%0 Journal Article %9 ACL : Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture répertoriées par l'AERES %A Wassenaar, T. %A Bodo, B.S. %A Hilou, A. %A Rochelle-Newall, Emma %T The nitrogen metabolism of growing sub-Saharan cities and their prospect for shifting from regional sinks to sustainable city region food systems %D 2023 %L fdi:010087877 %G ENG %J Regional Environmental Change %@ 1436-3798 %K NIGER ; MARADI ; BURKINA FASO ; OUAGADOUGOU %M ISI:000984737000003 %P 71 [14 ] %R 10.1007/s10113-023-02070-x %U https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010087877 %> https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2023-06/010087877.pdf %V 23 %W Horizon (IRD) %X Urban development trajectories in sub-Saharan Africa are unsustainable. Fast-growing cities constitute nutrient sinks relying on nutrient-poor hinterlands. We propose a pragmatic waste flow assessment providing authorities with a cross-sectoral view of a city's nutrient sink status. Following a nested approach, we focus on the origin and fate of a city's nutrient-containing waste flows, constituting a partial urban metabolism. Application of this method for nitrogen to Maradi, Niger, and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, shows that the city of Maradi is a nitrogen sink in a still rather sustainable city region food system. Maradi's Territorial Sustenance index, expressing net N provision from within the territorial system as a share of urban throughput, is around 79%. But Maradi may well be set to evolve towards a situation similar to that of Ouagadougou: a large nitrogen sink with no significant city-hinterland recycling. Ouagadougou exhibits a Territorial Sustenance index of about 5%. Urination constitutes the dominant nitrogen loss pathway and urine-collecting initiatives could provide valuable fertilizer adapted to local agricultural requirements and constraints, increasing the urban system's sustainability by enhancing regional food provision as well as by reducing sanitation-induced urban water pollution. %$ 068 ; 084 ; 102