Environmental analysis of the logistics of agricultural products from roof top greenhouses in Mediterranean urban areas.
BACKGROUND
As urban populations increase so does the amount of food transported to cities worldwide, and innovative agro-urban systems are being developed to integrate agricultural production into buildings; for example, by using roof top greenhouses (RTGs). This paper aims to quantify and compare, through a life cycle assessment, the environmental impact of the current linear supply system with a RTG system by using a case study for the production of tomatoes.


RESULTS
The main results indicate that a change from the current linear system to the RTG system could result in a reduction, per kilogram of tomatoes (the functional unit), in the range of 44.4-75.5% for the different impact categories analysed, and savings of up to 73.5% in energy requirements. These savings are associated with re-utilisation of packaging systems (55.4-85.2%), minimisation of transport requirements (7.6-15.6%) and reduction of the loss of product during transportation and retail stages (7.3-37%).


CONCLUSIONS
The RTG may become a strategic factor in the design of low-carbon cities in Mediterranean areas. Short-term implementation in the city of Barcelona could result in savings of 66.1 tonnes of CO₂ eq. ha(-1) when considering the global warming potential, and of 71.03 t ha(-1) when considering that the transformation from woodland to agricultural land is avoided.
Sostenipra (ICTA-IRTA-Inèdit)-Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Esther.Sanye@uab.cat.
Esther
E
Sanyé-Mengual
Ileana
I
Cerón-Palma
Jordi
J
Oliver-Solà
Juan Ignacio
JI
Montero
Joan
J
Rieradevall
D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D058572:Carbon Footprint; D002947:Cities; D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources; D004777:Environment; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006801:Humans; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum; D019083:Mediterranean Region; D013030:Spain; D014186:Transportation