Short-Cutting the Phosphorus Cycle in Urban Ecosystems

By Gumbo Bekithemb, Gumbo, Bekithemba Gumbo

This dissertation presents a methodology of short-cutting the phosphorus cycle in urban ecosystems. In nature, the P-cycle is a circular, closed-loop system, but human activities use and dispose P in a linear, open-ended system leading to the customary environmental problems. Lake Chivero in Zimbabwe is used as a case study to illustrate the unsustainable practice of discharging valuable and finite phosphorous into drinking water resources. Short-cutting or closing the P-cycle in the urban environment is closely related to the closure of water cycles. Closing the P-cycle is dependent on the adoption of ecological sanitation and eco-city concepts. These concepts lead to solutions, which are source orientated (local and small scale), non-mixing, ecologically sound, closed-loop systems. Recycling of P in urban ecological agriculture (without synthetic fertilisers) is used in this dissertation to test the feasibility of these concepts. A phosphorus calculator has been developed, based on studies of monthly P-fluxes and stocks, in a high-density suburb of Harare in Zimbabwe, where agriculture is an established activity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415384842
• ISBN13: 9780415384841
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"