Citation:

Woods, J., M. Damiani, P. Fantke, A. Henderson, JohnM Johnston, J. Bare, S. Sala, D. de Souza, S. Pfister, L. Posthuma, R. Rosenbaum, AND F. Verones. Ecosystem quality in LCIA: status quo, harmonization, and suggestions for the way forward. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT. Ecomed Verlagsgesellschaft AG, Landsberg, Germany, 23(10):1995-2006, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1422-8

Impact/Purpose:

Life cycle assessment (LCIA) results are used to assess potential environmental impacts of different products and services. The usefulness of LCIA results is dependent on the comparability and environmental relevance of the impact indicators used. As part of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative flagship project that aims to harmonize indicators for environmental impacts, we highlight the necessity for improving comparability and environmental relevance of damage-level metrics within the ecosystem quality area of protection.

Description:

Purpose: Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results are used to assess potential environmental impacts of different products and services. The usefulness of LCIA results is dependent on the comparability and environmental relevance of the impact indicators used. As part of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative flagship project that aims to harmonize indicators for environmental impacts, we highlight the necessity for improving comparability and environmental relevance of damage-level metrics within the ecosystem quality area of protection. Methods: We analyze current ecosystem quality metrics and provide suggestions to the LCIA research community for achieving near- and long-term progress towards comparable and more environmentally relevant metrics addressing ecosystem quality. Results and discussion: We suggest that near-term LCIA development should tend towards impact metrics related to species assemblage. Impact indicators--which result from a range of modelling approaches that differ inter alia according to spatial and temporal scale, taxonomic coverage, and whether the indicator produces a relative or absolute measure of loss--should be aggregated to facilitate their final expression in a single indicator unit. This would improve comparability of damage-level indicators. In the longer term, environmental relevance of metrics related to species assemblage should be improved through appropriate inclusion of aspects capturing greater ecosystem complexity within models. Furthermore, to allow for a broader inclusion of ecosystem quality perspectives, the development of an additional indicator related to ecosystem function is recommended, as well as one based on ecosystem services. These distinct indicators would give a broader coverage of ecosystem attributes and valuation viewpoints. Conclusion and recommendations: We call for the LCIA research community to make progress towards enabling harmonization of damage level indicators within the ecosystem quality area of protection and, in the longer term, improve the environmental relevance of impact indicators.

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