans, mentre que la perlita va mostrar el menor rendiment en salut i seguretat. No obstant aix\u00f2, la fibra de coco i la perlita van evidenciar puntuacions molt millors que la torba en la subcategoria d’impacte de la contribuci\u00f3 al desenvolupament econ\u00f2mic.<\/p>\n
Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\nAquest estudi contribueix a una primera comparaci\u00f3 de tres substrats de cultiu importats per a l’agricultura urbana del terrat des de perspectives ambientals i socials, per triar l’opci\u00f3 m\u00e9s adequada. La torba sembla ser la millor alternativa des d’una perspectiva social. No obstant aix\u00f2, des d’un punt de vista mediambiental, la disponibilitat de la torba t\u00e9 com a objectiu desapar\u00e8ixer a Alemanya per preservar les torberes. Per tant, identifiquem un nou n\u00ednxol de mercat per al desenvolupament de mitjans de cultiu locals per a la futura agricultura al terrat a les ciutats.<\/p>\n
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Figure<\/strong>: Workflow used in this study, from a general analysis to a specific analysis. GTAP, Global Trade Analysis Project; SHDB, Social Hotspots Database<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Title: Environmental and social life cycle assessment of growing media for urban rooftop farming \/ <\/p>\n
New environmental strategies are emerging for cities to become more self-sufficient, such as hydroponic crop production. The implementation of such systems requires materials that usually originate in countries with low labour costs and other legal regulations. To what extent could these strategies be shifting problems across the globe?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3153,"featured_media":1694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[110,111,10,112,113],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-life-cycle-assessment","tag-soilless-systems","tag-urbag","tag-urban-roofs","tag-vegetables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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