Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Faculty of Agronomy and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Rruga Paisi Vodica, 1029 Tirana, Albania

Associação CECOLAB, Collaborative Laboratory towards Circular Economy, R. Nossa Senhora da Conceição, 3405-155 Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal

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Department of Chemical Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

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Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium

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Center for Advanced Process Technology for Urban REsource Recovery (CAPTURE), 9000 Gent, Belgium

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Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems-National Research Council (IRET-CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 19, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

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Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

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Department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, 6707 Wageningen, The Netherlands

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Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, Istanbul 34342, Turkey

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Alchemia-Nova, Institute for Circular Economy & Nature-Based Solutions, 1140 Vienna, Austria

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Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Økernveien 94, N-0579 Oslo, Norway

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LeAF BV, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 Wageningen, The Netherlands

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Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, University of Sofia, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria

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Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

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Institute of Natural Resources Science, Zurich University of Applied Science, 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland

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Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, Via Branze 43, 25123 Brescia, Italy

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Academic Editor: Carmen Teodosiu

Water 2021, 13(22), 3153; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223153

Received: 30 September 2021 / Revised: 29 October 2021 / Accepted: 30 October 2021 / Published: 9 November 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Circular Cities)

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Abstract

Cities are producers of high quantities of secondary liquid and solid streams that are still poorly utilized within urban systems. In order to tackle this issue, there has been an ever-growing push for more efficient resource management and waste prevention in urban areas, following the concept of a circular economy. This review paper provides a characterization of urban solid and liquid resource flows (including water, nutrients, metals, potential energy, and organics), which pass through selected nature-based solutions (NBS) and supporting units (SU), expanding on that characterization through the study of existing cases. In particular, this paper presents the currently implemented NBS units for resource recovery, the applicable solid and liquid urban waste streams and the SU dedicated to increasing the quality and minimizing hazards of specific streams at the source level (e.g., concentrated fertilizers, disinfected recovered products). The recovery efficiency of systems, where NBS and SU are combined, operated at a micro- or meso-scale and applied at technology readiness levels higher than 5, is reviewed. The importance of collection and transport infrastructure, treatment and recovery technology, and (urban) agricultural or urban green reuse on the quantity and quality of input and output materials are discussed, also regarding the current main circularity and application challenges. View Full-Text

Keywords: circularity challenges; nature-based solutions; supporting units; urban streams; circular cities

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MDPI and ACS Style

van Hullebusch, E.D.; Bani, A.; Carvalho, M.; Cetecioglu, Z.; De Gusseme, B.; Di Lonardo, S.; Djolic, M.; van Eekert, M.; Griessler Bulc, T.; Haznedaroglu, B.Z.; Istenič, D.; Kisser, J.; Krzeminski, P.; Melita, S.; Pavlova, D.; Płaza, E.; Schoenborn, A.; Thomas, G.; Vaccari, M.; Wirth, M.; Hartl, M.; Zeeman, G. Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities. Water 2021, 13, 3153. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223153

AMA Style

van Hullebusch ED, Bani A, Carvalho M, Cetecioglu Z, De Gusseme B, Di Lonardo S, Djolic M, van Eekert M, Griessler Bulc T, Haznedaroglu BZ, Istenič D, Kisser J, Krzeminski P, Melita S, Pavlova D, Płaza E, Schoenborn A, Thomas G, Vaccari M, Wirth M, Hartl M, Zeeman G. Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities. Water. 2021; 13(22):3153. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223153

Chicago/Turabian Style

van Hullebusch, Eric D., Aida Bani, Miguel Carvalho, Zeynep Cetecioglu, Bart De Gusseme, Sara Di Lonardo, Maja Djolic, Miriam van Eekert, Tjaša Griessler Bulc, Berat Z. Haznedaroglu, Darja Istenič, Johannes Kisser, Pawel Krzeminski, Sanna Melita, Dolja Pavlova, Elżbieta Płaza, Andreas Schoenborn, Geraldine Thomas, Mentore Vaccari, Maria Wirth, Marco Hartl, and Grietje Zeeman. 2021. "Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities" Water 13, no. 22: 3153. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223153

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Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

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