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12 - Nitrogen flows and fate in urban landscapes

from Part III - Nitrogen flows and fate at multiple spatial scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

By
Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins ,
Stefan Reis ,
Jakob Magid ,
Gabriela B. Nardoto ,
Sabine Barles ,
Alexander F. Bouwman ,
Ipek Erzi ,
Marina Kousoulidou ,
Clare M. Howard  and
Mark A. Sutton
Edited by
Mark A. Sutton ,
Clare M. Howard ,
Jan Willem Erisman ,
Gilles Billen ,
Albert Bleeker ,
Peringe Grennfelt ,
Hans van Grinsven  and
Bruna Grizzetti
Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins
Affiliation:
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Stefan Reis
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Jakob Magid
Affiliation:
Copenhagen University
Gabriela B. Nardoto
Affiliation:
Universidade de Brasília
Sabine Barles
Affiliation:
Université Paris Est – LATTS
Alexander F. Bouwman
Affiliation:
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Ipek Erzi
Affiliation:
TUBITAK Marmara Research Centre
Marina Kousoulidou
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Clare M. Howard
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Mark A. Sutton
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Mark A. Sutton
Affiliation:
NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK
Clare M. Howard
Affiliation:
NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK
Jan Willem Erisman
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Gilles Billen
Affiliation:
CNRS and University of Paris VI
Albert Bleeker
Affiliation:
Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands
Peringe Grennfelt
Affiliation:
Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL)
Hans van Grinsven
Affiliation:
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Bruna Grizzetti
Affiliation:
European Commission Joint Research Centre
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Summary

Executive summary

Nature of the problem

  • Although cities take only 1.5%–2% of the Earth's land surface, due to their dense population, settlement structure, transportation networks, energy use and altered surface characteristics, they dramatically change the regional and global nitrogen cycle. Cities import and concentrate Nr in the form of food and fuel, and then disperse it as air and water pollution to other ecosystems covering much larger areas.

Approaches

  • A mass-balance approach was used in order to quantify the fluxes of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in and out of cities.

  • Cities can be characterised either as a source of Nr (i.e. emitting large amounts as liquid or solid household waste, automobile exhaust, air pollution from power plants) or a sink of Nr (through importing more food, fossil fuels, etc., and having fewer emissions to the air and water).

  • Paris metropolitan area is used as a case study, which represents an evolving European capital with much available data.

Key findings/state of knowledge

  • The Paris Metropolitan Area changed from being a sink in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to a source of Nr today. Major changes in the city functioning occurred before 1950, but especially recent decades have been characterised by an unprecedented amplification of those changes.

  • […]

Type
Chapter
Information
The European Nitrogen Assessment
Sources, Effects and Policy Perspectives
 , pp. 249 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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