Socio-environmental consideration of phosphorus flows in the urban sanitation chain of contrasting cities.,Regional Environmental Change

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Socio-environmental consideration of phosphorus flows in the urban sanitation chain of contrasting cities.
Regional Environmental Change ( IF 4.2 ) Pub Date : 2017-12-19 , DOI: 10.1007/s10113-017-1257-7
Geneviève S Metson _{1,

2} , Steve M Powers ₃ , Rebecca L Hale ₄ , Jesse S Sayles ₅ , Gunilla Öberg ₆ , Graham K MacDonald ₅ , Yusuke Kuwayama ₇ , Nathaniel P Springer ₈ , Anthony J Weatherley ₉ , Kelly L Hondula ₁₀ , Kristal Jones ₁₀ , Rubel B Chowdhury ₉ , Arthur H W Beusen _{11,

12} , Alexander F Bouwman _{11,

12}

Affiliation

1Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
2National Research Council, National Academies of Science, USA and School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA USA.
3Washington State University, Pullman, WA USA.
4Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID USA.
5Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada.
6Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada.
7Resources for the Future, Washington, DC USA.
8Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN USA.
9Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC Australia.
10National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD USA.
11Department of Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
12PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Understanding how cities can transform organic waste into a valuable resource is critical to urban sustainability. The capture and recycling of phosphorus (P), and other essential nutrients, from human excreta is particularly important as an alternative organic fertilizer source for agriculture. However, the complex set of socio-environmental factors influencing urban human excreta management is not yet sufficiently integrated into sustainable P research. Here, we synthesize information about the pathways P can take through urban sanitation systems along with barriers and facilitators to P recycling across cities. We examine five case study cities by using a sanitation chains approach: Accra, Ghana; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Beijing, China; Baltimore, USA; and London, England. Our cross-city comparison shows that London and Baltimore recycle a larger percentage of P from human excreta back to agricultural lands than other cities, and that there is a large diversity in socio-environmental factors that affect the patterns of recycling observed across cities. Our research highlights conditions that may be “necessary but not sufficient” for P recycling, including access to capital resources. Path dependencies of large sanitation infrastructure investments in the Global North contrast with rapidly urbanizing cities in the Global South, which present opportunities for alternative sanitation development pathways. Understanding such city-specific social and environmental barriers to P recycling options could help address multiple interacting societal objectives related to sanitation and provide options for satisfying global agricultural nutrient demand.

更新日期：2017-12-19

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