On July 2023, URBAG participated at the X International Conference of Life Cycle Assessment in Latin America (CILCA 2023) with the presentation "Unlocking the potential of municipal solid waste compost for urban and peri-urban agriculture: Nutrient recirculation in metropolitan areas". It was the tenth edition of this conference, which is intended for users of tools based on life cycle thinking at different levels.
On July 2023, URBAG participated at the International Conference of Industrial Ecology (ISIE) with two presentations. Juan David Arosemena presented his research which aims to determine the capacity and environmental impacts of supplying macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from composting organic municipal solid waste. Gara Villalba presented the A decision approach to evaluate the design and implementation of green infrastructures in urban environments.
El Consell Metropolità ha aprovat, en sessió extraordinària de data 21 de març de 2023, els documents del Pla Director Urbanístic Metropolità (PDUM) publicats al BOPB. Aquest nou instrument substitueix l'antic Pla General Metropolità (PGM) aprovat el 1976. La nova normativa potencia molt l’estructura verda, així com altres mesures no vinculades amb el verd. Aquí es on el grup URBAG ha aportat els seus estudis.
S'ha preparat un breu resum de l'estat de l'art i consideracions per l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona sobre els impactes de les infraestructures verdes urbanes en la qualitat de l'aire. A continuació, es descriuen alguns dels punts que es tracten en aquest document.
On the 17th of March 2023, URBAG conducted a workshop session in the second Edible City Network Conference held in Barcelona. The session was focused in presenting a comprehensive vision of the current urban agriculture challenges and opportunities, by considering both social and environmental perspectives, while employing the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona as case study.
The agricultural land of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has been reduced from 20% to 8-9% over the past decades, despite urban gardening being supported by municipal actions. Urban agriculture constitutes a nature-based solution to several societal challenges.
Alba Badia gave a talk on “How green infrastructures impact urban air quality over Barcelona” in which she discussed the air quality changes between the reference scenario and the scenarios that have been designed by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB)’s office of urban planning.
Gara Villalba gave a talk on "Urban Green Infrastructures: Opportunities for Circularity of Resources and Resilience" in which she discussed the work done by the URBAG project, more specifically on energy-water-nutrients nexus of peri-urban agriculture using the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona as a case study.
Two presentations from URBAG members have been shared in the latest EGU's annual General Assembly EGU22, hosted in Vienna, Austria. Thanks to the hybrid format, over 14,000 attendees from 116 countries have shared each work throughout the week-long conference from 23-27 May 2022.
Green roofs provide a good opportunity for creating new green spaces in urban dense areas and offer a wide range of benefits. The city of Oslo has ambitious plans for improving its environmental performance in aspects such as energy consumption, water management and greenhouse gas emissions.
Green corridors (Eixos Verds in Catalan) are urban strips with a high presence of vegetation that cross the urban fabric and link the different areas of the city. Currently, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) bares the potential to create more than 750 km.