Journal
JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY
Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 588-599Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00402.x
Keywords
biogeochemical cycle; industrial ecology; nutrient flow; urban environment; urban food consumption; urban geochemical cycling
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation of China [40901263]
- Sino-British S&T Cooperation project [2009DFB90120]
- Chinese Academy of Sciences [07i4271a10]
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie [1134890] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Urbanization has significant impacts on local, regional, and global biogeochemical cycles, including through nutrient enrichment by food consumption, and especially in rapidly urbanizing countries. This article presents a time-series estimation of phosphorus (P) metabolism through food consumption in Chinese cities and examines its relationship to income level during the period 19852006. Our results show that approximately 39% of the total dietary P inflow is exported through direct sewage discharge without treatment, 35% is exported via the output of solid human excreta, 7% is exported through sewage sludge landfill, and 19% is left within urban areas. The total inflow of dietary P to urban systems increases with per capita disposable income level. Furthermore, the ratio of dietary P remaining in urban systems to total dietary P inflow, the dietary P remaining in urban systems per capita, and the dietary P remaining per unit urban built-up area respond in an inverted U shape to increases in per capita disposable income; the per capita outflow of dietary P shows a U-shaped response. These relationships may indicate that the impact of urban dietary P on urban environmental systems follows the traditional environmental Kuznets curve, while the environmental impact of urban dietary P on surrounding nonurban ecosystems initially decreases but then increases with the rising income of urban residents.
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