ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS DUE TO THE INCLUSION OF NOVEL SOLUTIONS FOR NUTRIENT RECOVERY: TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY IN AGRICULTURE
Agriculture plays a major role when it becomes to food sustain, being strongly related to many sustainability challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and food insecurity. The thesis aimed to assess the environmental and social impacts of novel technologies focused on nutrient recovery and recycling of nutrients in agriculture. This thesis provides valuable insight into nitrogen emissions models, helping to improve the evidence-based of results in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. In addition, the use of dashboard indicators reflected the most relevant environmental impacts about nutrient recovery in agriculture, being an effective way to benchmark against a baseline. Also, a set of social indicators enabled identifying social hotspots and opportunities related to novel technologies, for instance, the employability of highly skilled workers, attracting a highly qualified labour force to agriculture and increasing training and employee development. Finally, providing simultaneous environmental and social LCA can help to advance on studies including all dimensions of sustainability.
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