Urban Phosphorus Metabolism through Food Consumption

Gui‐Lin Li, Xuemei Bai, Shen Yu, Hua Zhang and Yong‐Guan Zhu

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2012, vol. 16, issue 4, 588-599

Abstract: 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 1985–2006. 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.

Date: 2012
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