Publications

@article{Langemeyer2021,

title = {Urban agriculture \textemdash A necessary pathway towards urban resilience and global sustainability?},

author = {Johannes Langemeyer and Cristina Madrid-Lopez and Angelica Mendoza Beltran and Gara Villalba Mendez},

url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0169204621000189},

doi = {10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104055},

issn = {01692046},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-06-01},

journal = {Landscape and Urban Planning},

volume = {210},

pages = {104055},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {The Covid-19 pandemic newly brings food resilience in cities to our attention and the need to question the desired degree of food self-sufficiency through urban agriculture. While these questions are by no means new and periodically entering the global research focus and policy discussions during periods of crises \textemdash the last time during the global financial crisis and resulting food price increases in 2008 \textemdash urban and peri-urban agriculture continue to be replaced by land-uses rendering higher market values (e.g. housing, transport, leisure). The loss of priority for urban agriculture in urban land-use planning is a global trend with only a few exceptions. We argue in this essay that this development has widely taken place due to three blind spots in urban planning. First, the limited consideration of social and ecological vulnerabilities and risk-related inequalities of urban inhabitants, food shortage among them, in the face of different scenarios of global change, including climate change or pandemic events such as Covid-19. Second, the disregard of the intensified negative environmental (and related social) externalities caused by distant agricultural production, as well as lacking consideration of nutrient re-cycling potentials in cities (e.g. from wastewater) to replace emission intensive mineral fertilizer use. Third, the lack of accounting for the multifunctionality of urban agriculture and the multiple benefits it provides beyond the provision of food, including social benefits and insurance values, for instance the maintenance of cultural heritage and agro-biodiversity. Along these lines, we argue that existing and new knowledge about urban risks and vulnerabilities, the spatially explicit urban metabolism (e.g. energy, water, nutrients), as well as ecosystem services need to be stronger and jointly considered in land-use decision-making.},

keywords = {Ecosystem services, Environmental externalities, Food resilience, urban agriculture, Urban metabolism},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Toboso-Chavero2021,

title = {Incorporating user preferences in rooftop food-energy-water production through integrated sustainability assessment *},

author = {Susana Toboso-Chavero and Cristina Madrid-L\'{o}pez and Xavier Gabarrell Durany and Gara Villalba},

url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/abffa5 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/abffa5/meta},

doi = {10.1088/2515-7620/abffa5},

issn = {2515-7620},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-06-01},

journal = {Environmental Research Communications},

volume = {3},

number = {6},

pages = {065001},

publisher = {IOP Publishing},

abstract = {With the overall aim to design successful implementation strategies of food-energy-water production systems on urban roofs, we propose an integrated process that includes participatory processes and a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of environmental, social and economic indicators. The proposed framework was applied to a typical housing estate in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona made up of 201 buildings and 13,466 inhabitants and characterized by a high share of low-income families. We assess several future scenarios of joint electricity production (photovoltaic panels), vegetable production (through open-air farming and greenhouses), green roof implementation and rainwater harvesting and rank them according to non-participatory and participatory approaches. In general, there was a tendency for residents to choose strategies providing energy and water rather than the food production potential of rooftops. However, the environmental assessment indicated that the least impacting alternatives from a life cycle approach were those promoting vegetable production, meeting 42 to 56% of the residents' fresh produce demand and reducing environmental impacts by 24 to 37 kg CO2eq m−2 of rooftop/year. Hence, we found that residents were mainly concerned with energy expenses and not so much with food insecurity, social cohesion or the impacts of long-distance supply chains. Our assessment supports urban sustainability and helps identify and breach the gap between scientific and user preferences in urban environmental proposals by informing and educating residents through a participatory integrated assessment.},

keywords = {Citizen science, Energy and water poverty, Farm to fork, Public participation, urban agriculture, Urban sustainability},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{TobosoChavero2021,

title = {More than the sum of the parts: System analysis of the usability of roofs in housing estates},

author = {Susana Toboso‐Chavero and Gara Villalba and Xavier Gabarrell Durany and Cristina Madrid‐L\'{o}pez},

url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.13114 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.13114 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13114},

doi = {10.1111/jiec.13114},

issn = {1088-1980},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-03-01},

journal = {Journal of Industrial Ecology},

pages = {jiec.13114},

publisher = {John Wiley & Sons, Ltd},

abstract = {Housing estates, that is, mass social housing on middle- and high-rise apartment blocks, in urban areas are found all over the world with very similar constructive patterns and a multiplicity of environmental and socio-economic problems. In this regard, such areas are optimal for the implementation of a roof mosaic which involves applying a combination of urban farming, solar energy, and harvesting rainwater systems (decentralized systems) on unoccupied roofs. To design sustainable and productive roof mosaic scenarios, we develop an integrated framework through a multi-scale (municipality, building, and household) and multi-dimensional analysis (environmental and socio-economic, structural, and functional) to optimize the supply of essential resources (food, energy, and water). The proposed workflow was applied to a housing estate to rehabilitate unused rooftops (66,433 m2). First, using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism methodology, we determined metabolic rates across buildings and municipality levels, which did not vary significantly (12.60\textendash14.50 g/h for vegetables, 0.82\textendash1.11 MJ/h for electricity, 0.80\textendash1.11 MJ/h for heating, and 5.62\textendash6.59 L/h for water). Second, based on a participatory process involving stakeholders to qualitatively analyze potential scenarios further in terms of preferences, five scenarios were chosen. These rooftop scenarios were found to improve the resource self-sufficiency of housing estate residents by providing 42\textendash53% of their vegetable consumption, 9\textendash35% of their electricity use, and 38\textendash200% of their water needs depending on the scenario. Boosting new urban spaces of resource production involves citizens in sites which face social and economic needs. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.},

keywords = {industrial ecology, rainwater harvesting, Renewable energy, roof mosaic, urban agriculture, Urban metabolism},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}