Inclusion of soil erosion impacts in life cycle assessment on a global scale: application to energy crops in Spain

Autor: Assumpció Antón, Joan Rieradevall, Montserrat Núñez, Pere Muñoz
Přispěvatelé: IRTA. Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, Química Física i Inorgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili., Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement [Narbonne] (LBE), Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, European Regional Development Fund, LC-IMPACT project-Improved Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods (LCIA) for Better Sustainability Assessment of Technologies [243827], European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme on the Environment [ENV.2009.3.3.2.1]
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: RECERCAT (Dipòsit de la Recerca de Catalunya)
Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname
International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment
Repositori Institucional de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Universitat Rovira i virgili (URV)
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Springer Verlag, 2013, 18 (4), pp.755-767. ⟨10.1007/s11367-012-0525-5⟩
ISSN: 1614-7502
0948-3349
DOI: 10.1007/s11367-012-0525-5
Popis: Purpose: Despite the fundamental role of ecosystem goods and services in sustaining human activities, there is no harmonized and internationally agreed method for including them in life cycle assessment (LCA). The main goal of this study was to develop a globally applicable and spatially resolved method for assessing land-use impacts on the erosion regulation ecosystem service.Methods: Soil erosion depends much on location. Thus, unlike conventional LCA, the endpoint method was regionalized at the grid-cell level (5 arc-minutes, approximately 10×10 km2) to reflect the spatial conditions of the site. Spatially explicit characterization factors were not further aggregated at broader spatial scales. Results and discussion: Life cycle inventory data of topsoil and topsoil organic carbon (SOC) losses were interpreted at the endpoint level in terms of the ultimate damage to soil resources and ecosystem quality. Human health damages were excluded from the assessment. The method was tested on a case study of five three-year agricultural rotations, two of them with energy crops, grown in several locations in Spain. A large variation in soil and SOC losses was recorded in the inventory step, depending on climatic and edaphic conditions. The importance of using a spatially explicit model and characterization factors is shown in the case study.Conclusions and outlook: The regionalized assessment takes into account the differences in soil erosion-related environmental impacts caused by the great variability of soils. Taking this regionalized framework as the starting point, further research should focus on testing the applicability of the method trough the complete life cycle of a product and on determining an appropriate spatial scale at which to aggregate characterization factors, in order to deal with data gaps on location of processes, especially in the background system. Additional research should also focus on improving reliability of the method by quantifying and, insofar as it is possible, reducing uncertainty.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: