Water and nitrogen budgets under different production systems in Lisbon urban farming

Abstract

Public concern is growing over soil and groundwater contamination from the use of agrochemicals in urban farming. Heavily used nitrogen (N) fertilisers are converted to nitrates that can be a health hazard. In this study, water and N budgets over a 1-year period are presented for typical urban vegetable gardens in Lisbon. A conceptual analysis supported by an integrated methodology of field experiments and modelling identified the N surpluses associated with conventional and organic gardens. It is concluded that the gardening systems are continuously cropped using high N and water application rates. For all of the case-study allotments, the N inputs, mainly from organic amendments with diverse N release rates, were higher than the crop uptake generating surpluses that were lost by different processes. On one study site a drainage flux of 280mmyr 1 was calculated, with a mean concentration of 295 mg NO3 l 1. On another site N accumulated in the lower soil depths at a rate of 420 kg NO3 ha 1 yr 1. The cumulative impact of N surpluses on the environment and human health must be considered. To minimise adverse impacts, we propose the selection of organic fertilisers with N release rates close to the crop N uptake, the prevention of excess irrigation to minimise N leaching and gaseous losses and the inclusion of the non-fertiliser N sources in the fertiliser calculations. It is shown how an integrated model can be used to predict the N release dynamics from the organic fertilisers as affected by the moisture conditions.