Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SiEUGreen (Sino-European innovative green and smart cities)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31
The world is facing grand challenges such as climate change, pollution, water supply and food security. A specific challenge is to improve livelihoods. More than 50% of the world's population lives in cities. As the percentage of urban dwellers increases, the actions of cities will play an increasing role in solving global challenges. The project “Sino-European innovative green and smart cities” (SiEUGreen) addresses the above issues through testing combinations of urban agriculture approaches and technologies based on a circular economy. One of SiEUGreen's most emphasized aspirations was to enhance EU-China cooperation in promoting urban agriculture for food security, resource efficiency. The project sought to contribute to the implementation of a circular economy at a global level while improving the well-being and quality of life of urban residents. Throughout SiEUGreen’s implementation, EU and China have shared technologies and experiences, thus contributing to the future developments of urban agriculture and urban resilience in both continents.
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”.
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”.
The five showcases, three in Europe and two in China, are the core of the SiEUGreen project. The major activities have focused on the preparation for the deployment of these showcases. The mapping of the showcases and strategic planning for the data collection was carried out based on the central concepts of SiEUGreen: land use, food security (access to sufficient nutritious food), efficient and sustainable use of resources and societal inclusion. The major crop-cultivating techniques (green tech); paper-based, hydroponics, aquaponics, and soil (composts or peat) based systems have been implemented in the SiEUGreen showcases. The project shows how to convert waste from households, such as human excreta, wastewater, and organic household waste, to products like biogas, compost/growth media, biochar and solid and liquid fertilizer for urban agriculture and urban greening. The project has evaluated different ways of composting organic household waste, including vermicomposting.
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.
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.
SiEUGreen envisions the city as a hub in a circular economy, where pollution is nearly eliminated, greenhouse gas emissions significantly reduced, and stormwater is handled through green technologies that also reduce noise and improve air quality. On top of this, significant amounts of food are produced. This “greening” of the city has positive effects on the health and happiness of the city dwellers. The overall concept of SiEUGreen, exposed through showcases, will elucidate one possible alley of social and technical innovations through which the above vision can be achieved.
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.
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.