Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SiEUGreen (Sino-European innovative green and smart cities)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31
SiEUGreen demonstrated how domestic organic waste can be converted to biogas, compost and solid or liquid fertilizer for urban agriculture. SiEUGreen demonstrated this through five showcases: Changsha and Beijing, China; Hatay, Turkey; Aarhus, Denmark and Campus Ås, Norway. The showcases represent different environments and engage stakeholders from the individual to the national level. Many individual solutions assessed in SiEUGreen can easily be put into use without further testing. Nevertheless, some of the solutions requires more experimentation, large-scale tests and validation both concerning their efficiency, positive environmental impacts, as well as economic viability. There are also several regulatory challenges concerning waste and waste management that need to be addressed, as well as social acceptance and awareness concerning the value of “waste”.
Campus Ås showcase in Norway demonstrated how different technologies are combined to turn waste into resources in a circular system. This showcase provides valuable lessons on how to engage diverse sectors of society (such as urban planning, social, health, and educational sectors) while capitalizing on available resources (e.g. underutilized spaces in the city, human resources). The Green house built as a part of Hatay showcase in Turkey introduced new technologies to produce food in the region and to promote social integration of vulnerable groups .The greenhouse became an educational center offering training on aquaponics, hydroponics, and paper-based microgreen cultivation techniques to disadvantaged groups (specifically, Syrian refugees, low-income residents, and women).The Chinese showcase Sanyuan Farm’s demonstrated resource-efficient UA and a healthy, happy lifestyle. The farm demonstrates the implementation of aquaponics technology to grow vegetables and on recovering nutrients from organic waste. The Futiancangjun residential area in Changsha showcase in China, demonstrated a resource-efficient, intelligent, and sustainable urban development with reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste, local supply of safe food, and effective utilization of solar energy. The Chinese have refined components in the wastewater system and applied for several patents.
A novel, indicator-based sustainability assessment tool-the SiEUGreen monitoring framework for UA – has been developed and tested. Strategies to engage stakeholders in urban agriculture as well as the different technologies applied in the five showcases were developed and have been the basis for the continuous interchange with the stakeholders to evaluate the validity of these strategies. Several commercial and non-commercial exploitation possibilities were identified in SiEUGreen. Business opportunities for SiEUGreen results with commercial exploitation potential has been identified and analyzed. Specific plan of disseminating non-commercial exploitable outputs were also developed. The main tools that were included in this plan were scientific publications, non-scientific publications (practice abstracts), conferences.
Many of the planting techniques and waste treatment technologies of SiEUGreen are developed or used one by one in other contexts, but the combination to achieve circular systems is new. However, local treatment of household waste for food production in densely populated areas is challenging. SiEUGreen combine European and Chinese know-how. This contributes to speeding up the development of sustainable societies in both Europe and China. However, the success will depend on showcase deployment, good communication between the continents and effective dissemination of results and solutions to governments, policymakers, developers, and the general public.
SiEUGreen technologies demonstrated in showcases have had substantial impacts in a variety of dimensions. There are land use benefits (i.e. reuse of unused lands) observed at the municipality level. In terms of food security, the use of SiEUGreen technologies increases food production as compared to food production without the technology or with the use of traditional practices, making more food available in urban areas. SiEUGreen technologies also contributes to increasing environmental resilience and resource efficiency (i.e. through water management, waste generation and use, and energy and climate). Moreover, the activities in SiEUGreen showcases support inclusive society by providing opportunities for different stakeholders to participate in urban agriculture activities and decision making, social capital development, and employment. Furthermore, the results of this project also suggest that people are willing to pay different forms of agriculture but there are different factors that affect their willingness to pay.