Agenda

24 Nov 2017 12:15

Betting on sustainability: aquaponics

Campus Scientifico via Torino - edificio DELTA, Aula 0B

Dott. Andrea Alberto Forchino, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica - DAIS

Abstract:
Aquaponics could be defined as the integration of hydroponic vegetable cultivation into a recirculating fish aquaculture system (RAS). These systems use the waste water coming from the fish culture to grow plants. Vegetables associated with nitrifying bacteria provide a natural filter that eliminates dissolved nitrogen and phosphorous and therefore controls the accumulation of waste nutrients in fish tanks. This practice is generally considered to be environment-friendly due to the system capability to raise fish at high density, sustain adequate water quality, minimize water exchange, and produce profitable vegetables. Although aquaponics seems to be promising from the perspective of sustainability, neither environmental nor economic burdens linked to this practice have been deeply investigated yet. Even if some authors analysed aquaponic environmental sustainability using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), it is still not clear whether this practice is economically sustainable or not. The Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodology could represent an appropriate tool to fill this gap: once modelled the life cycle of a given product, LCC summarizes all its costs including both investment and operating ones, during the productive process estimated lifetime. Therefore, the combination of LCC and LCA, could help in assessing the economic dimension of sustainability. The purpose of this seminar is to take stock of the situation concerning the sustainability of aquaponics, starting from the results of our recent studies. Is aquaponics the silver bullet to our need for sustainability?                                                

Bio Sketch:
Andrea Alberto Forchino is a Ph.D. biologist specialized in in aquaculture. He has a research fellow at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics. One of the main topics of his research is the use of the Life Cycle Assessment to investigate the sustainability of the aquaculture processes, including aquaponics.

Lingua

L'evento si terrà in italiano

Organizzatore

Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica, Prof. Roberto Pastres

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