Critical review of eutrophication models for life cycle assessment

摘要

This paper evaluates the current state of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods used to estimate potential eutrophication impacts in freshwater and marine ecosystems, and presents a critical review of the underlying surface water quality, watershed, marine, and air fate and transport (F&T) models. Using a criteria rubric, the authors assess the potential of each method and model to contribute to further refinements of life cycle assessment’s (LCA’s) eutrophication category. The F&T criteria assessed include sources of nutrient loading, transport and removal mechanisms, and nutrient transformation processes, as well as model structure, availability, geographic scope, and spatial and temporal resolution. The authors describe recent advances in LCIA modeling, and provide guidance on the best available sources of fate and exposure factors, with a focus on midpoint indicators. The critical review identifies gaps in LCIA characterization modeling regarding availability and spatial resolution of fate factors in the soil compartment, and identifies strategies to characterize emissions from soil. Additional opportunities are identified to leverage detailed F&T models that strengthen existing approaches to LCIA, or that have the potential to link LCIA modeling more closely with the spatial and temporal realities of effects from eutrophication.