th SETAC Europe 26 Annual Meeting, Nantes, France, 22-26 May 2016
Environmental sustainability assessment of terrestrial land use in LCA overview and advanced methods Taelman, S.E., Schaubroeck, T., De Meester, S., Boone, L., Dewulf, J.
Background Competition for land among different uses is becoming acute
Several life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods try to evaluate environmental damages due to human activities on land
Consequences of an intensified land use include, amongst others, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, erosion, etc.
BUT accounting for land use impacts in LCA is not straightforward! OBJECTIVES: • Identifying natural land-based processes and resources • Overview of available LCA land use impact indicators • Proposal of 2 enhanced LCIA methods to account for land use impacts on ecosystem health
Important to reduce the pressure on land resources and natural ecosystems to ensure land availability for future generations
Material and methods Anthropogenic land use is mainly socio-culturally or economically oriented and affects the amount of natural stocks and funds and/or disturbs certain ecosystem processes
Proxy used by the indicator to assess land use impacts on the AoP natural resources or the AoP ecosystem health Solar exergy metabolized within natural vegetation
Net primary production loss (1,2,3)
Soil Núñez et al. (2013)
Land area Number of plant species (+ rarity )
Genetic resources
Fossils
Metals Habitat suitability matrix (plant and animal species)
(1,4)
affects
Biodiversity Weidema & Lindeijer (2001) Koellner & Scholz (2007) Koellner & Scholz (2008) De Baan et al. (2013) Frischknecht et al. (2006) Frischknecht & Büsser Knöpfel (2013) Goedkoop & Spriensma (2001) Jolliet et al. (2003) Goedkoop et al. (2009) Vogtländer et al. (2014) Geyer et al. (2010) De Baan et al. (2015) Souza et al. (2013)
Solar energy required to regenerate soil
Fresh water
Maintenance of biodiversity
Primary production
Erosion regulation
Photosynthesis
Waste treatment
Natural hazard regulation
Overview of LCIA indicators that are considered to assess the impact of land use on: • AoP natural resources • AoP ecosystem health
Evapotranspiration of potential natural vegetation (PNV) Erosion regulation Núñez et al. (2013)
Tons of soil eroded ha-1 yr-1, cation exchange capacity, water flow rate and water recharge rate
Air quality and climate regulation
Water purification
Water cycling
Water regulation
Disease regulation
Water cycling Maes et al. (2009) Erosion and fresh water regulation, water purification Saad et al. (2011) Saad et al. (2013)
-1
Fossil-combustion-equivalent’ tonnes of C ha
Climate regulation Müller-Wenk and Brandão (2010)
Pollination
Nutrient cycling
Natural biomass Dewulf et al. (2007) Alvarenga et al. (2013) Taelman et al. (2014) Alvarenga et al. (2015) Brandão and Milà i Canals (2013)
Soil organic carbon change
Biomass
Soil formation
Natural ecosystem processes
Economically oriented -Transport (4) -Land based production (e.g., forestry, agriculture, renewable energy)(4) -Mining/extraction of metals, fossils, sediments, etc. (4) -Residential, industrial and commercial infrastructure (4)
affects
Sediments
AoP
ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
Socio-culturally oriented -Human health and human well-being (need for food, clean air, etc.)(4) -Provision of work (1) -Recreation and ecotourism (1) -Cultural diversity (1) -Spiritual and religious values (1) -Knowledge systems (1) -Educational values (1) -Inspiration (1) -Aesthetic values (1) -Social relations (1) -Sense of place (1) -Cultural heritage values (1)
Natural resources (stocks and funds)
Anthropogenic LAND USE
Minerals
LCIA Indicators that assess land use impacts on
NATURAL RESOURCES
Data source of indicator
Soil Quality (*) Milà i Canals et al. (2007a) Brandão et. al (2011)
(1)
MEA (2005) de Groot et al. (2002) (3) Dewulf et al. (2015) (4) Pérez-Soba et al. (2008) (2)
Supporting Supporting processes processes
Regulating Regulating processes processes
Net primary production (NPP) is a key process for life on earth good starting point to determine the impact land use may have on ecosystem health HUMAN INTERVENTIONS
DIRECT IMPACTS
MIDPOINT level categories
ENDPOINT level categories AoP
Impacts on natural stocks and funds
Development of LCIA indicators that account for the actual loss of NPP • HANPP • Hemeroby (naturalness)
LAND USE (occupation & transformation)
Chemical inputs (fertilizers, pest control) (1,2) Drainage/irrigation (1,2) Soil compaction (1) Fragmentation (1,2) Vegetation cover modification (1,2) Surface sealing (2) (Over)exploitation
Loss of natural resources (e.g., fossil resources)
Damage to natural resources (resource depletion)
Natural resources
Damage to the natural environment
Ecosystem health
Damage to human health
Human health
(1,2)
Loss of supporting services (e.g., net primary production)
Impacts on natural ecosystem processes
Loss of regulating services (e.g., climate regulation)
Loss of biodiversity (e.g., reduction in amount of plant species) (1) (2)
Koellner et al. (2013) Souza et al. (2015)
Results and conclusions HANPP approach LADA (land use systems of the world) INTERSECTION
Countries of the world
Hemeroby approach World map (3680 zone, country and land use specific) INTERSECTION
Naturalness Degradation Potential (NDP) assigned to different land use types as described in the LCA database ecoinvent version 2.2, 3.0 and 3.1 Zone specific CFs (area-weighted averages of HANPP)
HANPP (MJex m-2 year-1)
Limitations • Based on LADA land use classes: not completely compatible with commonly used background databases (e.g., ecoinvent) • Low resolution of the zonal map may add to uncertainty of final results (CFs)
Multiplying the NDP of a specific land use with the country-specific potential NPP exergy-based CF that represents the loss of NPP at that particular area Limitations • The naturalness assigned to a certain land use type is based on a qualitive (subjective) ecological framework
Reference: Taelman, S.E., Schaubroeck, T., De Meester, S., Boone, L., Dewulf, J., (2016) Accounting for land use in life cycle assessment: the value of NPP as a proxy indicator to assess land use impacts on ecosystems. Science of the Total Environment 550, 143-156. Taelman, S.E. (2016) Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Algae Production Systems. Methodological development and case studies. PhD thesis, Ghent University, Belgium. ISBN 978-90-5989-878-3 Contact:
[email protected]
