Mendoza Beltran, A., Padró, R., La Rota-Aguilera, M. J. et al. 2022. “Displaying geographic variability of peri-urban agriculture environmental impacts in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona: A regionalized life cycle assessment” Science of the Total Environment 858: 159519.

Peri-urban agriculture can supply food locally and potentially more sustainably than far-away conventional agricultural systems. It can also introduce significant environmental impacts depending on the local biophysical conditions and resources required to implement it and, on the crops managing practices, which could vary widely among growers. To show the importance of impact assessment regionalization for the environmental assessment of peri urban agriculture, we regionalize eutrophication impacts characterization. We use the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona to illustrate these methodological developments. Vegetables and greenhouses, the prevalent peri urban agriculture land uses, had the largest impacts assessed. For fruit crops, on-site N emissions drive marine eutrophication impacts and for irrigated herbaceous crops, P runoff drives freshwater eutrophication impacts. This study provides a fundamental baseline needed to assess ecological transition scenarios of peri urban agriculture at an appropriate geographic level of analysis and gives essential knowledge to guide appropriate circular and sustainability strategies for the sector.