EAGER: FEW: Life cycle comparison of water, energy, nutrient, and carbon requirements of urban and conventional food production strategies

人们提出了各种城市食品生产策略，以减少为城市居民提供食物所需的能源，减少洪水，增加水的回用，增加城市生物多样性，改善城市居民健康新鲜食品的供应，并刺激经济发展。然而，城市粮食生产对水、养分和能源的需求尚未确定，其对洪水和水质的影响也没有记录在案。为了满足这些需求，本项目将对芝加哥地区的三个城市农业示范点进行测量和监测，并利用所得数据评估城市粮食生产替代战略对城市水、能源和营养的影响。该项目将1)为城市粮食系统开发一个通用的技术-经济生命周期建模框架；2)监测城市粮食生产中的水、能源、养分和碳平衡；3)为这些地点的水文和生物地球化学动力学开发基于物理的模型；4)将这些数据和过程模型整合到技术-经济模型中，以便比较整个生命周期的能源、水、养分、以及不同的城市粮食生产策略对碳的影响，以及相对于同一种作物的传统生产。可用于量化城市粮食生产对水、能源、养分和碳的需求及其影响的数据很少。该项目将产生新的数据，为三种可供选择的城市粮食生产战略提供基于过程和技术经济模型的参数化。该项目将通过风城收获项目（WCH）与芝加哥植物园合作进行。这项合作每年将吸引约200名学生（9-14年级）和社区成员参与项目科学活动，并使项目成果能够直接用于改善城市食品生产设施的设计和运营。该项目还将涉及西北大学的一项学生科学研究，从而每年约有700名本科生参与分析从WCH站点获得的样品中的金属浓度。总体而言，该项目将提供评估在区域范围内部署城市粮食生产可能产生的潜在影响程度的能力，以及设计这些生产系统和优化其在城市景观中的位置所需的信息，并让大约2000名学生和社区成员参与分析和发展可持续的城市粮食生产。

A variety of urban food production strategies have been proposed to reduce energy required to provide food to urban residents, reduce flooding, increase water reuse, increase biodiversity in cities, improve supplies of healthy fresh food to urban residents, and stimulate economic development. However, the water, nutrient, and energy requirements of urban food production have not been determined, and the resulting impacts on flooding and water quality have not been documented. To meet these needs, this project will instrument and monitor three urban agriculture demonstration sites in the Chicago area, and use the resulting data to assess the effects of alternative urban food production strategies on water, energy, and nutrients in cities. The project will 1) develop a general techno-economic life-cycle modeling framework for urban food systems, 2) monitor water, energy, nutrient, and carbon balances in urban food production, 3) develop physically-based models for hydrologic and biogeochemical dynamics at these sites, and 4) integrate these data and process models into the techno-economic model in order to compare whole-lifecycle energy, water, nutrient, and carbon impacts of alternative urban food production strategies relative to each other and to conventional production of the same crops. Very little data are available to quantify the water, energy, nutrient, and carbon requirements and impacts of urban food production. The projectwill yield novel data enabling parameterization of both process-based and techno-economic models for three alternative urban food production strategies. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden through the Windy City Harvest program (WCH). This collaboration will engage apporoximately 200 students (grades 9-14) and community members per year in project science activities, and enable direct use of project results to improve design and operation of urban food production facilities. The project will also involve a student-science effort at Northwestern University, thereby engaging approximately 700 undergraduate students per year to analyze metals concentrations in samples obtained from WCH sites. Overall, the project will provide capability to estimate the magnitude of potential impacts that could be achieved by deploying urban food production at regional scales, along with information needed to design these production systems and optimize their location within urban landscapes, and engage approximately 2,000 students and community members in analysis and development of sustainable urban food production.