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Global characterisation factors to assess land use impacts on biotic production

  • GLOBAL LAND USE IMPACTS ON BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN LCA
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The inclusion of land-use activities in life cycle assessment (LCA) has been subject to much debate in the LCA community. Despite the recent methodological developments in this area, the impacts of land occupation and transformation on its long-term ability to produce biomass (referred to here as biotic production potential [BPP]) — an important endpoint for the Area of Protection (AoP) Natural Resources — have been largely excluded from LCAs partly due to the lack of life cycle impact assessment methods.

Materials and methods

Several possible methods/indicators for BPP associated with biomass, carbon balance, soil erosion, salinisation, energy, soil biota and soil organic matter (SOM) were evaluated. The latter indicator was considered the most appropriate for LCA, and characterisation factors for eight land use types at the climate region level were developed.

Results and discussion

Most of the indicators assessed address land-use impacts satisfactorily for land uses that include biotic production of some kind (agriculture or silviculture). However, some fail to address potentially important land use impacts from other life cycle stages, such as those arising from transport. It is shown that the change in soil organic carbon (SOC) can be used as an indicator for impacts on BPP, because SOC relates to a range of soil properties responsible for soil resilience and fertility.

Conclusions

The characterisation factors developed suggest that the proposed approach to characterize land use impacts on BBP, despite its limitations, is both possible and robust. The availability of land-use-specific and biogeographically differentiated data on SOC makes BPP impact assessments operational. The characterisation factors provided allow for the assessment of land-use impacts on BPP, regardless of where they occur thus enabling more complete LCAs of products and services. Existing databases on every country’s terrestrial carbon stocks and land use enable the operability of this method. Furthermore, BPP impacts will be better assessed by this approach as increasingly spatially specific data are available for all geographical regions of the world at a large scale. The characterisation factors developed are applied to the case studies (Part D of this special issue), which show the practical issues related to their implementation.

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Notes

  1. While midpoint modelling refers to the modelling of impacts (e.g., Climate Change) at a middle point in the cause–effect chain or environmental mechanism, endpoint modelling refers to that at the end of the cause–effect chain (i.e., damage to Human Health, Ecosystems or Natural Resources).

  2. BPP is also referred to the conditions responsible for biological/biomass/ecosystem productivity. It is a life support function that is included in the Ecosystem Services Framework as a provisioning ecosystem service, and includes food, fibre, fuel, genetic resources, biochemicals, natural medicines and pharmaceuticals, ornamental resources and fresh water (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005).

  3. Soil organic matter (SOM) is best measured as soil organic carbon (SOC), according to Reeves (1997). SOM content is measured as density of SOC, and SOC is usually considered to be 58% of SOM, giving a conversion factor of 1.72:1 (SOM/SOC) (Brady and Weil 1999). SOC is chosen in this paper as indicator for BPP.

  4. The only difference between the equation for calculation CFs for transformation from that for occupation is that the latter is not expressed per m2 and year and therefore excludes the denominator in Eq. 1.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the GIS expertise made available by Roland Hiederer and Fabien Ramos (EC-JRC). Substantive comments from two anonymous reviewers have helped improving the clarity and relevance of this paper and are kindly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainability Assessment Unit, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 21027, Ispra (VA), Italy

    Miguel Brandão

  2. Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, Unilever R & D, Colworth Science Park, Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, MK44 1LQ, UK

    Llorenç Milà i Canals

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Correspondence to Miguel Brandão.

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Brandão, M., i Canals, L.M. Global characterisation factors to assess land use impacts on biotic production. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18, 1243–1252 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0381-3

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