Leveraging circular nutrients to improve the sustainability of peri-urban agriculture

Agriculture in the urban periphery (peri-UA) can potentially reduce its environmental impact through nutrient recovery from municipal solid and water waste, promoting local crops and displacing some dependency on imports. Shifting from linear to circular food-supply strategies should systemically co...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mendoza Beltran, Angelica|||0000-0001-5837-5970, Toboso-Chavero, Susana|||0000-0001-8475-5184, Arosemena Polo, Juan David|||0000-0001-8893-4219, Romero Lestido, Adriana Lucia, Villalba, Gara|||0000-0001-6392-0902
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:uabarcelona_::2b8074f13ea71d5bc3f20b3a6e95726a
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/327039
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1038/s42949-025-00333-6
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 - Climate Action
SDG 14 - Life Below Water
SDG 15 - Life on Land
Descripción
Sumario:Agriculture in the urban periphery (peri-UA) can potentially reduce its environmental impact through nutrient recovery from municipal solid and water waste, promoting local crops and displacing some dependency on imports. Shifting from linear to circular food-supply strategies should systemically consider trade-offs that depend on city-specific factors, such as crop patterns, waste management capabilities, and ecosystem status. We investigate these effects spatially and temporally with a tool based on prospective regionalized life cycle assessment to determine how the local and transboundary impacts of various strategies of nutrient circularity (such as struvite, compost, and recovered ammonium salts) applied to peri-UA areas affect climate change, regionalized marine and freshwater eutrophication, abiotic resource depletion, and water consumption, providing maps reflecting crop yields and impacts to aid urban planners. We illustrate with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, where we find that applying compost with current waste management infrastructure can reduce the carbon footprint of peri-UA areas by up to 85%.