8 results on '"Dorr, Erica"'
Search Results
2. Food production and resource use of urban farms and gardens: a five-country study
- Author
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Dorr, Erica, Hawes, Jason K., Goldstein, Benjamin, Fargue-Lelièvre, Agnès, Fox-Kämper, Runrid, Specht, Kathrin, Fedeńczak, Konstancja, Caputo, Silvio, Cohen, Nevin, Poniży, Lidia, Schoen, Victoria, Górecki, Tomasz, Newell, Joshua P., Jean-Soro, Liliane, and Grard, Baptiste
- Published
- 2023
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3. FEW-meter Final Report
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Caputo Silvio, Dorr Erica, Fox-Kämper Runrid, Hawes Jason K., Lelièvre Agnes, Newell Josh, Poniży Lidia, Schoen Victoria, Jean-Soro Liliane, Specht Kathrin, and Yaman Rokiah
- Subjects
urban farm ,community garden ,allotment garden ,resources efficiency ,Food-Water-Energy Nexus ,food production ,Urban agriculture - Abstract
The FEW-meter project was developed by an international consortium comprising researchers, practitioners, and associations in the urban agriculture sector from five countries: France, Germany, Poland, the UK, and the US. The project was funded under the Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative (SUGI), Food-Water- Energy Nexus call, established by a Joint Programming Initiative of the Belmont Forum and Urban Europe. The consortium´s submission proposed to investigate the FEW-nexus in urban agriculture. At the core of our project is the collaboration between researchers, farmers and gardeners. We invited associations to cooperate, such as the Polish Allotment Gardeners Association, the German Landesverband Westfalen und Lippe der Kleingärtner, which represent allotments holders in the regions of these countries where some case studies are located, Jardin des Eglantiers - a local French allotment garden association, Social Farms & Gardens (the UK charity representing community gardens and city farms), and Green City Force (a US-based organization training young people from low-income social housing communities to farm). Their insights, experience and dedication were invaluable and enabled the co-production of new knowledge. They supported the recruitment of case studies, participated in workshops and, together with farmers and gardeners from our case studies, provided constructive feedback for the development of the project’s methodology and data analysis. This report presents the main outcomes of the three-year FEW-meter project. 
- Published
- 2022
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4. Proper selection of substrates and crops enhances the sustainability of Paris rooftop garden
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Dorr, Erica, Sanyé-Mengual, Esther, Gabrielle, Benoît, Grard, Baptiste J-P, and Aubry, Christine
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- 2017
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5. Best practices for consistent and reliable life cycle assessments of urban agriculture.
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Dorr, Erica, Goldstein, Benjamin, Aubry, Christine, Gabrielle, Benoit, and Horvath, Arpad
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URBAN agriculture , *PRODUCT life cycle assessment , *BEST practices , *CARBON sequestration , *ECOSYSTEM services , *GREEN infrastructure - Abstract
There is increasing interest in evaluating the environmental performance of urban agriculture (UA), primarily using life cycle assessment (LCA). However, LCA has been applied to UA inconsistently, making it difficult to confidently compare or draw conclusions from existing studies. This article outlines the key challenges of applying LCA to UA and recommends concrete steps to bring consistency and comprehensiveness to the topic. The research questions that LCA can address are framed before providing practical recommendations for performing LCAs of UA, considering several of its unique aspects that require special attention by practitioners. These include crop diversity, data availability, modeling compost, soil carbon sequestration, producing growing media, distribution of crops, and variability and uncertainty. Next, the article proposes future research areas that will benefit LCA generally and its application to UA, such as framing UA as urban green infrastructure, evaluating at the city scale, accounting for ecosystem services, and including social dimensions of UA. By following these recommendations, future LCAs of UA can be more consistent, comparable, and holistic, and will help build knowledge and inform policy-making and practices around UA. [Display omitted] • Life cycle assessment can address key societal issues relevant to urban agriculture. • Its application to urban agriculture raises multiple and unique challenges. • Handling of composts, crop distribution and growing media create large uncertainties. • Practical recommendations were derived to improve the reliability of LCAs. • Accounting for ecosystem services and social dimensions should be prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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6. Life cycle assessment of eight urban farms and community gardens in France and California.
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Dorr, Erica, Goldstein, Benjamin, Aubry, Christine, Gabrielle, Benoit, and Horvath, Arpad
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PRODUCT life cycle assessment ,COMMUNITY gardens ,FOOD supply ,AQUAPONICS ,URBAN agriculture ,AGRICULTURE ,FARMS - Abstract
• Calculated environmental impacts of 8 urban farms/gardens using life cycle assessment. • Collected primary data and aimed for complete, transparent assessment. • Vertical, outdoor, professional farms had largest impacts by area; not by mass of crop. • Most impacts came from infrastructure, irrigation, compost, and peat from seedlings. • Results were highly sensitive to system modeling choices, such as compost parameters. Urban agriculture (UA) is often positioned as an environmentally sustainable food supply for cities. However, life cycle assessments (LCA) measuring environmental impacts of UA show mixed results, because of inconsistent application of LCA and reliance on hypothetical case studies. To address these shortcomings, we performed an LCA of eight urban farms and community gardens in Paris, France and San Francisco, California, USA. We collected primary data from sites representing diverse growing systems (low-intensity open-field to open-air hydroponics) and motivations (education, civic engagement, and commercial production). We found that medium-tech farms, with minimum social engagement had the lowest impacts using a kilogram-based functional unit, but socially-oriented farms had the lowest impacts with an area-based functional unit. Most impacts came from infrastructure (irrigation pipes, hydroponics structures), irrigation, compost, and peat for seedlings. Our findings can help LCA practitioners perform UA LCAs more completely/consistently, and help urban farmers/gardeners target high-environmental-impact practices to optimize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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7. Life cycle assessment of a circular, urban mushroom farm.
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Dorr, Erica, Koegler, Maximilien, Gabrielle, Benoît, and Aubry, Christine
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URBAN agriculture , *WASTE products , *ENERGY crops , *PLEUROTUS ostreatus , *ORGANIC wastes , *ENERGY consumption - Abstract
Modern food systems incur many environmental impacts, which can be mitigated by the application of circular economy principles, such as the closing of material and energy loops and the upcycling of waste products. Mushroom farming provides a relevant case in this direction because organic waste can be used for substrate as an input in the cultivation process, which produces valuable outputs such as edible foodstuffs and soil amendment. Few studies evaluate the actual environmental impacts of circular food production systems and assess their efficacy with respect to more linear alternatives. To address this research gap, we quantified the environmental impacts of a circular, urban mushroom farm next to Paris, France. We used life cycle assessment to study the production of 1 kg of fresh oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus), from the generation of substrate materials through delivery to the distribution center. Our goals were to quantify the environmental impacts of a novel type of food production system, to find the aspects of production that contribute most to these impacts, and to assess the advantages and disadvantages of circular economy for this case study. In terms of climate change impact, the product system emitted 2.99–3.18 kg CO2-eq./kg mushroom, and on-farm energy use was the top contributor to all impact categories except land use. Surprisingly, 31% of the climate change impacts came from transport throughout the supply chain, despite the local nature of the farm. Circular economy actions helped optimize the environmental performance by minimizing impacts from the use of materials, which were mostly upcycled. This suggests that further improvements could be made by reducing energy consumption on the farm or by making the transport schemes more efficient, rather than continuing to focus on the type and source of materials used. This circular, urban farm had similar climate change impacts to classical, more linear systems, but these impacts could be largely reduced by implementing appropriate actions. These were identified and discussed with the farmers, factoring in their feasibility. • Climate change impacts were 2.99–3.18 kg CO 2 eq. per kilogram of fresh mushroom. • A large portion of environmental impacts came from energy use on the farm. • Circularity led to low impacts from input materials, but high impacts from transport. • Improving sanitary measures to increase yield would greatly reduce impacts. • Impacts were similar to typical mushroom farms, but can be much lower if optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2021
- Full Text
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8. Proper selection of substrates and crops enhances the sustainability of Paris rooftop garden
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Esther Sanyé-Mengual, Christine Aubry, Erica Dorr, Baptiste Grard, Benoit Gabrielle, Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires (SADAPT), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna [Bologna] (UNIBO), Ecologie fonctionnelle et écotoxicologie des agroécosystèmes (ECOSYS), AgroParisTech, Université Paris Saclay (COmUE), Dorr, Erica, Sanyé-Mengual, Esther, Gabrielle, Benoît, Grard, Baptiste J-P, and Aubry, Christine
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compost ,Environmental Engineering ,020209 energy ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Building-integrated agriculture ,building-integrated agriculture ,substrate ,life cycle assessment ,rooftop garden ,urban agriculture ,02 engineering and technology ,Agricultural engineering ,010501 environmental sciences ,01 natural sciences ,12. Responsible consumption ,[SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences ,11. Sustainability ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Environmental impact assessment ,Urban agriculture ,Life-cycle assessment ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,2. Zero hunger ,Sustainable development ,business.industry ,15. Life on land ,6. Clean water ,Potting soil ,13. Climate action ,Agriculture ,Sustainability ,[SDE]Environmental Sciences ,Environmental science ,business ,Agronomy and Crop Science - Abstract
International audience; Rooftop gardens are a promising way to supplement the growing demand for local food production, and are especially relevant in large cities with acute space constraints. However, they face the challenge of achieving viable food productivity while minimizing their impacts on the environment, two priorities that often oppose one another. Also, the actual impacts of management practices, which are deemed environmentally friendly in principle, are rarely quantified. Therefore, evaluations that encompass all components of urban gardens and a comprehensive range of environmental issues are necessary to reveal potential trade-offs and provide guidance in the design of these systems. In this study, we evaluated the environmental and economic impacts of rooftop gardening practices, focusing on crop and substrate selection, which are key parameters in system design but whose consequences have seldom been evaluated so far. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) were used to analyze a case study in the center of Paris (France). The production systems considered involved crop rotations of tomato and lettuce each grown in three different substrate types: compost and wood chips; compost, wood chips, and earthworms; and conventional potting soil. Despite the large environmental burdens of compost production, systems with compost performed better environmentally and economically than the system involving potting soil, specifically having 17-47% less greenhouse gas emissions per kg of product. Across systems, length of cultivation and yield appeared to be the most influential determinants of the environmental impacts. Within the compost systems, the most impactful component was the material used for garden infrastructure, and substrate production for the potting soil systems. This is the first study that considers compost as a substrate, weighs its benefits and impacts, incorporates it into a complete garden, and compares it to potting soil. Our results demonstrate that careful system design could significantly abate environmental impacts. They provide critically needed information to people implementing urban rooftop agriculture and considering the trade-offs involved in each decision.; Rooftop garden
- Published
- 2017
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