The use of the ecosystem services concept in Life Cycle Assessment

Transcription

1 The use of the ecosystem services concept in Life Cycle Assessment Prof. Dr. Thomas Köllner Professorship of Ecological Services (PES), University of Bayreuth

2 The assessment of land use impacts on ecosystem services can be done for regional systems or product systems. 2

3 Land use/cover change scenarios and Ecosystem Services Nelson, E., et al Front Ecol Environ 7:

4 Nelson, E., et al

5 Regional systems are open systems! Leakage of ES damage i.e., shifting environmentally damaging activities elsewhere in space Global Land Cover GLC2000 5

6 Soybean field in Brazil Source: 6

7 THE EUROPEAN UNION AS AN OPEN REGIONAL SYSTEM 8

8 European Environmental Agency,. Land accounts for Europe Towards integrated land and ecosystem accounting. (2006) pp. 107 Land cover of the EU 24 is 3.6 Mill km 2 But agricultural land use of the EU is much more!!! 9

9 Land flows of the EU27 embedded in agricultural trade 200 a) Total net land flows F A net of the EU 120 b) EU land net flows F A net split by region North America in 1000 km in 1000 km South & Meso America Western Europe Central & Eastern Europe Africa F A net F A net Arabia 50 0 Asia Australia 0-40 Chapter 5 in Koellner, T. ed. (2011). Ecosystem Services and Global Trade of Natural Resources: Ecology, Economics and Policies. Routledge. / Data source: FAOSTAT

10 Ecological consequences of EU net land flows ca km 2 more land used per year in countries with deforestation (mainly Brazil) 120 c) EU net land flows F A net split by deforestation d) Global ecological performance Eco global in 1000 km2 F A net Eco global in 1000 pts weighted with EcoIndex weighted with DEFOREST yes

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12 Conclusion of the analysis Land use flows for EU27 Ca km 2 of net land flows versus km 2 of arable land But, processed products are not considered System boundary is EU27, although EU25 was formed May 1, 2004 and Bulgaria and Romania joined 2007 Further planned to model impacts on ecosystem services!!! 16

13 Land use assessment for Closed regional systems Open regional systems Global product systems 17

14 LAND USE IN GLOBAL PRODUCT SYSTEMS 18

15 Product life cycle INPUT Resources extraction OUTPUT Abiotic Resources (e.g. water) Production Chemical Emission Biotic Resources (e.g. timber) Transportation Noise and radiation Land Product Use Waste Ecosystem services Recycling/Waste Product system Ecosystem services & biodiversity Environmental system 19

16 Global land use and milk?

17 Land use to produce 1000 kg of milk Cederberg, 2000, J Cleaner Production 22

18 Global land use for milk production Raw materials for the concentrate feed that is used to raise livestock in Sweden are produced in: Argentina (sunflower) Belgium (potatoes) Brazil (soybean) Denmark (sugar beet, rape seed) France (sunflower, maize) Germany (rape seed) Malaysia (palm oil) Netherlands (potatoes) Poland (sugar beet) South America (sugar cane) Sweden (sugar beet, rape seed) Cederberg, 2000, J Cleaner Production

19 Elementary flows of land use in the Life Cycle Inventory are for land occupation: m 2 *years, land use type i, and region k for land transformation: m 2, initial land use type i -> final land use type j, and region k 24

20 Life Cycle Impact Assessment Ecosystem Service (ES) ES 0 ES 3 Impact = A * des(t)*dt Permanents impacts ES 1 ES 2 Transformation Occupation Impacts from transformation and occupation t 1 t 2 t 3 Time (t) Curve adapted from Milà i Canals et al. (2007) 25

21 Impact pathways Life Cycle Inventory Life Cycle Impact Assessment for Natural Environment Effects Midpoints Endpoints Populations/Habitats/ Landscapes Biodiversity Biodiversity Damage Potential (BDP) Land use type Area Time Location/ Topography Chemical and physical properties of soil Water quality and quantity Properties of below/ above ground biomass Microclimate Biotic Production Carbon Sequestration Fresh Water Regulation Erosion Regulation Ecosystem Services Damage Potential (ESDP) Water Purification

22 Assessment of actual land use against reference in the region Land use in the product system Natural situation as reference 27

23 LAND USE TYPOLOGY IN LC INVENTORIES 28

24 Land use typology in LC inventories The challenge For foreground systems land use might be known in detail For the background system land use might be only known very course Hierarchical land use classification Level 1 uses very general land use and land cover classes (from GLC 2000), Level 2 refines the categories of level 1 (using mainly the classification of ecoinvent v2.0 and Globio3), Level 3 and level 4 mostly specify the intensity of the land uses. 29

25 REGIONALIZATION IN LC INVENTORIES 34

26 Regionalization in LC inventories The challenge For the foreground system the location of land use can be known For the background system the location of land use is often not known Hierarchical regionalization Level 1: Differentiation between terrestrial biomes, freshwater biomes, coastal water and shelf/deep sea biomes Level 2: Climatic regions ((sub)tropical, temperate, boreal, polar) Level 3: Terrestrial and freshwater biomes (n=16) by Olson et al. (2001) and for marine biomes (n=3) by Spalding et al. (2007) Level 4: Olson terrestrial and freshwater ecoregions (n=867 and n=238 priority regions) and Spalding coastal/shelf ecoregions (n=232); Level 5: Exact geo-referenced information of land use 35

27 Regionalization on the level of biomes 36

28 Regionalization on the level of ecoregions 37

29 LAND USE TYPOLOGY X REGIONALIZATION 38

30 Cross tabulation of land use types and regions for calculation of characterization factors a) Unspecified land occupation b) Forest occupation in climatic region of (sub) tropcial terrestrial biomes c) Land transformation from Forest, natural to Forest intensive in the biome of Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests 39

31 IMPACT FACTORS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES 40

32 Calculation with LANCA INPUT PARAMETER Land use activity description Country Area OM [%] ph Soil properties Texture Land use type Time of occupation CEC eff [cmol c /kg] Skeleton [%] Depth to ground-water level (m) Climatic condition and landscape Precipitation [mm/an] (Approach by Baitz, 2002) GIS DATASETS OUTPUT PARAMETER Erosion resistance capacity Groundwater replenishment capacity Chemical filtration capacity Mechanical filtration capacity Slope [ ] Evapotranspiration [mm/an] Source: World Water Assessment Program, ISRIC, FAO, JRC

33 Impact factors per land use type for Canada Saad et al Int J LCA 43

34 Impact on erosion regulation for Canada Saad et al Int J LCA 44

35 Reduction in groundwater recharge for a hectare of urban land occupation Saad et al. submitted Int J LCA 45

36 Reduction in groundwater recharge for a hectare of urban land occupation What is the damage to human well-being? Saad et al. submitted Int J LCA 46

37 Impact assessment: Cause - effect chain

38 CONCLUSION 48

39 Spatial pattern of environmental factors influence ecosystem services e.g. land use, topography Ecoregion ID 50510: Central Pacific coastal forests Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests 49

40 B4) Erosion Regulation Potential: Capacity of forest ecosystems to stabilize soil and to prevent sediment accumulation downstream Ecoregion ID 50510: Central Pacific coastal forests Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests Sediment retained in tons/year/pixel (30x30m) 50

41 B4) Erosion Regulation Potential: Capacity of forest ecosystems to stabilize soil and to prevent sediment accumulation downstream Ecoregion ID 50510: Central Pacific coastal forests Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests Sediment retained in tons/year/pixel (30x30m) 51

42 Support of decision-makers Optimizing regional systems Optimizing product systems Replace cropland with forest Impact on biodiversity, ecosystem services and costs? Leakage!!? Regional simulation models (e.g. InVEST, Uni Stanford) Replace Brazilian soybean with wheat from Ukraine Impact on biodiversity, ecosystem services and costs? Regionalization!!? Life Cycle Assessment (e.g. SimaPro, Pre) 52

43 COMING SOON: Special issue in the International Journal of LCA 53