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Identifying eco-efficient year-round crop combinations for rooftop greenhouse agriculture

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The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Authors:
Martí Rufí-Salís at 2.-0 LCA Consultants
Martí Rufí-Salís
  • 2.-0 LCA Consultants
Anna Petit-Boix at Autonomous University of Barcelona
Anna Petit-Boix
Gara Villalba at Autonomous University of Barcelona
Gara Villalba
Mireia Ercilla Montserrat at Autonomous University of Barcelona
Mireia Ercilla Montserrat
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Abstract and Figures

Purpose Rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) are agricultural systems that can improve the food supply chain by producing vegetables in unused urban spaces. However, to date, environmental assessments of RTGs have only focused on specific crops, without considering the impacts resulting from seasonality, combinations of crops and nonoperational time. We analyze vegetable production in an RTG over 4 years to determine the crop combinations that minimize yearly environmental impacts while diversifying food supply. Methods The system under study consists of an integrated RTG (i-RTG) with a hydroponic system in Barcelona, in the Mediterranean region. By using life cycle assessment (LCA), we evaluate the environmental performance of 25 different crop cycles and 7 species cultivated during the period 2015–2018. Three functional units are used: 1 kg of edible fresh production, 1 unit of economic value (€) in the wholesale market and 1 kcal of nutritional value. The system boundaries consider two subsystems: infrastructure (greenhouse structure, rainwater harvesting system and auxiliary equipment) and operation (fertilizers and their emissions into water and substrate). In addition, we perform an eco-efficiency analysis, considering the carbon footprint of the crop cycles and their value at the wholesale market during their harvesting periods. Results and discussion Spring tomato cycles exert the lowest impacts in all categories, considering all three functional units, due to the high yields obtained. In contrast, spinach and arugula have the highest impacts. Regarding relative impact, the greenhouse structure presented a large impact, while fertilizer production had notable relative contributions in tomato cycles. Moreover, nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from fertigation are the main causes of freshwater and marine eutrophication. By combining the most eco-efficient cycles, we can see that growing two consecutive tomato cycles is the best alternative with the functional unit of yield (0.49 kg CO2 eq./kg), whereas a long spring tomato cycle combined with bean and lettuce cycles in the autumn/winter is the best scenario when using market (0.70 kg CO2 eq./€) and nutritional value (3.18·10−3 kg CO2/ kcal). Conclusions This study shows that increasing the diversity of the system leads to better environmental performance of greenhouse urban agriculture if suitable crops are selected for the autumn/winter season. The functional unit involving the economic value and the eco-efficiency analysis are useful to demonstrate the capability of the growing system to produce added-value vegetables under harsher conditions while categorizing and classifying the crops to select the most suitable combinations based on economic and environmental parameters.
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LCA FOR AGRICULTURE
Identifying eco-efficient year-round crop combinations for rooftop
greenhouse agriculture
Martí Rufí-Salís
1,2
&Anna Petit-Boix
3
&Gara Villalba
1,2
&Mireia Ercilla-Montserrat
1
&David Sanjuan-Delmás
4
&
Felipe Parada
1
&Verónica Arcas
1
&Joan Muñoz-Liesa
5
&Xavier Gabarrell
1,2
Received: 13 August 2019 / Accepted: 12 December 2019
#Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Purpose Rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) are agricultural systems that can improve the food supply chain by producing vegetables
in unused urban spaces. However, to date, environmental assessments of RTGs have only focused on specific crops, without
considering the impacts resulting from seasonality, combinations of crops and nonoperational time. We analyze vegetable
production in an RTG over 4 years to determine the crop combinations that minimize yearly environmental impacts while
diversifying food supply.
Methods The system under study consists of an integrated RTG (i-RTG) with a hydroponic system in Barcelona, in the
Mediterranean region. By using life cycle assessment (LCA), we evaluate the environmental performance of 25 different crop
cycles and 7 species cultivated during the period 2015–2018. Three functional units are used: 1 kg of edible fresh production, 1
unit of economic value (€) in the wholesale market and 1 kcal of nutritional value. The system boundaries consider two
subsystems: infrastructure (greenhouse structure, rainwater harvesting system and auxiliary equipment) and operation (fertilizers
and their emissions into water and substrate). In addition, we perform an eco-efficiency analysis, considering the carbon footprint
of the crop cycles and their value at the wholesale market during their harvesting periods.
Results and discussion Spring tomato cycles exert the lowest impacts in all categories, considering all three functional units, due
to the high yields obtained. In contrast, spinach and arugula have the highest impacts. Regarding relative impact, the greenhouse
structure presented a large impact, while fertilizer production had notable relative contributions in tomato cycles. Moreover,
nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from fertigation are the main causes of freshwater and marine eutrophication. By combining
the most eco-efficient cycles, we can see that growing two consecutive tomato cycles is the best alternative with the functional
unit of yield (0.49 kg CO
2
eq./kg), whereas a long spring tomato cycle combined with bean and lettuce cycles in the autumn/
winter is the best scenario when using market (0.70 kg CO
2
eq./€) and nutritional value (3.18·10
−3
kg CO
2
/kcal).
Conclusions This study shows that increasing the diversity of the system leads to better environmental performance of green-
house urban agriculture if suitable crops are selected for the autumn/winter season. The functional unit involving the economic
value and the eco-efficiency analysis are useful to demonstrate the capability of the growing system to produce added-value
Responsible editor: Thomas Jan Nemecek
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01724-5) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
*Xavier Gabarrell
Xavier.Gabarrell@uab.cat
1
Sostenipra Research Group (2017 SGR 1683), Institut de Ciència i
Tecnologia Ambientals (MDM-2015-0552), Z Building, Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra,
Barcelona, Spain
2
Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193
Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
3
Chair of Societal Transition and Circular Economy, University of
Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106 Freiburg i. Br, Germany
4
Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links
653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
5
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil
Engineering, Jordi Girona, 1-3, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01724-5
/Published online: 2 January 2020
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2020) 25:564–576
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Our analysis of the selected articles reveals that the life cycle perspective is applied in both LCA and CF methodologies, sometimes even in combination (Pérez-Neira and Grollmus-Venegas, 2018;Rufí-Salís et al., 2020). However, we also find the application of the water footprint methodology (Subramaniam et al., 2020) and the development of a life cycle inventory without impacts results (Arshad et al., 2019). ...
... Bin et al., 2023 In the case of PET packaging for strawberries (considering distribution), refrigerated transport represents about 39 % of the impacts (calculated as a single score combining human health, quality of ecosystem, climate change and resources). In the case of Delahaye et al., 2023 (continued on next page) crops that can grow in greenhouse winter conditions (Rufí-Salís et al., 2020). Regarding packaging, the use of active food packaging (e.g. ...
... Dong and Miller, 2021;Vigil et al., 2020); operational, regarding the reduction of raw materials consumption, distribution configurations and the improvements of crops (e.g. Caracciolo et al., 2018;Choo et al., 2011;Rufí-Salís et al., 2020); and management, regarding monitoring, improvement targets and local supply chain configurations (Accorsi et al., 2014;Frankowska et al., 2019;Lukasse et al., 2023). For instance, the precision application for fertilizers can be considered a technological improvement, along with active food packaging development, while the food storage time reduction at retailers can be seen as a management improvement, along with the training of workers and the development of a data collection system to monitor emissions and consumption. ...
View
... UA contributes to food access and security by addressing disparities in food access and availability (Ackerman 2012;Armanda, Guinée, and Tukker 2019;Ayoni et al. 2022;Caputo et al. 2021;Hara et al. 2018;Harada and Whitlow 2020;Nicholls et al. 2020;O'Sullivan et al. 2019;Saha and Eckelman 2017;Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2016;Socorro Castro, Agüuero Contrera, and Rodríguez Rodríguez 2017;Stewart et al. 2013;Uzcátegui and Ordóñez 2017;Villacorta and Alfaro 2022). It can shorten the urban food supply chain, ensuring more efficient and localized food distribution (Buscaroli et al. 2021;Harada and Whitlow 2020;Nicholls et al. 2020;Orsini et al. 2013;Rufí-Salís et al. 2020;Saha and Eckelman 2017;Sanjuan-Delmás et al. 2018;Specht and Sanyé-Mengual 2017;Weidner, Yang, and Hamm 2019) and food markets (Buscaroli et al. 2021;Harada and Whitlow 2020;Rao et al. 2022;Saha and Eckelman 2017;Weidner, Yang, and Hamm 2019). ...
... Community gardens and urban farming initiatives significantly contribute to urban biodiversity (Caputo et al. 2021;Nicholls et al. 2020;Orsini et al. 2013;Rufí-Salís et al. 2020;Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2016). It seamlessly integrates into green spaces and larger ecological networks within urban landscapes (Burbano-Criollo, Aguilar-Montero, and Semanate-Quiñonez 2022; Stewart et al. 2013). ...
... UA enhances the resilience of communities, providing a buffer against environmental challenges and climate change impacts (Burbano-Criollo, Aguilar-Montero, and Semanate-Quiñonez 2022; Gupta and Mehta 2017;Nicholls et al. 2020;Tornaghi 2014). Furthermore, it reduces pressure on rural lands and decreases food miles, positively impacting the environment (Nicholls et al. 2020;Orsini et al. 2013;Rufí-Salís et al. 2020;Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2016;Weidner, Yang, and Hamm 2019). ...
Life cycle assessment to evaluate the sustainability of urban agriculture: opportunities and challenges
Article
  • May 2024
Urban agriculture, the production of food within city limits, stands as a potential alternative for establishing a new and resilient food system. It is expected to address global challenges such as climate change, urban vulnerability, and food security. While numerous studies exist in this field, a comprehensive scientific understanding coupled with a connection to sustainable development is crucially needed. Therefore, this review focuses on the present state and the methodology of life cycle assessment to evaluate the sustainability of urban agriculture. The case studies reviewed are mostly incomplete and lack diversity. Further research is needed, especially the integration of social and economic perspectives.
View
... Unit-related FU, expressed in number of units (e.g., number of plants), and combined FU were infrequent. Only one article used energy-related (in kcal) and monetary FU (in Euro) (Rufí-Salís et al. 2020b). In two instances (Llorach-Massana et al. 2017a, b), the FU was not clearly specified: one considered emissions only from the production phase and the other aimed to compute new N 2 O emissions factors and applied them in another study (Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2015b). ...
... For instance, sugar content, ascorbic acid, and lycopene could be indicators of nutrients in tomatoes (Kikuchi et al. 2018). One notable exception in the sample employed a kilocalorie (kcal) of nutritional value as a FU -Salís et al. 2020b). In addition, other authors (Notarnicola et al. 2015) argued that using multiple FUs when assessing the same system can produce completer results, leading to different prospectives. ...
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Article
Full-text available
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... This success in tomato yield is due to greenhouse conditions. This protected crop system is characterized by its high efficiency in the use of resources and high productivity per land unit year-round (Payen et al. 2015;Rufí-Salís et al. 2020). However, tomato crops generate an important amount of plant residues during the season due to trimming of the stems and by pulling the entire plant at the end of season after the loss of the economic value of crops. ...
Recovery of Tomato Plant Residues Through Composting: Potential and Challenges to Promote Circular Economy
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The increase in tomato production especially in modern agriculture generally results in a significant amount of plant residues representing one of the greatest challenges for sustainable agriculture such as economic losses of valuable biomass and pollution. Valorization of tomato waste as a potential source of organic matter and plant nutrients is promising to improve soil fertility. Hence, an effective composting process, which enables the production of good quality compost at an economical cost, can meet the criteria for sustainable tomato waste management. This chapter reports tomato waste as composting feedstock, methods for composting process recommended for tomato waste along with the most relevant challenges in composting process and compost quality.
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... Life cycle assessment -LCA is a tool that has been used for finding environmental impact due to product production and consumption and their potential effects on human life (Burek & Nutter, 2020;Gallucci et al., 2020;ISO, 2006a;Rufi-Salis et al., 2020 gate is approximately equal in all the reason, but post firm gate emission such as (transportation of milk, production of dairy products, waste water treatment, packaging material consumption, energy consumption, and chemical use) varies industry to industry due to different applied processes (Yan and Holden, 2018). ...
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... With the increasing demands for milk consumption, the dairy production system has become more and more intensive and therefore threatens resources and the environment. Global dairy production contributed approximately one-third to NH 3 emission from livestock production (Uwizeye et al., 2020), 10% of the global eutrophication potential, and 6% of acidification potential (Rufí-Salís et al., 2020), especially increased the risk of local nitrogen pollution (Finzi et al., 2020;Theobald et al., 2015). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the N flows of dairy production and further mitigate N-related environmental pollution from the dairy production system. ...
Nitrogen use efficiencies, flows, and losses of typical dairy farming systems in Inner Mongolia
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Dairy farming is a notable source of nitrogen (N) emissions, impacting both atmospheric and aquatic ecosystems, thus necessitating a detailed analysis of nutrient dynamics to curtail nutrient wastage. However, N flow variability and its environmental ramifications differ markedly among dairy farms, and a holistic understanding of these differences is lacking in Inner Mongolia, the biggest dairy production province in China. Utilizing data from 187 dairy farms and employing the NUFER-farm model, this study assessed N flows, N use efficiency (NUE), and N losses across four predominant dairy farming systems in Inner Mongolia. These systems include traditional pastoral dairy farms (PF), smallholder dairy farms with croplands (SF), industrial landless farms (IDF), and coupled dairy cattle and cropland-intensive farms (CDF). Our findings indicate considerable differences in N flows, NUE, and losses among the systems. On average, N deposition and N fertilizer were the primary N sources for PF and SF, respectively, whereas IDF and CDF derived over 90% of their N inputs from purchased feeds. PF and SF recycled all available manure N on-farm, whereas IDF and CDF recycled only approximately 36% of the total available manure N. N losses constituted 39–72% of total N outputs, with ammonia emissions accounting for 68–73% of total N losses across all farm types. In particular, PF had a higher N loss per kilogram of dairy product than other systems. Farm-level NUE ranged from 17 to 35%, with manure management practices showing significant variability, underscoring the potential for enhanced strategies to reduce N losses through improved manure treatment.
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... Coppens et al. (2016) conducted a process flow analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus for Belgium for comparing the economic and environmental impact of the fertilizer supply chain. Rufí-Salís et al. (2020) studied the sustainable transition in agriculture, by studying the economic and environmental benefits of rooftop agriculture using LCA. Geissler et al. (2019) studied the upstream fertilizer supply chain of phosphatic fertilizers from a circular economy perspective using a process study. ...
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Full-text available
  • Jun 2018
In the expanding urban agriculture phenomenon in Europe, home gardens are a traditional form that have kept agriculture within cities, even becoming crucial in certain historical periods (e.g., war periods). However, horticultural practices in home gardens can also have negative consequences. The goal of this paper is to assess the eco-efficiency of home gardens as a type of urban agriculture. To do so, a case study in Padua (Italy) was evaluated following life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methods. A home garden of 30.6 m² and 21 crop cycles were evaluated. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh vegetable at the consumption point, and the ReCiPe method was employed for impact assessment. Environmental assessment indicated that organic fertilization, use of tap water, mineral fertilization and pesticides were the most contributing elements of the entire life cycle. Furthermore, the relevance of garden design and crop selection was a determinant in the eco-efficiency results. The assessed home garden could satisfy the food requirements of between 1 and 2 members of the household. Crop management and design recommendations are provided to improve eco-efficiency and food security potential of home gardens.
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The Role of Urban Agriculture as a Nature-Based Solution: A Review for Developing a Systemic Assessment Framework
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2018
Urbanization and achieving sustainable agriculture are both major societal challenges. By reducing food miles and connecting people with nature, food cultivation in cities has several major advantages. However, due to further urban development (peri-) urban agriculture (UPA) is under threat. To strengthen UPA, we argue for considering UPA as a nature-based solution (NbS) supporting systemic approaches for societal challenges. However, academic knowledge on UPA's contribution to various societal challenges of urbanization is still fragmented. This study addresses the gap by conducting a systemic literature review, incorporating 166 academic articles focusing on the global north. The results of the review show that UPA contributes to ten key societal challenges of urbanization: climate change, food security, biodiversity and ecosystem services, agricultural intensification, resource efficiency, urban renewal and regeneration, land management, public health, social cohesion, and economic growth. The value of UPA is its multifunctionality in providing social, economic and environmental co-benefits and ecosystem services. When implementing UPA, social, institutional, economic, technical, geographical, and ecological drivers and constraints need to be considered. To upscale UPA successfully, the study develops an integrative assessment framework for evaluating the implementation and impact efficiency of UPA. This framework should be tested based on the example of edible cities.
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Life cycle assessment of the environmental performance of conventional and organic methods of open field pepper cultivation system
Article
Full-text available
PurposeAs the scale of the organic cultivation sector keeps increasing, there is growing demand for reliable data on organic agriculture and its effect on the environment. Conventional agriculture uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, whilst organic cultivation mainly relies on crop rotation and organic fertilizers. The aim of this work is to quantify and compare the environmental sustainability of typical conventional and organic pepper cultivation systems. Methods Two open field pepper cultivations, both located in the Anthemountas basin, Northern Greece, are selected as case studies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to quantify the overall environmental footprint and identify particular environmental weaknesses (i.e. unsustainable practices) of each cultivation system. Results are analysed at both midpoint and endpoint levels in order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the environmental sustainability of each system. Attributional LCA (ALCA) is employed to identify emissions associated with the life cycles of the two systems. Results are presented for problem-oriented (midpoint) and damage-oriented (endpoint) approaches, using ReCiPe impact assessment. Results and discussionAt midpoint level, conventional cultivation exhibits about threefold higher environmental impact on freshwater eutrophication, than organic cultivation. This arises from the extensive use of nitrogen and phosphorus-based fertilizers, with consequent direct emissions to the environment. The remaining impact categories are mainly affected by irrigation, with associated indirect emissions linked to electricity production. At endpoint level, the main hotspots identified for conventional cultivation are irrigation and fertilizing, due to intensive use of chemical fertilizers and (to a lesser degree) pesticides. For organic pepper cultivation, the main environmental hotspots are irrigation, machinery use, and manure loading and spreading processes. Of these, the highest score for irrigation derives from the heavy electricity consumption required for groundwater pumping associated with the fossil-fuel-dependent Greek electricity mix. Conclusions Organic and conventional cultivation systems have similar total environmental impacts per unit of product, with organic cultivation achieving lower environmental impacts in ‘freshwater eutrophication’, ‘climate change’, ‘terrestrial acidification’ and ‘marine eutrophication’ categories. Conventional cultivation has a significantly greater effect on the freshwater eutrophication impact category, due to phosphate emissions arising from application of chemical fertilizers.
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Approach to qualify decision support maturity of new versus established impact assessment methods—demonstrated for the categories acidification and eutrophication
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Full-text available
Purpose Initiatives like the EU Product Environmental Footprint have been pushing the discussion about the choice of life cycle impact assessment methods. Practitioners often prefer to use established methods for performance tracking, result stability, and consistency reasons. Method developers rather support newly developed methods. As case studies must provide consistent results in order to ensure reliable decision-making support, a systematic approach to qualify decision support maturity of newly developed impact assessment methods is needed. Methods A three step approach referring to key aspects for decision maturity was developed which takes the established life cycle impact assessment methods as a benchmark. In the first step, the underlying models of the methods and their respective differences are analyzed to capture the scope and detail of the characterization models. Second, the considered and available elementary flows covered by the methods are identified and compared to reveal consistent coverage, respectively, gaps between alternatives. In the third step, neglected elementary flows are evaluated with regard to their potential impact to the particular impact category. Furthermore, the characterization factors of concurring elementary flows are analyzed for significant differences in their shares. The developed approach was tested for LCIA methods for eutrophication and acidification in Europe. Results and discussion A systematic and practical qualification of decision support maturity can be achieved by a three-step approach benchmarking model scope, quantitative and qualitative coverage of elementary flows for new methods with established ones. For the application example, the established CML-IA method was compared with the ReCiPe method and the method of accumulated exceedance. These models vary regarding subdivision of environmental compartments, consideration of fate, as well as regionalization of characterization factors. The amount of covered elementary flows varies significantly as CML-IA covers about 28 more flows within the category acidification and about 35 more flows within the category eutrophication compared to ReCiPe and accumulated exceedance. The significance of all neglected elementary flows for the categories eutrophication and acidification is significant and represents a gap of up to 80 %. Furthermore, it was shown that the shares of some concurring elementary flows differ significantly. Conclusions The introduced approach allows the benchmarking of newly developed against established methods based on application-oriented criteria. It was demonstrated that significant differences between the methods exist. To guarantee reliable decision-making support, newly developed methods should not replace established ones until a minimum level of decision support maturity is reached.
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Testing the environmental performance of urban agriculture as a food supply in northern climates
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2016
  • J CLEAN PROD
The past decade has seen a renaissance of urban agriculture in the world's wealthy, northern cities. The practice of producing food in and around cities is championed as a method to reduce environmental impacts of urban food demands (reducing distance from farm to fork - ‘food miles’) whilst conferring a number of ancillary benefits to host cities (runoff attenuation, urban heat island mitigation) and ex-urban environments (carbon sequestration). Previous environmental assessments have found urban agriculture to be more sustainable than conventional agriculture when performed in mild climates, though opposite findings emerge when external energy inputs are significant. In this study we perform an environmental life cycle assessment of six urban farms in Boston, US producing lettuce and tomatoes, with conventional counterparts across six impact categories. Performance of urban agriculture was system dependent and no farm provided superior performance to conventional for all indicators. High-yield, heated, greenhouse production of tomatoes has potentially higher environmental burdens than conventional methods in terms of climate change (267–369%) and non-renewable resource depletion (108–239%), driven primarily by external energy inputs. Heated lettuce production systems showed similar trends. Low-tech, empty-lot farming appears to hold some advantages in terms of climate change burdens and resource use, though water and land usage was found to be elevated relative to conventional lettuce and tomatoes. Open rooftop farming apparently provides benefits if high yield crops (e.g. tomatoes) are cultivated, otherwise significant capital inputs detrimentally affect environmental performance. In general, the benefits of reduced food miles may be overwhelmed by energy inputs and inefficient use of production inputs. A comparison of urban agriculture and solar panels showed that the latter would confer greater benefits to mitigate climate change per unit area. Thus, urban agriculture may not be the optimal application of space in northern cities to improve urban environmental performance.
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Environmental assessment of an integrated rooftop greenhouse for food production in cities
Article
  • Dec 2017
  • J CLEAN PROD
Vertical farming is emerging as an effective measure to grow food in buildings and can increase food production in urban areas in a more sustainable manner. This study presents a comprehensive environmental assessment of food production in an integrated rooftop greenhouse (i-RTG) – an innovative vertical farm consisting of a rooftop greenhouse connected to a building – and considers rainwater, residual heat (energy), residual air (CO2) and food from an industrial ecology perspective. This synergistic connection preserves resources and improves conditions in the greenhouse and the building. The goal of the study is to show the feasibility of the system and to calculate the environmental impacts from its whole life cycle, from infrastructure to end of life, by comparing these impacts with those of conventional production. The results show that the system is feasible and produced 30.2 kg/m² of tomato over 15.5 months. The synergy with the building allows the cultivation of winter-fall crops without supplying heating and maintained an average temperature 8 °C higher than that outdoors. Moreover, rainwater was used to irrigate the crops, reducing consumption from the water supply network by 80–90%. The environmental assessment showed that the operation of the i-RTG has more impacts than the infrastructure (structure of the greenhouse, rainwater harvesting system and equipment) due to the use of fertilisers, which account for 25% of the impacts in four of the six impact categories studied. Regarding the infrastructure, the greenhouse structure and rainwater harvesting system of the building have substantial environmental impacts (over 30% in four of the six impact categories). Comparison with a conventional greenhouse demonstrates that the i-RTG has a better environmental performance, showing between 50 and 75% lower impacts in five of the six impact categories (for instance, 0.58 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of tomato vs. 1.7 kg), mainly due to the reduced packaging and transport requirements. From this study, it was concluded that optimisation of the amount of infrastructure material and management of the operation could lead to even better environmental performance in future i-RTG projects.
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Life cycle and hydrologic modeling of rainwater harvesting in urban neighborhoods: Implications of urban form and water demand patterns in the US and Spain
Article
  • Apr 2018
Water management plays a major role in any city, but applying alternative strategies might be more or less feasible depending on the urban form and water demand. This paper aims to compare the environmental performance of implementing rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in American and European cities. To do so, two neighborhoods with a water-stressed Mediterranean climate were selected in contrasting cities, i.e., Calafell (Catalonia, Spain) and Ukiah (California, US). Calafell is a high-density, tourist city, whereas Ukiah is a typical sprawled area. We studied the life cycle impacts of RWH in urban contexts by using runoff modeling before (i.e. business as usual) and after the implementation of this system. In general, cisterns were able to supply > 75% of the rainwater demand for laundry and toilet flushing. The exception were multi-story buildings with roofs smaller than 200 m2, where the catchment area was insufficient to meet demand. The implementation of RWH was environmentally beneficial with respect to the business-as-usual scenario, especially because of reduced runoff treatment needs. Along with soil features, roof area and water demand were major parameters that affected this reduction. RWH systems are more attractive in Calafell, which had 60% lower impacts than in Ukiah. Therefore, high-density areas can potentially benefit more from RWH than sprawled cities. Visit the complete article at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717332643
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Building-Integrated Rooftop Greenhouses: An Energy and Environmental Assessment in the Mediterranean Context
Article
  • Nov 2016
  • APPL ENERG
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