Life cycle assessment (LCA) calculates the environmental impact
of a production process by evaluating all fluxes of energy and
materials during the whole life cycle. The use of LCA in forestry
and agriculture asks for a new impact category: land use.
The study is restricted to the water aspect within the land use
impact category. Our goal is to define a set of indicators that
describe the impact of land use on the water balance and to
develop a methodology to quantify these indicators. Therefore
different hydrological models, of avrying complexity, are
compared. The main criteria used for evaluting the suitability
of a model for LCA are universal applicability and cost
efficiency.
Tags
Keywords
environmental impact, hydrology, land use, life cycle assessment
