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Download fileLife Cycle Impact Assessment of Terrestrial Acidification: Modeling Spatially Explicit Soil Sensitivity at the Global Scale
journal contribution
posted on 2012-08-07, 00:00 authored by Pierre-Olivier Roy, Louise Deschênes, Manuele MargniThis paper presents a novel life cycle impact assessment
(LCIA)
approach to derive spatially explicit soil sensitivity indicators
for terrestrial acidification. This global approach is compatible
with a subsequent damage assessment, making it possible to consistently
link the developed midpoint indicators with a later endpoint assessment
along the cause-effect chaina prerequisite in LCIA. Four different
soil chemical indicators were preselected to evaluate sensitivity
factors (SFs) for regional receiving environments at the global scale,
namely the base cations to aluminum ratio, aluminum to calcium ratio,
pH, and aluminum concentration. These chemical indicators were assessed
using the PROFILE geochemical steady-state soil model and a global
data set of regional soil parameters developed specifically for this
study. Results showed that the most sensitive regions (i.e., where
SF is maximized) are in Canada, northern Europe, the Amazon, central
Africa, and East and Southeast Asia. However, the approach is not
bereft of uncertainty. Indeed, a Monte Carlo analysis showed that
input parameter variability may induce SF variations of up to over
6 orders of magnitude for certain chemical indicators. These findings
improve current practices and enable the development of regional characterization
models to assess regional life cycle inventories in a global economy.