Title: Sensitivity study of PBL schemes and soil initialization using the WRF-BEP-BEM model over a Mediterranean coastal city / Due to increased urbanization and global warming, cities are experiencing more heat wave (HW) events that cause extreme heat stress. To mitigate such effects, a better understanding of the impact of urban morphology on the boundary layer development is needed.
The URBAG group is searching for a postdoctoral candidate for the María Zambrano grants aimed to attract international talent to the ICTA-UAB. Three lines of research: 1. Urban GHG monitoring and observations, 2.Urban climate and urban atmospheric modeling, air quality and GHG modeling, and 3. Regionalizing life cycle assessment and environmental evaluation
Title: A take-home message from COVID-19 on urban air pollution reduction through mobility limitations and teleworking / The rigorous traffic limitations during COVID-19 have forced many people to work from home, reaching an outstanding degree of teleworking and reduction in air pollution
Greetings from the URBAG team at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB)! We are happy to share with you our second newsletter, to keep you updated of what we have done so far in our project URBAG: Integrated System Analysis of Urban Vegetation and Agriculture.
Title: Recovered phosphorus for a more resilient urban agriculture: Assessment of the fertilizer potential of struvite in hydroponics / Urban agriculture (UA) is a means for cities to become more resilient in terms of food sovereignty while shortening the distance between production and consumption. However, intensive soilless UA still depends on the use of fertilizers, which relies on depleting non-renewable resources.
Title: Exploring the Potential of Using Carbonyl Sulfide to Track the Urban Biosphere Signal / Cities are implementing additional urban green as a means to capture CO2 and become more carbon neutral. However, cities are complex systems where anthropogenic and natural components of the CO2 budget interact with each other, and the ability to measure the efficacy of such measures is still not properly addressed.
Title: Optimizing irrigation in urban agriculture for tomato crops in rooftop greenhouses / The rise of population in urban areas makes it ever more important to promote urban agriculture (UA) that is efficient in terms of water and nutrients. How to meet the irrigation demand of UA is of particular concern in urban areas where water sources are often limited.
Title: Incorporating user preferences in rooftop food-energy-water production through integrated sustainability assessment / We propose an integrated process that includes participatory processes and a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of environmental, social and economic indicators.
The URBAG members worked on three presentations during the EGU 2021 conference, where 18 155 scientists from 136 different countries have met. With approximately 13 000 users per day, the conference has been considered a resounding success. The sessions have been conditioned by the global Covid-19 pandemic, forcing it to be carried out in virtual format.
Soilless crop production is a viable way to promote vertical agriculture in urban areas, but it relies extensively on the use of mineral fertilizer. The benefits of fresher, local food and avoiding the transportation and packaging associated with food import could be counteracted by an increase in nutrient-rich wastewater, which could contribute to freshwater and marine eutrophication.
The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) bares the potential to create more than 750 km. of Green Corridors: urban strips with high presence of vegetation that cross the urban fabric and link the different areas of the city, used mainly by pedestrians and cyclists.
In this study, we show the effectiveness of cool roofs and vegetation in reducing temperature in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB). We use the Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model with the urban scheme BEP+BEM.