Publication type: Conference other
Type of review: Not specified
Title: UF001 LokDepot, Basel : the first commercial rooftop aquaponic farm in Switzerland
Authors: Graber, Andreas
Durno, Mark
Gaus, Roman
Mathis, Alex
Junge, Ranka
Conference details: 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014
Issue Date: 2014
Language: English
Subjects: Aquaponics; Building integrated agriculture
Subject (DDC): 630: Agriculture
Abstract: Introduction: Aquaponics is an innovative and sustainable food production system integrating aquaculture with hydroponic vegetal crops. This emerging technology has the potential to play a key role in provision of food while tackling global challenges such as water scarcity, food safety, food security, urbanization, and reductions in energy use and food miles. While it is a widely discussed technology today (about 1.3m hits on Google in May 2014), only very few research papers were published describing efficiency and performance of real systems. Results: In 2012, the Swiss company UrbanFarmers, a spin-off of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) built a 260 m2 greenhouse farm on an industrial rooftop in Basel (UF 2014). Together with the research team at ZHAW, the aquaponic farm layout was planned, installed, operated and monitored. In its first year of operations, 700 kg Tilapia and 3’500 kg of different vegetables were produced and sold to restaurants, and to Migros, Switzerland’s largest retailer. This pilot farm achieved three major goals: to showcase the proof of technology for aquaponic rooftop farms, to demonstrate proof of market acceptance by Swiss consumers for this new way of farming food, and to deliver key performance figures that allow planning and scale-up for future commercially interesting farm units. Conclusion: Further innovations are required that simplify operations and enable cost-effective aquaponic farming, while making the products safe for human consumption: new planting techniques, new varieties of produce, biological pest control, irrigation techniques, and integration with existing building infrastructures.
URI: https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/2471
Fulltext version: Published version
License (according to publishing contract): Licence according to publishing contract
Departement: Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit: Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR)
Appears in collections:Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Graber, A., Durno, M., Gaus, R., Mathis, A., & Junge, R. (2014). UF001 LokDepot, Basel : the first commercial rooftop aquaponic farm in Switzerland. 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014.
Graber, A. et al. (2014) ‘UF001 LokDepot, Basel : the first commercial rooftop aquaponic farm in Switzerland’, in 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014.
A. Graber, M. Durno, R. Gaus, A. Mathis, and R. Junge, “UF001 LokDepot, Basel : the first commercial rooftop aquaponic farm in Switzerland,” in 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014, 2014.
GRABER, Andreas, Mark DURNO, Roman GAUS, Alex MATHIS und Ranka JUNGE, 2014. UF001 LokDepot, Basel : the first commercial rooftop aquaponic farm in Switzerland. In: 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014. Conference presentation. 2014
Graber, Andreas, Mark Durno, Roman Gaus, Alex Mathis, and Ranka Junge. 2014. “UF001 LokDepot, Basel : The First Commercial Rooftop Aquaponic Farm in Switzerland.” Conference presentation. In 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014.
Graber, Andreas, et al. “UF001 LokDepot, Basel : The First Commercial Rooftop Aquaponic Farm in Switzerland.” 2014 International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture VFUA 2014, Nottingham, UK, 9-10 September 2014, 2014.


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