GIS Data and Land Use in Life Cycle Impact assessment ... · GIS Data and Land Use in Life Cycle Impact assessment – experiences on global scales ... Cropland/Woodland Mosaic ...

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GIS Data and Land Use in Life Cycle Impact assessment –experiences on global scales

Dr. Christian Bauer

Department for Technology Induced Material Flows

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

June 11th

Definition of Best Indicators for Land Use Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment

CES

University of Surrey

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

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Introduction:

• Environmental Impact Assessment for Material Flows of

Metallic Raw Materials (Life Cycle Approach)

• Focus on primary production esp. mining

• Land use as major area of concern as aluminium/bauxite

was first example

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Bauxite Mining (location, performance, production)

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Cropland/Woodland Mosaic

Dryland Cropland and Pasture

Deciduous Broadleaf Forest

Grassland

grass crops

cool fields and woods

forest and field

cool crops and towns

cool broadleaf forest

low sparse grassland

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460 mm/a ~ 14.5 l/(s km²)

360 mm/a ~ 11.4 l/(s km²)

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surface cleaning soil compaction

degradation of

natural ecosystemremoval of topsoil

reduction of

permeability

change of natural

biodiverstiy

decrease of

nat. biomass

productivity

soil erosion by

wind

increase of

surface runoff

naturalness

indicator

ecosystem

indicator

reduction of

groundwater

recharge

soil erosion

by water

Cause – Effect Chain

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0,01

0,1

1

10

100

land use

[ym²/t]

soil erosion by

wind [kg/t]

soil erosion by

water [kg/t]

ecosystem-

indicator [kg/t]

reduce of

GWR [t/t]

Australia

Jamaica

Brazil

China

USA

Germany

World

land use

[am²/t]

soil erosion by

wind [kg/t]

soil erosion by

water [kg/t]ecosystem-

indicator [kg/t]reduction of

GWR [t/t]

Indicator Scores

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,80 0,90 1,00

naturalness

bauxite p

roduction [

%]

Bauxite Mining & Naturalness

Darling Range, Australia

Trombetas, Brazil

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5

net primary productivity

bauxite p

roduction [

%]

Bauxite Mining & Net Primary Productivity

Darling Range, Australia

Trombetas, Brazil

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Experiences with GIS data and land use in LCIA:

• Supportive to detect relevant environmental issues

for selected unit processes/operations

• Important means to assess the representativeness offield studies and in situ assessments

• Not meaningful for a full product life cycle

• Impossible to relate an activity to a certain damage on

global scales

But:

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forest

urban

cropland

savanna

mine site

pasture

50 km50 km50 km50 km

natural land cover [m²] N= = 0-1

land cover [m²]

E = N * NPPN,L [kg/t]

average net-primary-production of natural land coverNPPN, L=

t Bauxite

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0

20

40

60

80

100

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1

Naturalness

Co

pp

er

Pro

du

ctio

n (

%)

Chile

Canada

PeruAustraliaSth Africa

CyprusPhilippines

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0

20

40

60

80

100

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5

NPP

Co

pp

er

Pro

du

ctio

n (

%) PNG Colombia PhilippinesZimbabwe

USA/ Russia/ Canada

Australia

Peru

Chile

Zambia