A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Commercialized Hydroponics vs. Aquaponics for Vegetable Production in New Jersey

1946746(μ)。该项目将进行生命周期比较评估，以量化在新泽西州人口稠密地区建造的五个商业化设施（三个水培设施和两个水培设施）中采用两种水基耕作技术生产蔬菜的资源利用以及环境和人类健康影响。研究小组将进行现场数据收集和软件建模，以进行LCA。分析范围将涵盖设施建设、蔬菜生产和上游供应链的所有影响。该项目旨在提高人们对水培法和水培法的认识，为改进技术提供建议，并指导人们在各种耕作技术中进行选择。这项研究有可能导致在城市地区更多地应用水基农业，并为无法获得新鲜和营养食物的城市居民增加另一种食物供应来源。增加申请可以帮助减少饥饿，增加城市的粮食多样性、独立性和弹性。此外，该项目将扩展可持续农业的研究，并为学生提供学习实习机会。该项目的目标是：1)建立资源使用、蔬菜生产和设施排放的清单；2)分析各种蔬菜对环境和人类健康的影响，找出导致资源利用和影响的关键因素；3)比较LCA结果，找出资源利用和影响与设施设计、规模和蔬菜种植类型的关系。最后，本研究将讨论如何改进水培设计和操作，以减少资源消耗和影响，并为城市、社区和家庭根据不同的地点、土地和资源可用性选择水培农业技术提供一般指南。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

1946746 (Mu). This project will conduct a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify resource use and environmental and human health impacts of vegetable production with two water-based farming techniques in five commercialized facilities (three for hydroponics and two for aquaponics) built in densely populated areas in New Jersey. The research team will undertake both on-site data collection and software modeling in conducting LCA. The scope for analysis will cover all the impacts in facility establishment, vegetable production, and upstream supply chains. The project is expected to improve understanding of hydroponics and aquaponics, and provide recommendations to improve technologies and guidance to select among various farming techniques. The study has the potential to lead to greater application of water-based farming in urban areas and add another source of food supply to city dwellers that have limited access to fresh and nutritious foods. Increased applications could help reduce hunger and increase food diversity, independence, and resiliency of cities. In addition, the project will extend research on sustainable farming and provide a learning practicum for students.The project targets to: 1) Establish an inventory of resources used, vegetables produced, and emissions from the facilities; 2) Analyze environmental and human health impacts of various vegetables produced and identify key factors that cause resource use and impacts; and, 3) Compare the LCA results and figure out how resource use and impacts are related to facility design, scale, and type of vegetable growing. Finally, the study will discuss how to improve hydroponic design and operation to reduce resource consumption and impacts, and create a general guide for cities, communities, and families to select water-based farming techniques according to varied locations, land and resource availability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.