INVESTIGADORES
ARENA alejandro pablo
artículos
Título:
Assessing Desertification Risk Impact in LCA Part I: Methodological Aspects
Autor/es:
MONTSERRAT NUÑEZ; BÁRBARA CIVIT; PERE MUÑOZ; ALEJANDRO PABLO ARENA; JOAN RIERADEVALL ; ASSUMPCIÓ ANTÓN
Revista:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
Editorial:
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
Referencias:
Año: 2010 vol. 15 p. 67 - 78
ISSN:
0948-3349
Resumen:
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Background, aim and scope Life cycle assessment (LCA)
enables the objective assessment of global environmental
burdens associated with the life cycle of a product or a
production system. One of the main weaknesses of LCA is
that, as yet, there is no scientific agreement on the
assessment methods for land-use related impacts, which
results in either the exclusion or the lack of assessment of
local environmental impacts related to land use. The inclusion
of the desertification impact in LCA studies of any human
activity can be important in high-desertification risk regions.
Main features This paper focuses on the development of a
methodology for including the desertification environmental
impact derived from land use in LCA studies. A set of
variables to be measured in the life cycle inventory (LCI),
their characterisation factors (CFs) and an impact assessment
method for the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA)
phase are suggested. The CFs were acquired using a
geographical information system (GIS).
Results For the LCI stage it is necessary to register
information on: (1) the four biophysical variables of aridity,
erosion, aquifer overexploitation and fire risk, with a
created scale of values; (2) the geographical location of
the activity and (3) the spatial and temporal extension of the
activity. For the CFs, the four LCI biophysical variables in
(1) were measured for the main terrestrial natural regions
(ecoregions) by means of GIS.
Discussion Using GIS, calculation of the CF for the aridity
variable shows that 38% of the world area, in eight out of
15 existing ecoregions, is at risk of desertification. The
most affected is the tropical/subtropical desert. The LCIA
model has been developed to identify scenarios without
desertification impact.
Conclusions The developed method 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 While this LCIA model
may be a simplified approach, it can be calibrated and improved for different case studies. The model proposed is
suitable for assessing the desertification impact of any type
of human activity and may be complemented with specific
activity indicators, and although we have considered
biophysical factors, the method can be extended to socioeconomic vectors