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A new data architecture for advancing life cycle assessment

  • LCI METHODOLOGY AND DATABASES
  • Published:
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Abstract

Introduction

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has a technical architecture that limits data interoperability, transparency, and automated integration of external data. More advanced information technologies offer promise for increasing the ease with which information can be synthesized within an LCA framework.

Vision

A new architecture is described that combines, stores, and annotates data for life cycle assessment. The Resource Description Framework is proposed for managing LCA data. To explore the capabilities of this approach, the LCA Harmonization Tool (LCA-HT) is being developed to map and store data from different sources and to clearly capture user-defined relationships between nomenclatures for easy use. It will enable increased interoperability of LCA data and more structured and automated incorporation of non-LCA data into LCA models.

Moving forward

The LCA-HT is intended to be a core component of LCA data architecture (a data commons) used by US federal agencies and other data providers to make data representing US conditions more accessible for public use. It will also be used to bring together data from human health exposure models with traditional LCA for evaluating near-field human health risk in the life cycle context to demonstrate the practical advancements possible with this new architecture. The tool will remain open source and freely available.

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Notes

  1. The RefData project’s (https://code.google.com/p/earthster/wiki/RefData) FlowData subproject is an example of such a master list for LCA elementary flows.

  2. http://www.epa.gov/research/chemicalscience/

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable review and suggestions provided by a semantic web expert, Brian McBride, Epimorphics Ltd.

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This article does not reflect the endorsement or opinion of any of the institutions that employ the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Wesley W. Ingwersen & David E. Meyer

  2. Enviance Inc., Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Troy R. Hawkins

  3. Lockheed Martin, Durham, NC, USA

    Thomas R. Transue

  4. Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, USA

    Gary Moore, Ezra Kahn & Peter Arbuckle

  5. Office of Environmental Information, US Environmental Protection Agency, Durham, NC, USA

    Heidi Paulsen

  6. School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Gregory A. Norris

Authors
  1. Wesley W. Ingwersen
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  2. Troy R. Hawkins
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  3. Thomas R. Transue
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  4. David E. Meyer
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  5. Gary Moore
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  6. Ezra Kahn
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  7. Peter Arbuckle
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  8. Heidi Paulsen
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  9. Gregory A. Norris
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wesley W. Ingwersen.

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Responsible editor: Rolf Frischknecht

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Ingwersen, W.W., Hawkins, T.R., Transue, T.R. et al. A new data architecture for advancing life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 520–526 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0850-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0850-6

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