Author: Irene Frascari
Company: Università di Bologna

README file
Data Set Title: Reference data for “Sustainable resource optimization for tomato cultivation in a rooftop greenhouse: an 8-year case study”.
Data Set Author: Guido Evangelista (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), ORCID 0000-0002-6516-4933; Gara Villalba (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), ORCID 0000-0001-6392-0902; Francesco Orsini (University of Bologna), ORCID 0000-0001-6956-7054; Joan Muñoz-Liesa (Agroscope), ORCID 0000-0001-8442-6399; Verónica Arcas Pilz (University of Bologna), ORCID 0000-0002-6854-3138; Xavier Gabarrell (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)), ORCID 0000-0003-1730-4337; 
Data Set Contact Person: Verónica Arcas Pilz (University of Bologna), ORCID 0000-0002-6854-3138, Veronica.arcaspilz2@unibo.it
Data Set License: this data set is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  
Publication Year: 2026
Project Info: 
 •	This paper is part of the research and development project MOVE4EDU “Modular ventilation system integrated within urban food production in educational buildings” (MOVE4EDU PID2021-126845OB-C21 funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, EU); BINAFET “Building Integrated Agriculture for an effective ecological transition” project BINAFET TED2021–130047B-C21; and WEF4Build, reference no. 2023 CLIMA 00041, funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats and the Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural i del Fons Climàtica of the Catalan Government.
 •	The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council grant agreement no 818002 URBAG, awarded to Gara Villalba
 •	Data was available thanks to the following projects: “Agrourban Sustainability: Ecoinnovation in energy, water and CO2 waste flows in buildings for food production” (CTM2013-47067-C2-1-R); “Integrated rooftop greenhouses: symbiosis of energy, water and CO2 emissions with the building –Towards urban food security in a circular economy” (CTM2016- 75772-C3-1-R); “Resilient municipalities to pandemics through nexus with nearness agriculture, energy, water and waste. From the pilot to the municipality” (AGAUR 2020PANDE00021).

Data set Contents
The data set consists of: 
 •	1 quantitative data file saved in .cvs format
“Dataset_Sustainable_resource_optimization_8-year_study.cvs”
 •	1 README file saved in .rtf format
“README_Sustainable resource optimization_8-year study.rtf”
Data set Documentation
Abstract
The following dataset contains data was used for the publication “Sustainable resource optimization for tomato cultivation in a rooftop greenhouse: an 8-year case study” (DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-026-01118-6).

The study reported in this paper aims to evaluate the environmental impact of the optimization strategies applied in the research institute ICTA-UAB for the tomato cultivation in the rooftop greenhouse and indoor spaces. The present work is based on a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of 11 tomato campaigns which took place in a timespan of 8 years (2015 – 2023).

The study explores different technologies and innovations throughout the experimental campaigns from the implementation of a water recirculation system, to the application of LED lights and the use of alternative nutrient sources.

The data obtained from the agronomical experimentation during the years in the same research centre were used to elaborate the LCA inventory, which is available in the presented Dataset, this data was then further elaborated using Ecoinvent databases to generate the subsequent LCA results.

The data elaboration required the use of Ecoinvent databases version 3.10.1 which can be accessed under the appropriate license. Still input and process amounts have been detailed to be reproduced. The article supplementary information already provides all necessary inventories for the LCA replication.

The dataset includes a key table relevant for the calculation of the functional unit based on the harvested tomato yields from all campaigns.
The reader is invited to read the specific published paper to discover in more details about the effect of the strategies applied to the tomato production in the rooftop greenhouse which can be found in the related paper.

Content of the file
The file “Dataset_Sustainable_resource_optimization_8-year_study.csv” contains 1 sheets reporting: 
 •	The Appendix 1 containing the table with the recorded harvest of tomato (expressed in g plant^-1 day^-1 throughout the explored campaigns. This information is further used in the generation of the figure 4 within the manuscript.
File specifics
The csv file has UTF-8 character encoding. It uses semicolon as field separator (;) and comma (,) as decimal separator.
Notes 
The data are presented in the following publication:
Evangelista, G., Villalba, G., Orsini, F. et al. Sustainable resource optimization for tomato cultivation in a rooftop greenhouse: an 8-year case study. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 46, 49 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-026-01118-6
Methodologies 

This study reports a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) 11 tomato campaigns with a number of applied innovations during a timespan of 8 years.    The system is set in the ICTA-UAB research center in Catalonia, both within the building rooftop greenhouse and indoor growing systems. 
The data elaboration required the use of Ecoinvent databases version 3.10.1 which can be accessed under the appropriate license. Still input and process amounts have been detailed to be reproduced. Appendixes 2C and 2D    provides the list of chosen materials and processes in the Ecoinvent database for the LCI reported in the related paper.
The functional unit was defined as 1 kg of fresh tomato. Environmental impacts were assessed using LCA Scores and Simapro and using the ReCipe method Midpoint (H) indicating results across across six impact categories: climate change, terrestrial acidification, ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication and fossil resource depletion. 
List of Scenarios analyzed

Parameter | Description

Scenarios

Experiments 15-C, 15-FW, 16-C: Three experiments set between 2015 and 2016 to evaluate the environmental assessment of tomato production in an i-RTG and compare the results with conventional greenhouse production.

Experiment 17-C.  Application of six distinct nutrient solution mixes during the tomato cycle.

Experiments 18-C, 19-RC, 19-RR. Adoption of water saving practices for irrigation by recirculating the leachates (closed loop system).

Experiment 20-C, 20-IS.    Adoption of water saving practices through the application of an irrigation model. 

Experiment 20-IE. Tomato cultivation in an Indoor production systems to determine its feasibility in terms of production, water and energy consumption.

Experiments 21-L, 21-S, 21-G. Application of supplementary LED lighting to define implications on the yield and quality of tomatoes (cv. “Siranzo”).

Experiments 22-CA, 22-CR, 22-EA, 22-ER. Application of an alternative nutrient source: struvite (NH_4MgPO_4·6H_2O) developing several application treatments within the same campaign.

Experiments 23-CA, 23-CM, 23-EA, 23-EM. Application of an alternative nutrient source: struvite (NH_4MgPO_4·6H_2O) developing several application treatments within the same campaign comparing two tomato varieties.