Integrating Horticulture into Cities: A Guide for Assessing the Implementation Potential of Rooftop Greenhouses (RTGs) in Industrial and Logistics Parks

Abstract

Recently, the application of rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) to integrate agriculture into cities has increased, although the area where they can be potentially implemented has not been quantified yet. Consequently, this paper aims to design a guide to evaluate the potential implementation of RTGs in industrial and logistics parks and to apply the guide to the case study of Zona Franca Park (Barcelona, Spain). Eight percent of the rooftops were identified as feasible for a short-term implementation of RTG, according to the defined technical, economic, legal, and agricultural criteria. Estimations indicated that the annual tomato production in this area could account for almost 2,000 tons, which is equivalent to the yearly tomato demand of 150,000 people. Besides, this production could substitute imported tomatoes, and avoiding their distribution would represent savings of 65.25 t of CO₂ eq·m⁻².

Keywords:

• cities
• urban agriculture
• food self-sufficiency
• rooftop greenhouse
• industrial and logistics parks

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the managers of the Consortium of the Zona Franca Park for the information supplied, the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) for the financial support to the research project “Agrourban sustainability through rooftop greenhouses. Ecoinnovation on residual flows of energy, water and CO2 for food production” (CTM2013-47067-C2-1-R), and the Spanish Ministerio de Educación (MECD) for awarding a research scholarship (AP2010-4044) to Esther Sanyé Mengual.

Notes on Contributors

Esther Sanyé-Mengual is a PhD student at the Sostenipra research group of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Ileana Cerón-Palma is a researcher at the Sostenipra research group (ICTA-UAB) and executive director of Inèdit Ecoinnovación e Investigación Ambiental S de RL de CV (Mérida, México).

Jordi Oliver-Solà is a researcher at the Sostenipra research group (ICTA-UAB) and executive director of Inèdit Innovació (Barcelona, Spain).

Juan Ignacio Montero is a researcher at the Sostenipra research group (IRTA-UAB) in the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA).

Joan Rieradevall is a researcher at the Sostenipra research group (ICTA-UAB) and professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).