Assessing Desertification Risk Impact in LCA Part I: Methodological Aspects

NÚÑEZ, MONTSERRAT; CIVIT, BÁRBARA; MUÑOZ, PERE; ARENA, ALEJANDRO PABLO; RIERADEVALL, JOAN; ANTÓN, ASSUMPCIÓ

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Springer

Año: 2010 vol. 15 p. 67 - 78

0948-3349

Abstract Background, Aim and Scope. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology enables the assessment of global environmental burdens derived from all the history of a product or a production system, in an objective and measurable way. One of the main weaknesses of LCA is that it is not site and temporal dependent, which determines either the exclusion or the lack of enough assessment of the local environmental impacts related to land use. The inclusion of the desertification impact in LCA studies of any human activity is considerably important in high desertification risk regions.      Main Features. This paper focuses on the development of a methodology that includes the desertification environmental impact derived from land use in LCA studies. The study suggests a set of indicators for the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), their corresponding characterisation factors (CFs), and a model assessment method for the LCIA phase. The CFs have been acquired using Geographical Information System (GIS) methods. Results. For the LCI stage, four biophysical indicators —aridity, erosion, fire risk, and aquifer overexploitation— were selected, and their values were determined according to a created scale of values. These same indicators, measured for the main terrestrial natural regions (ecoregions) by means of GIS, are the values for the CFs. The LCIA model proposed also requires data on occupied land area and lasting time of the activity under analysis.  Discussion. The calculation of the CF for the aridity indicator shows that 38% of the world area is under desertification risk and that the most affected ecoregion is the Tropical/subtropical desert. The LCIA model has been developed in order to identify scenarios without desertification impact. Conclusions. The developed methodology makes possible the inclusion of the desertification impact derived from land use in LCA studies, using data generally available to LCA users.   Recommendations and Perspectives. The LCIA model has been settled as a product of factors and has worked well in the case studies that will be presented in Part II. Its use in different case studies will allow for its calibration and improvement. The model proposed is suitable for assessing the desertification impact of any type of human activity and may be complemented with specific activity indicators. Although we have considered biophysical indicators, the method could be extended to socio-economic vectors.       Keywords: aridity index; characterisation factors; GIS; land use impacts; LCA; LCI; LCIA.