Towards productive cities: environmental assessment of the Food-Energy-Water nexus of the urban roof mosaic
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...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2018 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/125341 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/125341 https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12829 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Green roofs (Gardening) Urban agriculture Solar energy Industrial ecology Life cycle assessment (LCA) Rainwater harvesting Resource self-sufficiency Cobertes verdes Agricultura urbana Energia solar Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Edificació::Construcció sostenible Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Energia solar fotovoltaica Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Edificació::Elements constructius d'edificis::Elements de tancament |
| Sumario: | 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. |
|---|