Critical analysis of life cycle impact assessment methods addressing consequences of freshwater use on ecosystems and recommendations for future method development

摘要

Purpose Anthropic water uses can affect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through various pathways. To address these impacts in life cycle assessment, an array of impact assessment methods can be applied. The currently well-known review of methods carried out by the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative's WULCAworking group (Kounina et al. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18(3):707-721,2013) recommends that practitioners Bsimultaneously apply all indicators to evaluate damage on ecosystem quality and to cautiously sum up the score into a single metric". This call for caution is attributed to the fact that methods reviewed cover different ecosystem targets. Their characterisation factors and units also vary. However, the review lacks a detailed analysis of compatibilities and coherence between methods that identifies inconsistencies to be overcome to further method harmonisation. This is precisely the aim of this study.