Maia De Souza, Danielle
- Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Lethbridge Research and Development Centre
- University of Alberta
Review article2016Peer reviewedOpen access
How Well Does LCA Model Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity?-A Comparison with Approaches from Ecology and Conservation
Curran, Michael P.; Maia De Souza, Danielle; Antón, Assumpció; Teixeira, Ricardo F.M.; Michelsen, Ottar; Vidal-Legaz, Beatriz; Sala, Serenella; Milà i Canals, Llorenç
Abstract
The modeling of land use impacts on biodiversity is considered a priority in life cycle assessment (LCA). Many diverging approaches have been proposed in an expanding literature on the topic. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative is engaged in building consensus on a shared modeling framework to highlight best-practice and guide model application by practitioners. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of 31 models from both the LCA and the ecology/conservation literature (20 from LCA, 11 from non-LCA fields) according to a set of criteria reflecting (i) model completeness, (ii) biodiversity representation, (iii) impact pathway coverage, (iv) scientific quality, and (v) stakeholder acceptance. We show that LCA models tend to perform worse than those from ecology and conservation (although not significantly), implying room for improvement. We identify seven best-practice recommendations that can be implemented immediately to improve LCA models based on existing approaches in the literature. We further propose building a "consensus model" through weighted averaging of existing information, to complement future development. While our research focuses on conceptual model design, further quantitative comparison of promising models in shared case studies is an essential prerequisite for future informed model choice.
Keywords
Life cycle assessment; land use; biodiversity; UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative; ecological modelling
Published in
Environmental Science and Technology
2016, volume: 50, number: 6, pages: 2782-2795
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Management
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b04681
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/69163