城市能源利用碳足迹分析——以厦门市为例

城市能源利用碳足迹分析综合考虑直接与间接碳排放,对于深度分析碳排放的本质过程、制定科学全面的碳减排计划具有重要意义。以厦门市为研究案例,应用碳足迹的混合分析方法,对厦门市2009年能源利用碳足迹进行了分析,除了包括传统研究中的城市能源终端利用产生的直接碳排放,还计算了跨界交通和城市主要消耗物质的内含能引起的间接碳排放。研究结果表明:(1)城市边界内的工业、交通、商业等部门的能源消耗产生的直接碳排放(即层次1和层次2)只占到总碳足迹的64%,而一直被忽略的跨界交通和城市主要消耗物质的内含能引起的间接碳排放(层次3)占到36%;(2)在直接碳排放中,工业部门的碳排放贡献率最大,占到直接碳排放的55%,其中化工行业带来的碳排放占到工业部门的25%;(3)在间接碳排放中,跨界交通引起的碳排放占间接碳排放的27%,其中长途道路运输贡献率最大,占跨界交通碳排放的38%;主要材料内含能碳排放占间接碳排的73%,其中燃料的内含能碳排放占总内含能的份额最大,达51%。;(4)从人均碳足迹角度比较,厦门市人均碳足迹和丹佛市的人均直接碳排(层次1+层次2)分别为5.74 t CO2e/人、18.9 t CO2e/人,包含3个层次的人均碳足迹分别为9.01 tCO2e/人、25.3 t CO2e/人,其中跨界交通引起的碳排放均占总碳足迹的10%左右,主要材料的内含能引起的碳排放分别占到总碳足迹的26%、15%;通过国内外典型城市不同层次碳足迹比较可见厦门还是相对低碳的,但有个显著的特点是主要消耗物质的内含碳排放比例较高,这在一定程度上说明了发展中国家城市消耗更多的基础材料,进一步证明了传统核算中忽略的第3层次碳排放核算与管理的重要性。     

Methodological Challenges in Volumetric and Impact‐Oriented Water Footprints

This work identifies shortcomings in water footprinting and discusses whether the water footprint should be a volumetric or impact‐oriented index. A key challenge is the current definition of water consumption according to which evaporated water is regarded as lost for the originating watershed per se. Continental evaporation recycling rates of up to 100% within short time and length scales show that this definition is not generally valid. Also, the inclusion of land use effects on the hydrological balance is questionable, as land transformation often leads to higher water availability due to locally increased runoff. Unless potentially negative consequences, such as flooding or waterlogging, and adverse effects on the global water cycle are considered, water credits from land transformation seem unjustified. Most impact assessment methods use ratios of annual withdrawal or consumption to renewability rates to denote local water scarcity. As these ratios are influenced by two metrics—withdrawal and availability—arid regions can be regarded as uncritical if only small fractions of the limited renewable supplies are used. Besides neglecting sensitivities to additional water uses, such indicators consider neither ground nor surface water stocks, which can buffer water shortages temporally. Authors favoring volumetric indicators claim that global freshwater appropriation is more important than local impacts, easier to determine, and less error prone than putting complex ecological interaction into mathematical models. As shown in an example, volumetric water footprints can be misleading without additional interpretation because numerically smaller footprints can cause higher impacts.     

Surveying the Environmental Footprint of Urban Food Consumption

Assessments of urban metabolism (UM) are well situated to identify the scale, components, and direction of urban and energy flows in cities and have been instrumental in benchmarking and monitoring the key levers of urban environmental pressure, such as transport, space conditioning, and electricity. Hitherto, urban food consumption has garnered scant attention both in UM accounting (typically lumped with “biomass”) and on the urban policy agenda, despite its relevance to local and global environmental pressures. With future growth expected in urban population and wealth, an accounting of the environmental footprint from urban food demand (“foodprint”) is necessary. This article reviews 43 UM assessments including 100 cities, and a total of 132 foodprints in terms of mass, carbon footprint, and ecological footprint and situates it relative to other significant environmental drivers (transport, energy, and so on) The foodprint was typically the third largest source of mass flows (average is 0.8 tonnes per capita per annum) and carbon footprint (average is 2.1 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents per capita per annum) in the reviewed cities, whereas it was generally the largest driver of urban ecological footprints (average is 1.2 global hectares per capita per annum), with large deviations based on wealth, culture, and urban form. Meat and dairy are the primary drivers of both global warming and ecological footprint impacts, with little relationship between their consumption and city wealth. The foodprint is primarily linear in form, producing significant organic exhaust from the urban system that has a strong, positive correlation to wealth. Though much of the foodprint is embodied within imported foodstuffs, cities can still implement design and policy interventions, such as improved nutrient recycling and food waste avoidance, to redress the foodprint.     

Food consumption and related water resources in Nordic cities

Many modern cities have strongly invested in the sustainability of their urban water management system. Nordic cities like Stockholm or Copenhagen are amongst pioneers in investments towards integrated urban water management. However, cities can never be fully self-sufficient due to their dependency on external (water) resources. In this paper, we quantify this water dependency with respect to food consumption in nine cities located in the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland), by means of the water footprint concept. Detailed urban water footprint assessments are scarce in the literature. By analysing national nutrition surveys, we find that urban food intake behaviour differs from national food intake behaviour. In large Nordic cities people eat generally less potatoes, milk products (without cheese), meat and animal fats and they drink less coffee than outside city borders. On the other hand, they generally eat more vegetables and vegetable oils and they drink more tea and alcoholic beverages. This leads consistently – for the six large Nordic cities Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Reykjavik – to slightly smaller food related urban water footprints (−2 to −6%) than national average values. We also analyse the water footprint for different diets based upon Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) for these cities. We assessed three healthy diet scenarios: 1) including meat (HEALTHY-MEAT), 2) pesco-vegetarian (HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG) and 3) vegetarian (HEALTHY-VEG). This shows that Nordic urban dwellers 1) eat too many animal products (red meat, milk and milk products) and sugar and drink too much alcohol and 2) they eat not enough vegetables, fruit and products from the group pulses, nuts and oilcrops. Their overall energy and protein intake is too high. A shift to a healthy diet with recommended energy and protein intake reduces the urban WF related to food consumption substantially. A shift to HEALTHY-MEAT results in a reduction of −9 to −24%, for HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG the reduction is −29 to −37%, for HEALTHY-VEG the reduction is −36 to −44%. In other words, Nordic urban dwellers can save a lot of water by shifting to a healthy diet.     

基于灰水足迹的中国城市水资源可持续利用综合评价

随着城市化的快速发展,中国城市水资源面临着水资源短缺与水环境恶化等挑战,因此加强城市水资源可持续利用对于中国可持续发展具有重要意义。基于灰水足迹核算对2016年中国地级市水资源可持续利用情况进行综合评价。研究结果表明：（1）中国城市灰水足迹水平差异大,平均值为23.40×10⁸ m³,主要集中在20.00×10⁸ m³以下。中国城市农业源灰水足迹比例占比主要在70%以上,工业源比例占比主要在20%以下,而生活源比例占比在40%以下;（2）全国灰水经济生产率在12.45-857.31元/m³范围内,地区差异明显。33%城市灰水足迹荷载系数均大于1,全国地级市灰水足迹荷载系数平均值为1.16,城市水资源利用已对水环境产生污染压力,用水不可持续;（3）城市水资源开发率与灰水足迹荷载系数呈一定程度的正相关关系,说明了城市发展对水资源利用的"量"和"质"的压力作用具有一定的协同关系;（4）水资源可持续利用程度呈现大型城市 > 特大型城市 > 超大型城市 > 中小型城市,城市发展一定程度上有助于水资源的可持续利用,但发展规模过大可能会造成用水高产而护水低效的现象。因地制宜的实行水资源循环经济发展模式以及适时纳入灰水足迹核算与管理体系,是当前城市化大背景下实现水资源可持续利用的重要途径。     

环境足迹的核算与整合框架——基于生命周期评价的视角

环境足迹及其与生命周期评价(LCA)的关系是工业生态学关注的新热点。从探讨环境足迹与LCA的关系入手,以碳足迹、水足迹、土地足迹和材料足迹为例,分别对每一项足迹指标两个版本的核算方法进行了比较。根据清单加和过程的特点,将所有足迹指标划分为基于权重因子和基于特征因子两类,总结了两者的适用性和局限性。在此基础上提出了一个环境足迹核算与整合的统一框架。该框架基于LCA视角建立,但对系统边界和清单数据的要求相对灵活,因而也适用于生命周期不甚明确的情形。研究在一定程度上揭示了足迹指标的方法学实质,同时也为环境影响综合评估提供了一条规范化的途径。     

干旱区城郊种植业水足迹分析与适宜耕地规模测算——以乌鲁木齐市为例

水足迹方法能够完整、清晰地描述种植业的耗水特征。以干旱区绿洲城市乌鲁木齐市为例,运用水足迹模型分析种植业产品耗水特征,构建水足迹强度系数以探讨种植业耗水对本地水资源的影响度,进而从作物水足迹和水源类型角度建立绿洲耕地规模测度模型测算乌鲁木齐市适宜耕地规模,研究发现:①作物生长期水足迹受土壤水分胁迫和产量损减影响呈现差异化;②2005-2011年间,绿水强度系数波动剧烈,蓝水强度系数均值超出容量极限,作物生长期对蓝水资源依赖性较强,从而进一步加剧了蓝水资源的匮乏;③乌鲁木齐市合理耕地规模约为6万hm²,2005-2011年种植业实际耕地规模均处于超载状态,超载量变化呈现先降后升的特征,现状种植业发展模式对绿洲生态系统扰动不断加剧。     

A system of systems approach to energy sustainability assessment: Are all renewables really green?

Renewable energies are emerging across the globe in an attempt to slow down global warming and to improve national energy security in face of the depleting fossil fuel reserves. However, the general policy of mandating the replacement of fossil fuels with the so-called “green” energies may not be as effective and environmental-friendly as previously thought, due to the secondary impacts of renewable energies on different natural resources. Thus, an integrated systems analysis framework is essential to selecting optimal energy sources that address global warming and energy security issues with minimal unintended consequences and undesired secondary impacts on valuable natural resources. This paper proposes a system of systems (SoS) framework to determine the relative aggregate footprint (RAF) of energy supply alternatives with respect to different sustainability criteria and uncertain performance values. Based on the proposed method, the RAF scores of a range of renewable and nonrenewable energy alternatives are determined using their previously reported performance values under four sustainability criteria, namely carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, and cost of energy production. These criteria represent environmental efficiency, water use efficiency, land use efficiency, and economic efficiency, respectively. The study results suggest that geothermal energy and biomass energy from miscanthus are the most and least resource-use efficient energy alternatives based on the performance data available in the literature. In addition, despite their lower carbon footprints, some renewable energy sources are less promising than non-renewable energy sources from a SoS perspective that considers the trade-offs between the greenhouse gas emissions of energies and their effects on water, ecosystem, and economic resources. Robustness analysis suggests that with respect to the existing performance values and uncertainties in the literature, solar thermal and hydropower have the most and least level of RAF robustness, respectively. Sensitivity analysis indicates that geothermal energy and ethanol from sugarcane, have the lowest and highest RAF sensitivity to resource availability, respectively.     

煤炭资源型地区产业能-水足迹效率及影响因素

我国煤炭资源型地区众多,但其资源环境等可持续发展问题形势严峻,如何针对能源和水这两种重点资源进行协同管理是解决这些问题的关键之一。基于区域不同产业能-水耦合视角,采用投入产出分析对2002—2012年山西省不同产业的能-水足迹效率进行评价,并采用结构分解分析能-水耦合的影响因素,主要结论有:(1)研究期间,山西省各产业能-水足迹都呈上升趋势,能源足迹的增加主要表现为各产业间接消耗能源的增加,而水足迹的增加主要表现为各产业直接消耗水资源的增加。(2)不同行业能-水足迹效率差异很大,足迹较大的产业其足迹效率都较低。尽管研究期间各产业能-水足迹效率呈现上升趋势,但大部分产业能-水足迹效率仍处于较低水平。(3)从各产业能源足迹效率和水足迹效率的耦合情况来看,各产业能-水足迹效率耦合状况趋于优化,逐步由低水足迹效率和中等能源足迹效率(W_lE_m)为主转变为中等水足迹效率和中等能源足迹效率(W_mE_m)为主,但与发达地区相比,仍然具有一定的差距。(4)从能-水足迹效率影响因素来看,各产业技术水平的提高是导致能-水足...     

典型移民城市食物氮足迹估算分析——以深圳市为例

城市食物源氮消费产生的环境排放是全国氮污染的重要源头,城市食物氮足迹评估可反映维持城市人口基本食物需求的活性氮排放以及对周边环境的潜在影响。以典型移民城市深圳市为例,基于改进N-Calculator模型的基础上,估算了2010-2015年间因城市人口流动导致的城市食物氮足迹变化,并分析其时空异质性及其与城市化间的关系。结果表明：深圳市不同类型城市居民食物氮足迹不一致,其中常住户籍居民人均食物氮足迹从14.63 kg N a^-1增加至15.17 kg N a^-1,高于非户籍居民食物氮足迹13.09 kg N a^-1,其主要体现在瓜果、肉类、水产品等食物消费上。总体上,深圳城市食物氮足迹呈增长趋势,5年增幅11.50%,增幅最大为常住户籍居民食物氮足迹,但目前深圳非户籍居民的食物消费主导着城市食物氮足迹。深圳城市内部区域食物氮足迹呈高度空间异质性与聚集性,各区域增长量差异明显,街道尺度城市食物氮足迹增长热点主要分布在城市的西部沿海区域,部分热点区域单位增长量数量级比肩区级尺度单位的增长量,城市区域食物氮足迹与人口城市化的关联性不明显,但与经济城市化存在一定的关联性。当前城市移民落户趋势及居民高氮饮食倾向不利于城市氮足迹的削减,减少食物生产上游活性氮流失为深圳市贯彻粤港澳大湾区协同可持续发展的关键。     

Environmental and resource burdens associated with world biofuel production out to 2050: footprint components from carbon emissions and land use to waste arisings and water consumption

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption presented in terms of biologically productive land area [in global hectares (gha)] required per capita with prevailing technology. In contrast, ‘carbon footprints’ are the amount of carbon (or carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions for such activities in units of mass or weight (like kilograms per functional unit), but can be translated into a component of the environmental footprint (on a gha basis). The carbon and environmental footprints associated with the world production of liquid biofuels have been computed for the period 2010–2050. Estimates of future global biofuel production were adopted from the 2011 International Energy Agency (IEA) ‘technology roadmap’ for transport biofuels. This suggests that, although first generation biofuels will dominate the market up to 2020, advanced or second generation biofuels might constitute some 75% of biofuel production by 2050. The overall environmental footprint was estimated to be 0.29 billion (bn) gha in 2010 and is likely to grow to around 2.57 bn gha by 2050. It was then disaggregated into various components: bioproductive land, built land, carbon emissions, embodied energy, materials and waste, transport, and water consumption. This component‐based approach has enabled the examination of the Manufactured and Natural Capital elements of the ‘four capitals’ model of sustainability quite broadly, along with specific issues (such as the linkages associated with the so‐called energy–land–water nexus). Bioproductive land use was found to exhibit the largest footprint component (a 48% share in 2050), followed by the carbon footprint (23%), embodied energy (16%), and then the water footprint (9%). Footprint components related to built land, transport and waste arisings were all found to account for an insignificant proportion to the overall environmental footprint, together amounting to only about 2%     

The metabolism of U.S. cities 2.0

In the fifty years since Abel Wolman first published an estimate of U.S. urban metabolism, the field of urban metabolism has begun to thrive, with cities outside the United States being much of the focus. As cities attempt to meet local and international sustainability goals, it is time to revisit the metabolism of cities within the United States. Using existing empirical databases for material flows (the Freight Analysis Framework) and a published database on urban water flux, we provide a revised estimate of urban metabolism for the typical U.S. city. We estimate median values of metabolism for a city of one million people, considering water resources, food, fuel, and construction materials. Food consumption and waste production increased substantially to 3,800 metric tons per day and 4,900 metric tons per day, respectively. To facilitate a second generation of urban metabolism, we extend traditional analyses to include the embedded energy required to facilitate material consumption with important implications in determining sustainable urban metabolism. We estimate that a city of one million people requires nearly 4,000 gigajoules of primary energy per day to facilitate its metabolism. Our results show high heterogeneity of urban metabolism across the United States. As a result of the study, we conclude that there is a distinct need to promote policies at the regional or city scale that collect data for urban metabolism studies. Urban metabolism is an important educational and decision‐making tool that, with an increase in data availability, can provide important information for cities and their sustainability goals.     

Subnational greenhouse gas and land‐based biodiversity footprints in the European Union

Insights into subnational environmental impacts and the underlying drivers are scarce, especially from a consumption‐based perspective. Here, we quantified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land‐based biodiversity losses associated with final consumption in 162 regions in the European Union in 2010. For this purpose, we developed an environmentally extended multi‐regional input–output (MRIO) model with subnational European information on demand, production, and trade structures subdivided into 18 major economic sectors, while accounting for trade outside Europe. We employed subnational data on land use and national data on GHG emissions. Our results revealed within‐country differences in per capita GHG and land‐based biodiversity footprints up to factors of 3.0 and 3.5, respectively, indicating that national footprints may mask considerable subnational variability. The per capita GHG footprint increased with per capita income and income equality, whereas we did not find such responses for the per capita land‐based biodiversity footprint, reflecting that extra income is primarily spent on energy‐intensive activities. Yet, we found a shift from the domestic to the foreign part of the biodiversity footprints with rising population density and income. Because our analysis showed that most regions are already net importers of GHG emissions and biodiversity losses, we conclude that it is increasingly important to address the role of trade in national and regional policies on mitigating GHG emissions and averting further biodiversity losses, both within and outside the region itself. To further increase the policy relevance of subnational footprint analyses, we also recommend the compilation of more detailed subnational MRIO databases including harmonized environmental data.     

Carbon and Water Footprints and Energy Use of Greenhouse Tomato Production in Northern Italy

This study reports on the carbon, water, and energy footprints of tomatoes grown in a greenhouse in Northern Italy and two possible future variations of heating and carbon dioxide (CO₂) fertilization on the current setup. The heat supply in place, consisting of natural gas (NG) and canola oil combustion, is compared to cogeneration and incineration of municipal solid waste for heating and CO₂ from industrial exhaust for fertilization. As a benchmark, the current system is also compared to a conventional system, in which heat is delivered solely based on NG. Each kilogram (kg) of fresh tomatoes (“Cuore di Bue” variety) produced in the current greenhouse emits 2.28 kg CO₂ equivalents (eq) and uses 95.5 megajoules (MJ) eq energy and 122 liters (L) of water. Relative to the system in place, the carbon footprint (CF) is 57.5% and 18% higher with conventional NG heating and cogeneration and is 40% lower with waste valorization. Further, 33%, 55%, and 63% less energy and 9%, 96%, and 14% less water are used in the conventional, cogeneration, and waste valorization scenarios, respectively. This confirms that there are multiple strategies to reduce the impact of the tomato production under consideration.     

Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions

This synthesis article presents an overview of an urban metabolism (UM) approach using mixed methods and multiple sources of data for Los Angeles, California. We examine electric energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, and calculate embedded infrastructure life cycle effects, water use and solid waste streams in an attempt to better understand the urban flows and sinks in the Los Angeles region (city and county). This quantification is being conducted to help policy‐makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs, pinpoint best locations for distributed solar generation, and support the development of policies for greater environmental sustainability. It provides a framework to which many more UM flows can be added to create greater understanding of the study area's resource dependencies. Going forward, together with policy analysis, UM can help untangle the complex intertwined resource dependencies that cities must address as they attempt to increase their environmental sustainability.     

基于水足迹理论的煤制油产业布局评价

煤制油是我国应对石油危机的重要途径之一,但其高耗水的特点使其备受争议。利用水足迹理论对全国五大煤炭基地2015年规划的煤制油产业进行了蓝水足迹和灰水足迹的测算,分析了煤制油产业对这些区域水资源的耗用情况及冲击程度。结果显示,神东、晋东和新疆伊犁3个基地的煤制油产业蓝水足迹超过了1亿t、灰水足迹超过了3亿t,其中神东地区作为最大的煤制油产地两项数值分别达到1.9亿t和4.1亿t与当地水资源总量对比,宁东地区煤制油耗水冲击最大,占当地水资源总量的28.2%;新疆伊犁地区比例最小,为0.36%。通过对这5个煤炭基地以区域为尺度的水足迹结构分析和评价比较,得出了两种煤制油工艺的水资源消耗差异,并且为煤制油产业在五大基地的合理布局给出了依据,与此同时为接下来煤制油产业的技术革新和流程优化也提出了相应的建议。     

Ecological Footprint Analysis Applied to Mobile Phones

Ecological footprints (EF) have been used for more than 15 yr as an aggregate measure of sustainability of geographical regions, but also for certain products and activities. EF analysis measures the bioproductive areas required to produce resources such as crops and timber, the directly occupied areas for infrastructure, and areas for absorbing waste flows (mostly limited to carbon dioxide) in a given year for a defined population. The need to extend ecological footprint analysis to electronic products arose because so far, mobile phones have mainly been evaluated using life-cycle assessments with a focus on toxicity, end-of-life management, and energy use, thus ignoring the wider sustainability implications. This article presents the footprint results from three mobile phone case studies. To establish the land areas consumed by the mined materials used in electronic products, a database was developed based on literature data and on approximations from the density and overburden of materials. The relationship between abundance and overburden values was used in a regression analysis to estimate energy requirements in materials extraction where other data were not available. Using a life-cycle assessment approach, environmental burdens for producing and using a mobile phone were calculated and transformed into the instantaneous rate of resource consumption. Key results were that different electronic products have different ecological footprints and that the methodology proved sensitive enough to reveal differences in small electronic products and for monitoring technologies that use bioproductive space efficiently.     

Theoretical exploration for the combination of the ecological,energy, carbon,and water footprints: Overview of a footprint family

Over the past two decades, a continuously expanding list of footprint-style indicators has been introduced to the scientific community with the aim of raising public awareness of how humanity exerts pressures on the environment. A deeper understanding of the connections and interactions between different footprints is required in an attempt to support policy makers in the measurement and choice of environmental impact mitigation strategies. Combining a selection of footprints that address different aspects of environmental issues into an integrated system is, therefore, a natural step. This paper starts with the idea of developing a footprint family from which most important footprints can be compared and integrated. On the basis of literature review in related fields, the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints are employed as selected indicators to define a footprint family. A brief survey is presented to provide background information on each of the footprints with an emphasis on their main characteristics in a comparative sense; that is, the footprints differ in many aspects more than just the impacts they are addressed. This allows the four footprints to be complementarily used in assessing environmental impacts associated with natural resource use and waste discharge. We evaluate the performance of the footprint family in terms of data availability, coverage complementarity, methodological consistency, and policy relevance and propose solutions and suggestions for further improvement. The key conclusions are that the footprint family, which captures a broad spectrum of sustainability issues, is able to offer a more complete picture of environmental complexity for policy makers and, in particular, in national-level studies. The research provides new insights into the distinction between environmental impact assessment and sustainability evaluation, properly serving as a reference for multidisciplinary efforts in estimating planetary boundaries for global sustainability.     

Carbon and water footprints of Brazilian mango produced in the semiarid region

Purpose

Awareness regarding carbon and water footprint has gained visibility, encouraging actions towards compliance with the main available standards by fruit producers. This study presents the carbon and water footprint of packed mango produced in Vale do São Francisco, the main irrigated valley in Brazil. It provides an approach to identify the critical processes and opportunities for improvements in the conventional crop system that may support producers in the task of developing future site-specific assessments.

Methods

This assessment followed ISO 14046 and ISO 14067 for water and carbon footprints, respectively, as well as specific requirements of product category rule (PCR) 013 for fruits and nuts and Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2051-1 for horticulture products. Primary data was collected for nursery (seedling), land use change, crop production, and packaging, considering five exported mango varieties: Palmer, Keitt, Kent, Haden, and Tommy Atkins. The carbon footprint assessment was based on the impact category climate change, while water footprint encompassed the following categories: water scarcity, marine and freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic), and freshwater ecotoxicity. The footprint analysis was performed for 1 kg of packed mango.

Results and discussion

The three main processes responsible for both footprints were related to crop production: fertilizer and electricity production as well as mango cropping. Moving from Caatinga vegetation to mango orchards increased carbon storage but was not enough to offset the impact on climate change. For water footprint, it was observed that the total volume of applied irrigation water was already below technical requirements and cannot be reduced, the same occurring for nitrogen fertilization. Scenario analysis showed that the use of alternative electricity sources and the reuse of wastewater brought no major improvement in results. Furthermore, the choice of local or country level characterization factors for water scarcity changed results significantly. Discussions are made regarding (i) the relevance of mango footprints when compared to other irrigated fruits, (ii) possibilities for improving mango footprint performance, (iii) the need for updating product category rules for fruits, and (iv) the quality of provided inventories and results.

Conclusions

The comparison of mango footprints with previous studies of irrigated fruits showed that mango performance is similar or better than many irrigated fruits, cultivated all over the world. Moreover, footprints may be further reduced if mango orchards are established in previously deforested land or areas occupied with annual crops and if improvements are made in the irrigation and fertilization practices at each mango production stage.