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Integration of life cycle assessment and regional emission information in agricultural systems
Author(s) -
Kim Junbeum,
Yalaltdinova Albina,
Siritalia,
Baranovskaya Natalia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.7149
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , agriculture , ecotoxicity , environmental science , inventory analysis , product (mathematics) , environmental impact assessment , life cycle inventory , environmental economics , environmental resource management , environmental protection , environmental engineering , production (economics) , chemistry , ecology , mathematics , economics , biology , geometry , macroeconomics , organic chemistry , toxicity
BACKGROUND Life cycle assessment ( LCA ) is a compilation and evaluation of the input energy and materials, output emissions and the potential environmental impacts of a product, service or system throughout its life cycle. While methodological issues of LCA are still being developed, much research is being conducted worldwide in order to improve them. One of the important advances in LCA is a regionalised LCA , i.e. the development of regionalised databases, inventories, and impact assessment methods and models. RESULTS Regional emission information ( REI ) was developed and integrated with the characterisation results in LCA of an agricultural product in the study area. Comparison of outcomes obtained with LCA characterisation results that did not include REI shows that the characterisation results taking REI into account are much higher as regards human toxicity, from 0.02% to 0.18%, freshwater ecotoxicity from 89% to 99% and terrestrial ecotoxicity from 8.006% to 26.177%. CONCLUSION Results of current LCA studies on agricultural products and systems that do not include REI are under‐estimating the life cycle environmental impact. For the LCA of agricultural products and systems, the REI as well as regionalised life cycle inventory data should be developed and integrated into the current LCA approach. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry