Abstract
Urban agriculture (UA) plays a key role in the circular metabolism of cities, as it can use water resources, nutrients, and other materials recovered from streams that currently leave the city as solid waste or as wastewater to produce new food and biomass. The ecosystem services of urban green spaces and infrastructures and the productivity of specific urban agricultural technologies have been discussed in literature. However, the understanding of input and output (I/O) streams of different nature-based solutions (NBS) is not yet sufficient to identify the challenges and opportunities they offer for strengthening circularity in UA. We propose a series of agriculture NBS, which, implemented in cities, would address circularity challenges in different urban spaces. To identify the challenges, gaps, and opportunities related to the enhancement of resources management of agriculture NBS, we evaluated NBS units, interventions, and supporting units, and analyzed I/O streams as links of urban circularity. A broader understanding of the food-related urban streams is important to recover resources and adapt the distribution system accordingly. As a result, we pinpointed the gaps that hinder the development of UA as a potential opportunity within the framework of the Circular City.
Highlights
In the face of growing concerns about resource constraints and the need to act on the global climate emergency, many countries intend to move towards a greener, competitive, and “resourceful” urban circular economy (CE) [1,2,3]
According to the methodology reported by Castellar et al [33] and Langergraber et al [6], the nature-based solutions (NBS) were classified into NBS units (NBS_u), differentiating between spatial units (NBS_su) and technological units (NBS_tu), and NBS interventions (NBS_i), including soil interventions (NBS_is) and river interventions (NBS_ir), following the classification of Castellar et al [33]
Those Urban agriculture (UA)-NBS not addressing the on specific design
Summary
In the face of growing concerns about resource constraints and the need to act on the global climate emergency, many countries intend to move towards a greener, competitive, and “resourceful” urban circular economy (CE) [1,2,3]. 2021) defines NBS as “concepts that bring nature into cities and those that are derived from nature As such, within this definition, we achieve resource recovery using organisms (e.g., microbes, algae, plants, insects, and worms) as the principal agents. Physical and chemical processes can be included for recovery of resources, as they may be needed for supporting and enhancing the performance of NBS” [6,8,9]. This definition is used as a reference concept in the present study
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