Bayart, Jean-Baptiste; Bulle, Cécile; Deschênes, Louise; Margni, Manuele; Pfister, Stephan; Vince, Francois et Koehler, Annette
(2010).
« A framework for assessing off-stream freshwater use in LCA ».
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 15(5), pp. 439-453.
Fichier(s) associé(s) à ce document :
Résumé
Purpose Freshwater scarcity is a problem in many areas of
the world and will become one of the most sensitive
environmental issues in coming decades. Existing life cycle
assessment (LCA) methodologies generally do not provide
assessment schemes or characterization factors of the
potential environmental impacts of freshwater use or
freshwater resource depletion. These assessments therefore
do not account for the significant environmental consequences of the loss in quality and availability of freshwater.
This paper aims to develop a framework to address this
methodological limitation and to support further quantitative modeling of the cause–effect chain relationships of
water use. The framework includes recommendations for
life cycle inventory (LCI) modeling and provides a
description of possible impact pathways for life cycle
impact assessment (LCIA), including indicators on midpoint and endpoint levels that reflect different areas of
protection (AoP).
Methodology LCI of freshwater use aims to quantify
changes in freshwater availability. The key elements
affected by changes in availability are sufficient freshwater
supplies for contemporary human users, ecosystems, and
future generations, the latter referring to the renewability of
the resource. Three midpoint categories are therefore
proposed and linked to common AoP as applied in LCIA.
Results and discussion We defined a set of water types,
each representing an elementary flow. Water balances for
each type allows the quantification of changes in freshwater
availability. These values are recommended as results for
the LCI of water use. Insufficient freshwater supplies for
contemporary human users can mean freshwater deficits
for human uses, which is the first midpoint impact category
ultimately affecting the AoP of human life; freshwater
deficits in ecosystems is the second proposed midpoint
impact category and is linked to the AoP biotic environment. Finally, the last midpoint category is freshwater
depletion caused by intensive overuse that exceeds the
regeneration rate, which itself is ultimately linked to the
AoP abiotic environment. Depending on the regional
context, the development of scenarios aimed to compensate
for the lack of water for specific uses by using backup
technologies (e.g., saltwater treatment, the import of
agricultural goods) can avoid generating direct impacts on
the midpoint impact category freshwater deficits for human
uses. Indirect impacts must be assessed through an
extension of system boundaries including these backup
technologies. Because freshwater is a resource with high
spatial and temporal variability, the proposed framework
discusses aspects of regionalization in relationship to data
availability, appropriate spatial and temporal resolution, and
software capacities to support calculations.
Conclusions The framework provides recommendations for
the development of operational LCA methods for water
Responsible editor: Llorenç Milà i Canals
J.-B. Bayart (*) : F. Vince
Veolia Environment Recherche et Innovation,
10 rue Jacques Daguerre,
92500 Rueil-Malmaison, France
e-mail: jean-baptiste.bayart@veolia.com
C. Bulle : L. Deschênes: M. Margni
CIRAIG, Chemical Engineering Department,
École Polytechnique de Montréal,
P.O. Box 6079, Montréal, Québec H3C 3A7, Canada
S. Pfister : A. Koehler
Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich,
ETH Hoenggerberg,
8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Int J Life Cycle Assess (2010) 15:439–453
DOI 10.1007/s11367-010-0172-7
use. It establishes the link between LCI and LCIA, wateruse mechanism models, and impact pathways to environmental damages in a consistent way.
Recommendations Based on this framework, next steps
consist of the development of operational methods for both
inventory modeling and impact assessment.
| Type: |
Article de revue scientifique
|
| Mots-clés ou Sujets: |
Freshwater resources. Freshwater use .
Life cycle impact assessment . Life cycle inventory |
| Unité d'appartenance: |
École des sciences de la gestion |
| Déposé par: |
Cécile Bulle
|
| Date de dépôt: |
31 oct. 2022 15:24 |
| Dernière modification: |
31 oct. 2022 15:24 |
| Adresse URL : |
http://archipel.uqam.ca/id/eprint/16038 |
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