Building-integrated agriculture: Are we shifting environmental impacts? An environmental assessment and structural improvement of urban greenhouses

Autor: Joan Muñoz-Liesa, Alejandro Josa, Eva Cuerva, Santiago Gassó-Domingo, Angelica Mendoza Beltran, Esteban Gallo, Susana Toboso-Chavero
Přispěvatelé: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Doctorat en Enginyeria Ambiental, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria de Projectes i de la Construcció, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. GRIC - Grup de Recerca i Innovació de la Construcció
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Economics and Econometrics
Agricultura urbana
Edificació::Elements constructius d'edificis::Elements de tancament [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC]
0211 other engineering and technologies
Building-integrated agriculture
Context (language use)
02 engineering and technology
010501 environmental sciences
Material flow analysis
01 natural sciences
Life cycle assessment
Environmental protection
Environmental impact assessment
Structural modeling
021108 energy
Urban agriculture
Edificació::Construcció sostenible [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC]
Waste Management and Disposal
Life-cycle assessment
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Urban metabolism
Greenhouses
Roofs
Enginyeria agroalimentària::Agricultura::Agricultura sostenible [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC]
Cobertes (Construcció)
Resource use efficiency
Environmental science
Green infrastructure
Zdroj: Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Susana Toboso-Chavero
UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
ISSN: 0921-3449
DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105526
Popis: Urban and building systems are awash with materials. The incorporation of green infrastructure such as integrated rooftop greenhouses (iRTGs) has the potential to contribute to buildings’ and cities’ circularity. However, its greater sophistication than conventional agriculture (CA) could lead to a shift in environmental impacts. One of the key elements for greenhouse building-integrated agriculture (BIA) and CA to achieve high levels of environmental performance is their structural design, which largely impacts the economic and environmental life-cycle costs (by up to 63%). In this context, the study assessed iRTGs life-cycle material and energy flows and their environmental burdens at structural level (m-2y-1) within life cycle assessment (LCA), based on a case study in Barcelona. A structural assessment following European standards allowed the identification of key design factors to minimize the environmental impacts of RTGs’ structure within improvement scenarios. The assessment revealed that a steel structure in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario contributed from 31.5 to 67.3% of the impact categories analyzed, followed by the polycarbonate covering material (from 21.8 to 45.9%). The key design factors responsible for these environmental impacts were ground height, ventilation design, building integration and urban location. The improvement scenarios compensated for additional steel inputs by up to 35.9% and decreased environmental impacts that might occur in the BIA context by 24.1% compared with the BAU scenario. The assessment also revealed that urban environments do not imply shifting environmental impacts per se, as greenhouse BIA structures can benefit from their advantageous characteristics or be compensated by optimized greenhouse structures. The authors are grateful to the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the award of a research scholarship (FI-DGR 2018) to Joan Muñoz-Liesa; to the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports grant FPU16/03238 to Susana Toboso-Chavero; and to the European Union's Horizon2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 842460 to Angelica Mendoza Beltran. Authors also acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for the financial support to the research project Fertilectiy II “Integrated rooftop greenhouses: energy, waste and CO2 symbiosis with the building. Towards foods security in a circular economy” (CTM2016–75772-C3–1-R; CTM2016–75772-C3–2-R) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the “María de Maeztu” program for Units of Excellence (MDM-2015–0552). Authors would also gratitude Dr. Violeta Vargas, Dr. Xavier Gabarrell, Dr. Joan Rieradevall, Dr. Martí Rufí-Salís, Dr. Gara Villalba and the ICTA-UAB staff for the very valuable support advise and help.
Databáze: OpenAIRE