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LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT SOPHISTICATION
Citation:
Bare*, J C., D W. Pennington*, AND H. A. Udo de Haes. LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT SOPHISTICATION. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT. Ecomed Verlagsgesellschaft AG, Landsberg, Germany, 4(5):299-306, (1999).
Description:
An international workshop was held in Brussels on 11/29-30/1998, to discuss LCIA Sophistication. LCA experts from North America, Europs, and Asia attended. Critical reviews of associated factors, including current limitations of available assessment methodologies, and comparisons of alternatives were presented. Discussions followed each presentation to encourage internation discourse with a view to improving the understanding of these crucial issues. This workshop provided the first opportunity for international experts to address the issues related to LCIA Sophistication. Among the topics addressed were: 1) inclusion or exclusion of backgrounds and thresholds in LCIA, 2) the necessity and practicality regarding the sophistication of the uncertainty analysis, 3) implications of allowing impact categories to be assessed at "midpoint" vs. "endpoint" level, 4) difficulty of assessing and capturing the comprehensiveness of environmental health impact categories, 5) implications of cultural/philosophical views, 6) meaning of terms like science-based and environmental relevance in the coming ISO LCIA standard, 7) the dichotomy of striving for consistency while allowing the incorporation of state-of-the-art research 8) the role of various types of uncertainty analysis, and 9) the role of supporting environmental analyses. The participants concluded that the exchange of ideas was extremely valuable and would like to plan successive International workshops on related themes.