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Global land use impacts on biomass production—a spatial-differentiated resource-related life cycle impact assessment method

  • LAND USE IN LCA
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

In life cycle assessment (LCA), the impact assessment on natural resources is still in the early stages of research, and the impacts of biotic resources are usually not evaluated. The human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a well-known indicator of land use impacts, but it cannot be easily implemented in LCA. The objective of this paper was to create a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method on land use impacts on net primary production (NPP) based on the HANPP approach.

Methods

To create an operational LCIA method, the midpoint characterization factors (CF) were calculated by comparing the NPP of plants occurring under current land uses with a baseline scenario, i.e., the NPP of potential natural vegetation. For the endpoint CF, we considered the backup technology concept and included in the calculation the marginal cost for additional biomass production through algae cultivation in the ocean.

Results and discussion

Site-generic and site-specific midpoint and endpoint characterization factors (CF) were created in a global scale for 162 countries and for four types of land uses (cropland, pasture, infrastructure, and wilderness). For cropland, we also created biomass-specific CF for ten particular crops in a global scale. The LCIA method was tested in particular case studies and seemed to produce comparable results, with the possibility of coupling it with other LCIA methodologies, as recipe endpoint.

Conclusions

The LCIA method proposed in this paper provides an assessment of the decrease of biomass availability due to land use (affecting the AoP resources), which is an impact category poorly considered in LCA. Nevertheless, the method has some future challenges, for instance to take into account site-specific backup technologies for the endpoint CF.

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Notes

  1. The value of US$ is based on the year 2010

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Acknowledgments

This project is partly funded by CAPES/Brazil, Programa Ciência Sem Fronteiras (Atração Jovens Talentos), and Euro-Brazilian Window II (EBWII) Project from Erasmus Mundus program. Helmut Haberl and Karl-Heinz Erb gratefully acknowledge the funding by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project P20812-G11, the European Research Council, ERC Starting Grant 263522 LUISE, as well as by the EU-FP7 project VOLANTE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental, Centro Tecnológico—Campus Universitário Trindade, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Caixa Postal 476, Florianópolis, CEP 88040-970, Brazil

    Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga & Sebastião R. Soares

  2. Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga & Jo Dewulf

  3. Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Centro de Ciências Agroveterinárias, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Av. Luiz de Camões, 2090, Conta Dinheiro, Lages, CEP 88520-000, Brazil

    Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga

  4. Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070, Vienna, Austria

    Karl-Heinz Erb & Helmut Haberl

  5. Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Rosalie van Zelm

  6. European Commission—Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Via E. Fermi 2749, 21027, Ispra, Italy

    Jo Dewulf

Authors
  1. Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga
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  2. Karl-Heinz Erb
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  3. Helmut Haberl
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  4. Sebastião R. Soares
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  5. Rosalie van Zelm
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  6. Jo Dewulf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga.

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Responsible editor: Llorenc Milà i Canals

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Alvarenga, R.A.F., Erb, KH., Haberl, H. et al. Global land use impacts on biomass production—a spatial-differentiated resource-related life cycle impact assessment method. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 440–450 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0843-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0843-x

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