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Integrating life cycle assessment into landscape studies: a postcard from Hulunbuir

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Abstract

Context

Conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly criticized for lacking spatial information, especially for agricultural systems where high spatial variation and sensitivity is present.

Objectives

The objective of this research is twofold: first, to assess the potential environmental impacts and the production efficiency of pastoralism farming, and, second, to identify the influence of the spatial distribution of farms on the environmental impacts, if any.

Methods

A cradle-to-gate spatialized agricultural LCA was conducted for 45 farms surveyed from the Hulunbuir Grassland by splitting direct onsite processes from upstream processes, adopting the spatialized characterization factors (SCFs) of IMPACT World+.

Results

Contrasting results were observed for different impact categories regarding whether upstream or onsite processes served as the environmental hotspot. While direct onsite animal emissions did not show spatial dependency at the inventory stage, its resulting impact scores demonstrated the most contrasting spatial patterns among various impact categories, depending on whether and how spatial resolution and location were introduced during the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) stage. Statistical evidence supported a high emission cluster for farms located close to Hailar city compared to a low cluster for those located further south/west of the city.

Conclusions

A cradle-to-gate spatialized agricultural LCA was proposed and applied to assess the environmental impacts of pastoralism farming in Hulunbuir Grassland. The overall spatial dependency of the LCA results was weak at the individual farm level, if present; it depended on the interactions between the spatial variation within the life cycle inventory and the spatial resolution and location of the SCFs. Environmental burden shifting occurred between different impact categories, and the policy challenge of how to increase production efficiency in the pastoralism system remains.

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Availability of data and material

Data are uploaded to https://github.com/susierwu/IM2020_farm_SpLCA. The processed raw survey data, the DairyGEM model, as well as the calculated LCA results, are presented in the “data” folder. The LCA calculation are presented in the “LCA_calc” folder.

Code availability

Codes are uploaded to https://github.com/susierwu/IM2020_farm_SpLCA. Python and R codes used for LCA calculations are presented in the “LCA_calc” folder. R codes used for the spatial analysis, to compile the result figures, and to develop the online interactive maps are presented under the master folder. The map is deployed at https://susdatability.shinyapps.io/IM_SpLCA/.

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Funding

This study is supported by the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41901264), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41771205, 32060278).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Susie Ruqun Wu, Xinchao Liu, Lulu Wang & Changliang Shao

  2. Susdatability Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China

    Susie Ruqun Wu

  3. Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural & Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot, 010031, China

    Xinchao Liu

  4. Department of Geography, Centre for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Jiquan Chen

  5. School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China

    Peiling Zhou

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  1. Susie Ruqun Wu
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  4. Jiquan Chen
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  5. Peiling Zhou
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  6. Changliang Shao
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Contributions

SRW: conceptualized the work, performed the calculations/coding, wrote the manuscript. XL: conducted the site visit and field survey, assisted in data processing, analysis, and mapping. LW: conducted the site visit and field survey, assisted in data processing and analysis. PZ: performed the spatial analysis. JC: conceptualized the work, contributed to the manuscript writing. CS: helped with the proposal writing and funding.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Changliang Shao.

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The research team has communicated with the local government before taking the onsite farm survey.

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Wu, S.R., Liu, X., Wang, L. et al. Integrating life cycle assessment into landscape studies: a postcard from Hulunbuir. Landsc Ecol 37, 1347–1364 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01396-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01396-3

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