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1.
Alena J. Raymond James R. Tipton Alissa Kendall Jason T. DeJong 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2020,24(3):485-499
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has only had limited application in the geotechnical engineering discipline, though it has been widely applied to civil engineering systems such as pavements and roadways. A review of previous geotechnical LCAs showed that most studies have tracked a small set of impact categories, such as energy and global warming potential. Accordingly, currently reported environmental indicators may not effectively or fully capture important environmental impacts and tradeoffs associated with geotechnical systems, including those associated with land and soil resources. This research reviewed previous studies, methods, and models for assessment of land use and soil‐related impacts to understand their applicability to geotechnical LCA. The results of this review show that critical gaps remain in current knowledge and practice. In particular, further development or refinement of environmental indicators, impact categories, and cause–effect pathways is needed as they pertain to geotechnical applications—specifically those related to soil quality, soil functions, and the ecosystem services soils provide. In addition, many existing methods emerge from research on land use and land use change related to other disciplines (e.g., agriculture). For applicability to geotechnical projects, the resolution of many of these methods and resulting indicators need to be downscaled from the landscape/macro scale to the project scale. In the near term, practitioners of geotechnical LCA should begin tracking changes to soil properties and report impacts to land and soil resources qualitatively. 相似文献
2.
A survey of unresolved problems in life cycle assessment 总被引:2,自引:3,他引:2
John Reap Felipe Roman Scott Duncan Bert Bras 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2008,13(5):374-388
Background, aims, and scope Life cycle assessment (LCA) stands as the pre-eminent tool for estimating environmental effects caused by products and processes
from ‘cradle to grave’ or ‘cradle to cradle.’ It exists in multiple forms, claims a growing list of practitioners and remains
a focus of continuing research. Despite its popularity and codification by organizations such as the International Organization
for Standardization and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, life cycle assessment is a tool in need of
improvement. Multiple authors have written about its individual problems, but a unified treatment of the subject is lacking.
The following literature survey gathers and explains issues, problems and problematic decisions currently limiting LCA’s impact
assessment and interpretation phases.
Main features The review identifies 15 major problem areas and organizes them by the LCA phases in which each appears. This part of the
review focuses on the latter eight problems. It is meant as a concise summary for practitioners interested in methodological
limitations which might degrade the accuracy of their assessments. For new researchers, it provides an overview of pertinent
problem areas toward which they might wish to direct their research efforts. Having identified and discussed LCA’s major problems,
closing sections highlight the most critical problems and briefly propose research agendas meant to improve them.
Results and discussion Multiple problems occur in each of LCA’s four phases and reduce the accuracy of this tool. Considering problem severity and
the adequacy of current solutions, six of the 15 discussed problems are of paramount importance. In LCA’s latter two phases,
spatial variation and local environmental uniqueness are critical problems requiring particular attention. Data availability
and quality are identified as critical problems affecting all four phases.
Conclusions and recommendations Observing that significant efforts by multiple researchers have not resulted in a single, agreed upon approach for the first
three critical problems, development of LCA archetypes for functional unit definition, boundary selection and allocation is
proposed. Further development of spatially explicit, dynamic modeling is recommended to ameliorate the problems of spatial
variation and local environmental uniqueness. Finally, this paper echoes calls for peer-reviewed, standardized LCA inventory
and impact databases, and it suggests the development of model bases. Both of these efforts would help alleviate persistent
problems with data availability and quality.
相似文献
Bert BrasEmail: |
3.
Rita C. Schenck 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(2):114-117
Background The primary purpose of environmental assessment is to protect biological systems. Data collected over the last several decades
indicates that the greatest impacts on biological resources derive from physical changes in land use. However, to date there
is no consensus on indicators of land use that could be applicable worldwide at all scales. This has hampered the assessment
of land use in the context of LCA.
Objectives The Institute for Environmental Research and Education and its partner Defenders of Wildlife have begun an effort to develop
the necessary consensus.
Methods In July 2000, they held a workshop attended by a diverse group of interested parties and experts to develop a preliminary
list of life cycle indicators for land use impacts.
Results Their preliminary list of impact indicators includes: protection of priority habitats/species; soil characteristics: soil
health; proximity to & protection of high priority vegetative communities; interface between water and terrestrial habitats/buffer
zones; assimilative capacity of water and land; hydrological function; percent coverage of invasive species within protected
areas; road density; percent native-dominated vegetation; restoration of native vegetation; adoption of Best Management Practices
linked to biodiversity objectives; distribution (patchiness; evenness, etc.); and connectivity of native habitat.
Conclusion The list of indicators conforms well to other efforts in developing indicators. There appears to be convergence among experts
in the field and in related fields on the appropriate things to measure.
Future Prospects These indicators are currently being tested in the United States. Further workshops and testing is planned towards developing
internationally recognized indicators for land use. 相似文献
4.
农业生命周期评价研究进展 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
作为评价产品系统全链条环境影响的有效工具,生命周期评价(LCA)方法已广泛用于工业领域。农业领域也面临着高强度的资源和环境压力,LCA在农业领域的应用应运而生。旨在综述已有农业LCA研究的基础上,鉴别农业LCA应用存在的问题,并为农业LCA未来的发展提出建议。目前农业LCA存在系统边界和功能单位界定不明晰、缺少区域清单数据库、生命周期环境影响评价模型(LCIA)不能准确反映农业系统环境影响、结果解释存在误区等方面的问题。为了科学准确地衡量农业系统的环境影响,促进农业系统的可持续发展,文章认为农业LCA应该从以下几个方面加强研究,即科学界定评价的参照系、系统边界的扩大及功能单位的合理选取、区域异质性数据库构建与LCIA模型开发、基于组织农业LCA的开发以及对于利益相关者行为的研究。 相似文献
5.
Bo Weidema 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1998,3(4):237-240
Different lists of application areas for life cycle assessment are reviewed together with some suggestions for a typology
of these application areas. It is concluded that the scope of a life cycle assessment is determined by the area of validity
of the decision with respect to time, space, and interest groups affected. On this basis, six application areas are distinguished.
It is further concluded that the application area has limited influence on the inventory analysis and impact assessment phases,
although these may be influenced significantly by the decision-maker and the complexity of the trade-offs between the involved
environmental impacts. The reporting format for a life cycle assessment depends on the socio-economic importance of the decision,
the intended audience, and the time available for decision making. 相似文献
6.
7.
Nathan W. Ayer Peter H. Tyedmers Nathan L. Pelletier Ulf Sonesson Astrid Scholz 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2007,12(7):480-487
Background, Aim and Scope
As Life Cycle Assessment is being increasingly applied to study fisheries and aquaculture systems, the LCA methodology must be adapted to address the unique aspects of these systems. The focus of this methodological paper is the specific allocation problems faced in studying seafood production systems and how they have been addressed to date. 相似文献8.
Background, aim, and scope
Many studies evaluate the results of applying different life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods to the same life cycle inventory (LCI) data and demonstrate that the assessment results would be different with different LICA methods used. Although the importance of uncertainty is recognized, most studies focus on individual stages of LCA, such as LCI and normalization and weighting stages of LCIA. However, an important question has not been answered in previous studies: Which part of the LCA processes will lead to the primary uncertainty? The understanding of the uncertainty contributions of each of the LCA components will facilitate the improvement of the credibility of LCA.Methodology
A methodology is proposed to systematically analyze the uncertainties involved in the entire procedure of LCA. The Monte Carlo simulation is used to analyze the uncertainties associated with LCI, LCIA, and the normalization and weighting processes. Five LCIA methods are considered in this study, i.e., Eco-indicator 99, EDIP, EPS, IMPACT 2002+, and LIME. The uncertainty of the environmental performance for individual impact categories (e.g., global warming, ecotoxicity, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical smog, human health) is also calculated and compared. The LCA of municipal solid waste management strategies in Taiwan is used as a case study to illustrate the proposed methodology.Results
The primary uncertainty source in the case study is the LCI stage under a given LCIA method. In comparison with various LCIA methods, EDIP has the highest uncertainty and Eco-indicator 99 the lowest uncertainty. Setting aside the uncertainty caused by LCI, the weighting step has higher uncertainty than the normalization step when Eco-indicator 99 is used. Comparing the uncertainty of various impact categories, the lowest is global warming, followed by eutrophication. Ecotoxicity, human health, and photochemical smog have higher uncertainty.Discussion
In this case study of municipal waste management, it is confirmed that different LCIA methods would generate different assessment results. In other words, selection of LCIA methods is an important source of uncertainty. In this study, the impacts of human health, ecotoxicity, and photochemical smog can vary a lot when the uncertainties of LCI and LCIA procedures are considered. For the purpose of reducing the errors of impact estimation because of geographic differences, it is important to determine whether and which modifications of assessment of impact categories based on local conditions are necessary.Conclusions
This study develops a methodology of systematically evaluating the uncertainties involved in the entire LCA procedure to identify the contributions of different assessment stages to the overall uncertainty. Which modifications of the assessment of impact categories are needed can be determined based on the comparison of uncertainty of impact categories.Recommendations and perspectives
Such an assessment of the system uncertainty of LCA will facilitate the improvement of LCA. If the main source of uncertainty is the LCI stage, the researchers should focus on the data quality of the LCI data. If the primary source of uncertainty is the LCIA stage, direct application of LCIA to non-LCIA software developing nations should be avoided. 相似文献9.
Bo P. Weidema Niels Frees Anne-Merete Nielsen 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1999,4(1):48-56
Marginal technologies are defined as the technologies actually affected by the small changes in demand typically studied in
prospective, comparative life cycle assessments. Using data on marginal technologies thus give the best reflection of the
actual consequences of a decision. Furthermore, data on marginal technologies are easier to collect, more precise, and more
stable in time than data on average technologies. A 5-step procedure is suggested to identify the marginal technologies. The
step-wise procedure first clarifies the situation in which the marginal should apply, and then identifies what specific technology
is marginal in this situation. The procedure is illustrated in two examples: European electricity production and pulp and
paper production. 相似文献
10.
IMPACT 2002+: A new life cycle impact assessment methodology 总被引:7,自引:0,他引:7
The new IMPACT 2002+ life cycle impact assessment methodology proposes a feasible implementation of a combined midpoint/damage
approach, linking all types of life cycle inventory results (elementary flows and other interventions) via 14 midpoint categories
to four damage categories. For IMPACT 2002+, new concepts and methods have been developed, especially for the comparative
assessment of human toxicity and ecotoxicity. Human Damage Factors are calculated for carcinogens and non-carcinogens, employing
intake fractions, best estimates of dose-response slope factors, as well as severities. The transfer of contaminants into
the human food is no more based on consumption surveys, but accounts for agricultural and livestock production levels. Indoor
and outdoor air emissions can be compared and the intermittent character of rainfall is considered. Both human toxicity and
ecotoxicity effect factors are based on mean responses rather than on conservative assumptions. Other midpoint categories
are adapted from existing characterizing methods (Eco-indicator 99 and CML 2002). All midpoint scores are expressed in units
of a reference substance and related to the four damage categories human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources.
Normalization can be performed either at midpoint or at damage level. The IMPACT 2002+ method presently provides characterization
factors for almost 1500 different LCI-results, which can be downloaded at http://www.epfl.ch/impact 相似文献
11.
12.
Siret Talve 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(3):181-183
The knowledge and use of western-based environmental management tools like LCA (life cycle assessment) in Eastern Europe is
very low. Discussions about introducing environmental management systems and taking care of environmental consequences of
producing processes are very relevant now in Eastern European countries that want to become members of the European Union
and to introduce their goods onto the international market. In this paper, the problems connected to introducing LCA based
environmental management systems and Eco-Labeling in Eastern European countries are described. The poor financial condition
of national sciences in Estonia does not appear to be the main problem. A brief overview of the development and current status
of LCA research in Denmark, Finland and Japan is presented. Solutions to current problems are discussed, and experiences gained
during conducting LCA research on oil shale energy production in Estonia are presented. 相似文献
13.
Salinity is an increasing environmental problem in agricultural ecosystems and is not adequately represented in conventional
life cycle assessment (LCA) impact categories. It is often not the total quantity of salts emitted or the proportion of salt
accumulated in the soil profile that is the primary mechanism for deteriorating soil conditions for irrigated salinity, rather
the ratio of major cations in the soil matrix and the potential for colloid dispersion and reduced permeability. A soil salinisation
potential (SP) is proposed as an indicator for irrigated salinity and potential soil degradation from poor irrigation practices.
The indicator uses the threshold electrolyte concentration concept that predicts the adjusted sodium adsorption ratio (SAR)/
Electrical conductivity (EC) ratio that soil will no longer flocculate, but potentially disperse. The SAR is converted to
a threshold EC and compared to the measured EC in order to develop a site-specific irrigation equivalence factor (EF). This
site/region/process specific EF is then used to weight the sodium load to soil and repeated for each stage throughout the
entire life cycle to determine the overall Salinisation Potential (SP). The data required for calculating the SP is generally
readily available either on site or from the water chemistry of the local watercourses. Preliminary calculations simply require
the volume, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), alkalinity and the concentrations of Na, Ca, and Mg of the irrigation water.
The site/process/region specific nature of the indicator ensures a quantitative measure to enable comparisons between different
systems and is useful for identifying stages in the life cycle of a product (particularly food products), where the potential
for soil salinisation and soil degradation is most severe. 相似文献
14.
Günter Fleischer Karin Gerner Heiko Kunst Kerstin Lichtenvort Gerald Rebitzer 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(3):149-156
Intention, Goal and Scope: Dealing with data gaps, data asymmetries, and inconsistencies in life cycle inventories (LCI) is
a general prohlem in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies. An approach to deal with these difficulties is the simplification
of LCA. A methodology that lowers the requirements for data quality (accuracy) for process emissions within a simplified LCA
is introduced in this article. Background: Simplification is essential for applying LCA in the context of design for environment
(DfE). The tool euroMat is a comprehensive DfE software tool that is based on a specific, simplified LCA approach, the Iterative
Screening LCA (IS-LCA). Within the scope of the IS-LCA, there is a quantitative assessment of energy-related processes, as
well as a semi-quantitative assessment of non-energy related emissions which supplement each other. Objectives: The semi-quantitative
assessment, which is in the focus of this article, aims at lowering the requirements for the quality of non-energy related
emissions data through combined use of qualitative and quantitative inventory data. Methods: Potential environmental impacts
are assessed based on ABC-categories for qualities (harmfulness) of emissions and XYZ-categories for quantities of emitted
substances. Employing statistical methods assignment rules for the ABC/XYZ-categories were derived from literature data and
databases on emissions to air, water, and soil. Statistical tests as well as a DfE case study (comparing the materials aluminum
and carbon fiber reinforced epoxy for a lightweight container to be used in an aerospace application) were conducted in order
to evaluate the level of confidence and practicality of the proposed, simplified impact assessment. Results: Statistical and
technical consistency checks show that the method bears a high level of confidence. Results obtained by the simplified assessment
correlate to those of a detailed quantitative LCA. Conclusions: Therefore, the application of the ABC/XYZ-categories (together
with the cumulative energy demand) can be considered a practical and consistent approach for determining the environmental
significance of products when only incomplete emission data is available. Future Prospects: The statistical base of the method
is expanded continuously since it is an integral part of the DfE software tool euroMat, which is currently being further developed.
That should foster the application of the method. Outside DfE, the method should also be capable of facilitating simplified
LCAs in general. 相似文献
15.
Sabrina Spatari Michael Betz Harald Florin Martin Baitz Michael Faltenbacher 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(2):81-84
The growing availability of software tools has increased the speed of generating LCA studies. Databases and visual tools for
constructing material balance modules greatly facilitate the process of analyzing the environmental aspects of product systems
over their life cycle. A robust software tool, containing a large LCI dataset and functions for performing LCIA and sensitivity
analysis will allow companies and LCA practitioners to conduct systems analyses efficiently and reliably. This paper discusses
how the GaBi 3 software tool can be used to perform LCA and Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), a methodology that combines life
cycle economic, environmental, and technology assessment. The paper highlights important attributes of LCA software tools,
including high quality, well-documented data, transparency in modeling, and data analysis functionality. An example of a regional
power grid mix model is used to illustrate the versatility of GaBi 3. 相似文献
16.
Goal, Scope and Background The usefulness of power series expansion for an LCA system has often been doubted, as those systems may not possess the unique
properties that enable power series expansion and analyses based on the power series. This paper surveys the existing literature
on power series expansion of monetary input-output system and discusses how the power series expansion can be utilized for
more general systems including the LCA model.
Methods The inherent properties of matrices that are capable of producing power series forms for their inverse and, further, can utilize
structural path analysis are analyzed. Using these analyses, the way how a matrix that is not eligible for structural analyses
is converted into an eligible form is investigated. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the findings.
Results The necessary and sufficient condition for an indecomposable, real square technology matrix can be expressed using power series
was identified. Two additional conditions for a technology matrix to be utilized for structural analyses using power series
expansion are discussed as well. It was also shown that an LCA system that fulfills the Hawkins-Simon condition can be easily
converted into the form that is eligible for structural analysis by rescaling the columns and rows.
Discussion As a numerical example, an application of accumulative structural path analysis for an LCA system is shown. The implications
of the results are discussed in a more plain language as well.
Conclusions The survey presented in this paper provides not only the conditions under which a linear system is expressed using a power
series form but also the way to appropriately convert a system to utilize the rich analytical tools using power series expansion
for structural analyses.
Recommendations and Perspectives Widely used LCA databases and software tools have employed the linear systems approach as the basis. Much of these developments
in the domain of LCA have been made, however, in isolation of the rich findings of IOA. There will be much to benefit LCA
through an active dialogue between the two disciplines.
There are rich analytical tools available through the use of power series expansion. The current survey will help software
developers and LCA practitioners to apply such tools in LCA. 相似文献
17.
Joan Rieradevall Xavier Domènech Pere Fullana 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1997,2(3):141-144
A case study of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) is performed concerning the treatment of household solid wastes in a landfill.
The stages considered in this LCA study are: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis and impact assessment. The data
of the inventory include the consumption of raw materials and energy through the transport of wastes and the management of
landfill, and the corresponding emissions to the environment. Abiotic resource depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication
and human toxicological impacts have been considered as impact categories for the impact assessment phase of the LCA. A comparison
of the environmental impact of the landfilling with and without energy recovery is carried out.
Members of the Spanish Association for LCA Development (APRODACV) 相似文献
18.
Jane C. Bare 《人类与生态风险评估》2006,12(3):493-509
The historical parallels, complementary roles, and potential for integration of human health risk assessment (RA) and Life-Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) are explored. Previous authors have considered the comparison of LCA and risk assessment recognizing the inherent differences in LCA and risk assessment (e.g., LCA's focus on the functional unit, and the differences in perspective of LCA and risk assessment), and also the commonalities (e.g., the basis for the modeling). Until this time, however, no one has proposed a coordinated approach for conducting LCA and risk assessment using models consistent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) handbooks, policies, and guidelines. The current status of LCIA methodology development can be compared to the early days of human health RA when practitioners were overwhelmed with the model choices, assumptions, lack of data, and poor data quality. Although methodology developers can build on the shoulders of the giant, LCIA requires more innovation to deal with more impact categories, more life-cycle stages, and less data for a greater number of stressors. For certain impact categories, LCIA can use many of the guidelines, methodologies, and default parameters that have been developed for human health RA, in conjunction with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to determine the level of detail necessary for various applications. LCIA can then identify “hot spots” that require the additional detail and level of certainty provided by RA. A comparison of the USEPA's Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) and the USEPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) will be explored. 相似文献
19.
20.
Jens Brøbech Legarth Stellan Åkesson Alena Ashkin Anne -Marie Imrell 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2000,5(1):47-58
The screening level LCA places itself amongst the many approaches to LCA, including full LCA and streamlined LCA. The screening
level LCA combines the quantitative nature of the full LCA with the low effort of the streamlined LCA. This paper presents,
as an example, a screening level LCA of the EU 2000 air handling unit from ABB Ventilation Products AB, Sweden, using the
Danish EDIP impact assessment method, the EDIP software and database. This study proved that major improvement potentials
can indeed be identified with screening level LCA, and argues that the screening level LCA is a suitable approach in the early
stages of a company’s life cycle engineering efforts
Contact for the screening level LCA method Corresponding author at ABB Corporate Research 相似文献