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copertinaLCA FOR FEEDING THE PLANET...:Layout 1 8-10-2015 16:54 Pagina 1
International conference on Life Cycle Assessment as reference
methodology for assessing supply chains and supporting global
sustainability challenges
LCA FOR “FEEDING THE PLANET AND ENERGY FOR LIFE”
Stresa, 6-07th October 2015 - Milano, Expo 2015, 8
th October 2015
Edited by Simona Scalbi, Arianna Dominici Loprieno, Paola Sposato
2015 ENEA
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy andSustainable Economic Development
Lungotevere Thaon di Revel, 76
00196 Roma
ISBN 978-88-8286-321-0
3
Index
Introduction - Life cycle assessment for supporting the transition towards
eco-efficient agriculture and food systems .................................................................................................... 9
Conference program ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Consumption trends and sustainability of future development ................................................................ 16
Tomorrow's healthy Society: research priorities for foods and diets .......................................................... 17
Environmental Impact of the European Food Basket using LCA ............................................................... 21
Environmental Implications of Dynamic Policies on Food Consumption and Waste Handling in the
European Union .......................................................................................................................................... 25
How much meat can we eat to sustain a healthy life and planet?
The case of Swedish meat consumption ..................................................................................................... 29
Carbon footprint of Italian eating habits: how consumer food choices might lead to a reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions ........................................................................................................................... 36
Product Environmental Footprint in the food sector ................................................................................. 40
Developing Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for Olive Oil ............................................. 41
Pesticide emissions in the Environmental Product Footprint – Lessons learnt from refined sugar from
sugar beet .................................................................................................................................................... 45
The Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) Packed Water Pilot Testing .................. 49
Inventories and dabase for LCA and footprint of food chains .................................................................. 52
Life Cycle Inventory database for seafood products ................................................................................... 53
The World Food LCA Database: a global inventory database for the food sector ..................................... 57
Creating coherent life cycle databases for ecodesign and product declaration of agro-industrial products:
how to implement methodological choices ................................................................................................. 61
Wheat of today and tomorrow: an assessment of current LCI inventories ................................................. 67
Food PEFCRs and the need for consistent secondary databases such as Agri-footprint® ......................... 71
LCA and footprints to asses food product chains ....................................................................................... 75
Energy Use in the EU Food Sector: State of Play and Opportunities for Improvement ............................ 76
Energy Flows and Greenhouses Gases of EU national breads using LCA approach ................................. 81
Life Cycle Assessment for Enhancing Environmental Sustainability of
Sugarcane Biorefinery in Thailand ............................................................................................................. 85
Life Cycle Assessment of Biogas Production from Marine Macroalgal Feedstock:
Substitution of Energy Crops with Algae ................................................................................................... 89
Environmental assessment of wheat and maize production in an Italian farmers cooperative ................... 93
Protein quality as functional unit – a methodological framework for inclusion in
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) ......................................................................................................................... 97
4
LCA as a decision support tool in policy making: the case study of Danish spring barley production
in a changed climate .................................................................................................................................. 101
Mediterranean countries’ food supply and food sourcing profiles:........................................................... 105
An Ecological Footprint viewpoint ........................................................................................................... 105
Simplified modelling of environmental impacts of foods ......................................................................... 109
Life Cycle Assessment of Thai Organic Rice to Evaluate the Climate Change,
Water Use and Biodiversity Impacts ......................................................................................................... 113
Comparative LCA study on environmental impact of oil production from microalgae and
terrestrial oilseed crops ............................................................................................................................. 117
Liquid whey recycling within the traditional dairy chain, as a sustainable alternative for
whey waste management ........................................................................................................................... 121
Quantification of life cycle energy use for a more efficient building design. ........................................... 126
Resource footprint of Vietnamese Pangasius frozen fillets and export to the European market .............. 130
Comparative LCA of bread baked in novel Low Energy Ovens and conventional ovens ........................ 134
Life Cycle Assessment of the production and import of Arabica Brazilian coffee ................................... 138
The link between CSR, EMS and LCA with coffee as an example .......................................................... 142
Sustainability and performance design of open loop recycling strategies in the production of
innovative building materials .................................................................................................................... 146
A tool for the sustainability assessment of transformation activities of buildings .................................... 150
LCA of clean technologies in food value chains of emerging economies ................................................ 154
Life Cycle Assessment of Food Smoking Technologies ........................................................................... 158
Low Emission Farming – a significant step forward to improve the environmental impacts of
livestock production .................................................................................................................................. 162
Energy and water savings by exploiting nano-technological self cleaning textiles .................................. 169
Selecting an appropriate fuel mix in LCA of energy savings ................................................................... 173
Assessing the impacts of onshore wind energy by using a spatio-temporal LCA approach ..................... 177
Life Cycle Assessment of Palm Biodiesel Production in Thailand: Impacts from
Improvement Technologies, Land Use Changes and Modelling Choices ................................................ 181
Energy recovery from garden waste in a LCA perspective ....................................................................... 185
Comparing Water Footprint impact methods: a case study on biogas production from energy crops ...... 189
LCA and Water Footprint of biofuels used in transport sector: a review ................................................. 193
Simplified LCA tools: selected approaches assessed for their implementation in the agri-food sector ... 197
“Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG”: towards a sustainable wine farming .......................................... 201
Environmental impacts of the brewing sector: Life Cycle Assessment of
Italian craft and industrial beer.................................................................................................................. 205
LCA-LCC decision tool for energy generation technologies in a food processing plant ......................... 209
Life Cycle Assessment of Oilseed Canola Production in Iranian Agriculture .......................................... 213
5
The ecological footprint of products of oil palm and rubber plantations in Thailand ............................... 217
Comparative LCA of sunflower, rapeseed and soybean oils .................................................................... 221
Life Cycle Assessment of organic apple supply chain in the North of Italy ............................................. 225
Environmental assessment of rice cultivation: a case study of fertilisation with urban sewage ............... 229
Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse-Grown Tomatoes in Thailand ..................................................... 233
The evolution of LCA in milk production ................................................................................................ 237
Dairy products: Energy use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions ............................................... 241
Carbon footprint analysis of mozzarella and ricotta cheese production and influence of
allocation procedure .................................................................................................................................. 245
Global warming potential of Lombardy cow milk production at farm ..................................................... 249
Life cycle assessment of sugar production in Hamadan sugar mill .......................................................... 253
Sustainability in breeding farms: the case of the Maremmana beef .......................................................... 257
Carbon Footprint of tropical Amazon fruit jam from agroforestry ........................................................... 261
Life-cycle assessment of chestnut produced in the north of Portugal ....................................................... 265
Life Cycle Impact Assessment: needs and challenges for assessing food supply chains ....................... 269
Pesticide Substitution: Combining Food Safety with Environmental Quality .......................................... 270
Coupling land use information with remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity: a new challenge for
life cycle impact assessment of plant species diversity ............................................................................. 273
Biodiversity impact: Case study beef production ..................................................................................... 277
Pollinators in LCA: towards a framework for impact assessment ............................................................ 282
Evaluating use stage exposure to food contact materials in a LCA framework ........................................ 286
Assessing freshwater biodiversity as endpoint modeling of impacts in LCIA: case of run-of-river
hydropower ............................................................................................................................................... 290
Spatial and temporal assessment of GHG emissions from cocoa farming in
the region of San Martin, Peru .................................................................................................................. 294
Land use in life cycle impact assessment: a review of models at midpoint level to incorporate impacts
on soil state and functioning ..................................................................................................................... 298
Marine eutrophication impacts from present and future production of spring barley ............................... 302
Integration of Land Use aspects in LCA: determination of land use types as a crucial factor
influencing the result ................................................................................................................................. 306
Ecocentric Water Scarcity Index to address local and temporal climate variability:
the case of a tomato sauce ......................................................................................................................... 310
Eco-innovatiom and industrial symbiosis in the food sector ................................................................... 314
Environmental assessment of Ultra-High Pressure Homogenisation for milk and
fresh cheese production ............................................................................................................................. 315
Strategies for reducing food waste: Life Cycle Assessment of a pilot plant for
insect-based feed products ........................................................................................................................ 319
6
Environmental Impact Assessment of caproic acid production from organic waste:
A case study of a novel pilot-scale biorefinery in the Netherlands ........................................................... 323
Recovery of waste streams from agroindustry through industrial symbiosis in Sicilia ............................ 327
Environmental impact of using specialty feed ingredients in pig and broiler production:
A life cycle assessment ............................................................................................................................. 331
Alternative scenarios of food-waste treatment: a comparative Life Cycle Assessment ........................... 335
Sustainable Management of EU Food Waste with Life Cycle Assessment .............................................. 339
How food loss is addressed in LCA .......................................................................................................... 343
Challenges and opportunities in using Life Cycle Assessment and Cradle to Cradle® for
biodegradable bio-based polymers: a review ............................................................................................ 347
The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop? . 351
Sustainability assessment of food supply chains: socio-economics drivers and impacts ...................... 355
Food redistribution in the Helsinki Metropolitan and Turku Areas .......................................................... 356
Integrating LCA within MuSIASEM approach to evaluate feasibility, viability and desirability
of second generation bioethanol from Arundo donax feedstock for transportation energy needs
of Campania (Italy). .................................................................................................................................. 360
Combining frontier analysis and Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment towards identification of
economic-environmental win-win situations on dairy farms .................................................................... 363
Life cycle social sustainability assessment convenience food: Ready-made meals .................................. 367
LCC, S-LCA and LCSA in food and energy sectors: lessons from scientific literature ........................... 372
Applying Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Thai Context: Challenges from the sugar industry ......... 376
Material Flow and Water Footprint Analysis of Cassava Starch Production Systems ............................. 380
Traditional cultivars, improved performance: reflections on the climate change intensity of
traditional foods ........................................................................................................................................ 384
Social LCA: a framework for social impacts assessment in Italian wine sector ....................................... 388
Social Life Cycle Assessment in the honey industry ................................................................................ 392
Environmental and social impact indicators of soil consumption ............................................................. 396
Tools to improve the energy efficiency of the institutional food system .................................................. 401
Acknowledgements 406
7
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Assumpció Antón Vallejo – Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology (IRTA),
Barcelona, Spain
Maurizio Cellura – University of Palermo, Italy
Camillo De Camillis - FAO, Roma
Vito D’Incognito – Take Care International, Milan, Italy
Ulrike Eberle – Private Universität Witten/Herdecke, Zentrum fur Nachhaltige Unternehmensfuhrung,
Germany
Peter Fantke – Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Denmark
Chris Foster – EuGeos Limited, United Kingdom
Pierre Gerber – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO
Monica Lavagna – Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Adrian Leip – European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Catherine Macombe – Irstea UMR ITAP-ELSA, Montpellier, France
Paolo Masoni –Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
Sarah McLaren – Massey University
Llorenç Milà i Canals – United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Bruno Notarnicola – University of Bari, Italy
Carolyn Opio - FAO, Roma
Andrea Raggi –University “G. d’Annunzio”, Pescara, Italy
Serena Righi – University of Bologna, Italy
Serenella Sala – European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Roberta Salomone – University of Messina, Italy
Erwan Saouter – European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Simona Scalbi - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
Antonio Scipioni – University of Padova, Italy
Rita Schenck - Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE), US
Rogier Schulte - Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership and Teagasc
Ireland
Ulf Sonesson – SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden
Stefan Storcksdieck genannt Bonsmann -– European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Health
and Consumer Protection
Hayo van der Werf- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Rennes, France
8
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Serenella Sala - European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Monica Lavagna - Rete Italiana LCA, Politecnico di Milano
Valentina Castellani - European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Arianna Dominici Loprieno - Rete Italiana LCA, ENEA
Sara Ganassali - Rete Italiana LCA, Politecnico di Milano
Alberto Prinzo - Rete Italiana LCA, Politecnico di Milano
9
Introduction
Life cycle assessment for supporting the transition towards
eco-efficient agriculture and food systems
The Universal Exposition EXPO 2015 in Italy had as central theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”,
one of the major sustainability challenge for the future. Ensuring sustainable human development means
being able to feed a planet with increasing population, decoupling the development from environmental
impact and answering the evolving energy demand. Nowadays, Food and Energy supply chains are
associated with complex and intertwined environmental and socio-economic impacts.
The identification of solutions towards sustainability in the food and energy sectors need to rely on
integrated appraisal methodologies for comparing possible alternatives, avoiding burden shifting
geographically, temporally and along supply chains.
Therefore, Life cycle assessment (LCA) represents a reference methodology that helps analyzing supply
chains toward achieving sustainability objectives, including improved agriculture, food production and
consumption as well as more efficient energy conversion and use.
The Italian LCA network and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission jointly organize a
conference during EXPO 2015, discussing the role of LCA on the EXPO 2015 topics and presenting latest
research in the field.
The studies presented in the conference, reported in these proceedings, demonstrate the relevance of Life
cycle thinking and assessment as key elements towards sustainable solutions and ecoinnovation for global
food challenges. An increasing global population, an evolution in consumers’ needs and the changes in
consumption models pose serious challenges to the overall sustainability of food production and
consumption. In defining solutions to major global challenges, life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment
are applied for : i) the identification of hotspots of impacts along food supply chain with a focus on major
global challenges; ii) the comparison of options related to food supply chain optimizations (increase of
productivity, reduction of food losses, etc) towards sustainable solutions; iii) assessment of future scenarios
both related to technological improvement, behavioral changes and under different environmental conditions
(e.g. climate change); iv) assessment of social impacts associated to consumption patterns.
Analyzing these challenges from a global/ continental perspectives, major improvements are needed both in
life cycle inventories - related to data availability, quality and representativeness-, and in life cycle impact
assessment– where the enhancement of impact modeling for water, land use, resource and toxicity are
fundamental for robust assessment of alternatives.
Due to the variety of challenges and perspectives, several methodologies are needed to answer different
sustainability questions. For example, exploring concepts such as “water food energy nexus”, in light of
promoting circular economy, means to optimize production of food and energy on one hand and to reduce
(food)waste on the other hand. This requires a transition towards systemic thinking, where impacts of global
production and consumption patterns remain within the carrying capacity of the planet, namely the
sustainability thresholds identified as planetary boundaries.
10
This systemic thinking entails the identification of complementarity amongst methodologies and the critical
analysis of their pros and cons for supporting decision making.
We hope that the concepts and the case studies presented at the conference and in these proceedings could
further support cross fertilization among different science domains (such as technological, environmental,
social and economic ones) towards a sustainable “today and tomorrow” in feeding the planet.
Serenella Sala and Paolo Masoni
11
Conference program
6th OCTOBER 2015
Stresa, Grand Hotel Bristol
08:15 - Registration
08:45 - Welcome
Serenella Sala (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, IES) and Paolo Masoni (Rete
Italiana LCA and ENEA)
09:00 - LCA as methodology for Better Regulation
Constantin Ciupagea (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, IES)
09:15 - Towards eco-efficient agriculture and food system: the special issue of the journal of
cleaner production (JCP) Donald Huising (editor in chief JCP)
Session 1.1 Consumption trends and sustainability of future development
Chairs: Erwan Saouter and Constantin Ciupagea
09:30 - The European State and Outlook 2015 - Key findings related to the food supply chain
Ybele Hoogeveen (European Environment Agency)
09:45 - Tomorrow’s healthy Society: research priorities for foods and diets Sandra Caldeira (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IHCP)
10:00 - Framing the role of LCA in integrated assessment tools for transition to sustainable food
and agriculture: the case of livestock supply chains Camillo De Camillis (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
10:15 - Environmental Impact of the European Food Basket using LCA Serenella Sala (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IES)
10:30 - Environmental Implications of Dynamic Policies on Food Consumption and Waste
Handling in the European Union Michael Martin (IVL-Swedish Environmental Research Institute)
10:45 - Discussion
11:00 Coffee Break and Poster Session
Session 1.2. Product Environmental Footprint in the food sector
Chairs: Bruno Notarnicola and Hayo Van der Werf
11:20 - ENVIFOOD Protocol: Facilitating consumer choice for more sustainable productsErwan
Saouter (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IES)
11:35 - Developing Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for Olive Oil
Hanna Tuomisto (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, IES)
11:50 - Pesticide emissions in the Environmental Product Footprint – Lessons learnt from
refined sugar from sugar beet
Alessandra Zamagni (Ecoinnovazione)
12:05 - Nestlé Ecodesign Tool: Recent Developments that can contribute to improving the
Product Environmental Footprint Initiative
Urs Schenker (Nestlé Research Center)
12:20 - Five crucial complicating issues for harmonising environmental footprints of food and
beverage
Tommie Ponsioen (PRé Consultants)
12:35 - Environmental impacts of different dairy farming systems in the Po Valley
Alessandro Agostini (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IET)
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12:50 - Discussion
13:00 - Lunch and Poster Session
Session 1.3. Inventories and database for LCA and footprints of food chains
Chairs: Paolo Masoni and Ulf Sonesson
14:30 - Life Cycle Inventory database for seafood products
Sophie Omont (CYCLECO Bureau d’études)
14:45 - Towards the Global Reference for Feed LCA data: the Global Feed LCA Institute
Nicolas Martin (European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation)
15:00 - The World Food LCA Database: a global inventory database for the food sector
Simone Pedrazzini (Quantis)
15:15 - Creating coherent life cycle databases for ecodesign and product declaration of agro-
industrial products: how to implement methodological choicesPatrik Mouron (Agroscope)
15:30 - Wheat of today and tomorrow: an assessment of current LCI inventories
Sara Corrado (Agrisystem UCSC)
15:45 - Discussion
16:05 - Coffee break and Poster Session
Session 1.4. LCA and footprints to assess food production chains
Chairs: Vito D’Incognito and Urs Schenker
16:25 - Mediterranean countries’ food supply and food sourcing profiles: an Ecological Footprint
viewpoint
Alessandro Galli (Global Footprint Network)
16:40 - Energy Use in the EU Food Sector: State of Play and Opportunities for Improvement
Fabio Monforti Ferrario (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IET)
16:55 - Energy Flows and Greenhouses Gases of EU national breads using LCA approach
Bruno Notarnicola (University of Bari)
17:10 - Life Cycle Assessment for Enhancing Environmental Sustainability of Sugarcane
Biorefinery in Thailand
Thapat Silalertruksa (Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s
University of Technology Thonburi)
17:25 - Coupling LCA with forest and geographical information system models for bioenergy: a
Norwegian case study
Clara Valente (Ostfold Research AS)
17:40 - Discussion
18:00 - Meeting Association Italian LCA Network
20:30 - Social Dinner
7th OCTOBER 2015
Stresa, Grand Hotel Bristol
08:15 - Registration
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Session 2.1. LCA and footprints to assess food production chains
Chairs: Adrian Leip and Peter Fantke
08:40 - Environmental assessment of wheat and maize production in an Italian farmers
cooperative
Valentina Fantin (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo
economico sostenibile)
08:55 - Protein quality as functional unit – a methodological framework for inclusion in LCA
Ulf Sonesson (SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden)
09:10 - LCA as a decision support tool in policy making: a case study of Danish spring barley
production in a changed climate
Monia Niero (Technical University of Denmark)
09:25 - Life Cycle Assessment of Biogas Production from Freshwater Macro-algal Feedstock:
Substitution of Energy Crops with Algae
Funda Cansu Ertem (Technische Universität Berlin)
09:40 - Simplified modelling of environmental impacts of foods
Hayo van der Werf (Institut national de la recherche agronomique)
09:55 - Life Cycle Assessment of Organic Rice Farming in Thailand to Support Policy Decision
on Sustainable Agriculture
Rattanawan Mungkung (Kasetsart University)
10:10 - Discussion
10:30 - Coffee break and Poster Session
Session 2.2. Life Cycle Impact Assessment: needs and challenges for assessing food supply chains
Chairs: Serenella Sala and Assumpció Antón Vallejo
10:50 - Pesticide Substitution: Combining Food Safety with Environmental Quality
Peter Fantke (Technical University of Denmark)
11:05 - Outcome of WULCA harmonization activities: recommended characterization factors for
water footprinting
Stephan Pfister (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
11:20 - Building consensus for assessing land use impacts on biodiversity: contribution of
UNEP/SETAC’s Life Cycle Initiative
Assumpció Antón Vallejo (Research & Technology Food & Agricolture)
11:35 - Coupling land use information with remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity: a new
challenge for life cycle impact assessment of species diversity
Benedetto Rugani (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)
11:50 - Biodiversity impact: Case study beef production
Ulrike Eberle (Private Universität Witten/Herdecke)
12:05 - Pollinators in LCA: towards a framework for impact assessment
Eleonora Crenna (University of Milano - Bicocca)
12:20 - Discussion
12:40 - Lunch and Poster Session
14
Session 2.3. Eco-innovation and industrial symbiosis in the food sector
Chairs: Maurizio Cellura and Chris Foster
14:00 - Lost water and nitrogen resources due to EU consumer food waste
Adrian Leip (European Commission, Joint Research Center, IES)
14:15 - Sustainability assessment of ultra-high pressure homogenisation for milk and fresh
cheese production: from pilot to industrial scale
Lucia Valsasina (Aalborg University and German Institute of Food)
14:30 - Strategies for reducing food-waste: Life Cycle Assessment of a pilot plant of insect-based
feed products
Roberta Salomone (University of Messina)
14:45 - Environmental Impact Assessment of caproic acid production from food waste: A case
study of a novel pilot-scale biorefinery in the Netherlands
Wei-Shan Chen (Wageningen University)
15:00 - Recovery of waste streams from agroindustry through industrial symbiosis in Sicilia
Grazia Barberio (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico
sostenibile)
15:15 - Environmental impact of using specialty feed ingredients in pig and broiler production:
A life cycle assessment
Alexander Liedke (Thinkstep AG)
15:30 - Discussion
15:50 - Coffee break and Poster Session
Session 2.4. Sustainability assessment of food supply chain: socio-economic drivers and impacts
Chairs: Sarah McLaren and Ulrike Eberle
16:10 - In food supply chain: social LCA, what to do?
Catherine Macombe (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour
l’environnement et l’agriculture)
16:40 - Food redistribution in Helsinki Metropolitan and Turku Area
Kirsi Silvennoinen (Natural Resource Institute Finalnd)
16:55 - An integrated LCA study to evaluate feasibility, viability and desirability of bioethanol
from giant reed crop for transport in Campania Region, Italy
Angelo Fierro (University Federico II of Napoli)
17:10 - Combining frontier analysis and Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment towards identification
of economic-environmental win-win situations on dairy farms
Sophie Huysveld (Ghent University - Institute for Agricultural ans Fisheries Research)
17:25 - Life cycle sustainability assessment of consumption and production of ready-made meals
Adisa Azapagic (University of Manchester)
17:40 - LCC, S-LCA and LCSA in food and energy sectors: lessons from scientific literature
Andrea Fedele (University of Padova)
15
8th OCTOBER 2015
Expo 2015 Site, EU Pavilion, Rho
10:45 - Registration
Roundtable “LCA for feeding the planet, energy for life”
Chairs: Paolo Masoni and Serenella Sala
11:00 - Roundtable Discussion:
Giovanni Brunelli (Italian representative Ministry of Environment)
David Wilkinson (Director of Institute for Environment and Sustainability, European
Commission, JRC)
Tassos Haniotis (European Commission-DG AGRI)
Michele Galatola (European Commission-DG ENV)
Ybele Hoogeveen (European Environment Agency)
Llorenç Milà i Canals (United Nations Environment Programme)
Camillo De Camillis (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
12:20 - Open Discussion
Life Cycle Impact Assessment: needs and
challenges for assessing food supply chains
273
Coupling land use information with remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity: a new
challenge for life cycle impact assessment of plant species diversity
Benedetto Rugani 1, Duccio Rocchini
2
1 Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology − LIST, Dept. Environmental Research and Innovation –
ERIN / 41 rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg 2 Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Dept. Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology,
GIS and Remote Sensing Unit / Via Mach 1, 38010 San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy
E-mail contact: [email protected]
1. Abstract
Remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity (SH) is a viable proxy measure for species diversity detection, and is
introduced here as a complementary approach to current Life Cycle Impact Assessment−LCIA practice to
expand its scope for evaluation of impacts from human-driven land use change on biodiversity. This
rationale is based on the ‘spectral variation hypothesis’: the higher the spectral variability, the higher the
ecological heterogeneity and species community diversity, occupying different niches. Focusing on the local
scale of food crops cultivation in Southern Alps (area of Trentino Region, IT), we observe the relationships
between land cover maps and habitat heterogeneity at different time and spatial resolutions, allowing us to
argue about the robustness and potentials of SH to be a surrogate measure of cross-taxon, within-taxon or
environmental nuances for species variability detection in LCIA.
2. Introduction
One of the major challenges in the field of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is to develop consensual
and operational methods to assess the human pressure on biodiversity [1, 2]. In this regard, Souza et al. [3]
observe that there is a general lack of consistent landscape oriented approaches to evaluate biodiversity in
LCIA, and thus recommend developing impact characterization factors (CF) for application at multiple
spatial scales (local, regional, global), e.g. by replacing land cover maps with continuous environmental
information, and including landscape aspects such as habitat fragmentation or connectivity of ecosystems.
Hence, we seek responding to ‘this’ call, by acquainting on a novel approach that could potentially place a
step forward the appraisal of spatial variability of vascular plant species in LCIA. This approach is presented
here with a focus on local scale agri-food croplands taken as a case study. It is based on the use of remotely
sensed imagery, which is to predict plant species spatial distribution at broad scale, in a timely manner and
with a certain degree of confidence [4], through e.g. the identification of unique reflectance or absorption
features [5]. As an example, the variability of the spectral signal over space, i.e. Spectral Heterogeneity−SH,
is considered a viable proxy for species diversity detection [6]. While the effectiveness of geospatial tools for
the extrapolation of information on biodiversity is known in LCIA [7], no concrete examples exist of
incorporating remote sensing information in the LCIA of plant biodiversity. Nevertheless, SH offers a
plethora of solutions to analyse the relationship between plant species communities or taxonomic groups and
local biophysical components, allowing to assess the anthropogenic alterations on ecosystems. Assuming the
latter are described by land uses (LU) and LU Changes (LUC) in LCIA, and that human activities are the
main cause for changes in habitat heterogeneity, it is ideally possible to refine/establish biodiversity potential
274
damage indicator(s) building on the observation and processing of remotely sensed imagery. An attempt of
coupling SH with the typical LU information adopted in LCIA is illustrated in this paper.
3. Materials & Methods
3.1 Study area
A study area in the Trentino Region, Italy, was selected for demonstration purposes, and because of raster
data availability. The analysed area (centre: 48°11’08” N, 11°07’22” E, datum WGS84) is dominated by
cropland, the majority of it made of viticulture land (> 90%). LUCs related to cropland were analysed to
argue on the human induced effects on the local biodiversity due to agri-food supply-chain products over
time. These LUCs were considered within a time frame of 30 years (from 1984 to 2014) using local data
sources, observing a slight increase over time in viticulture land (as from Eurostat data source). However, the
total cropland (the remaining cultivations be mostly apple orchards) did not remarkably change over time.
3.2 Methodological steps
Land cover data were superimposed to habitat heterogeneity maps at different time periods and spatial
resolutions (or grains). In general, this can help finding statistically significant relationships between LU and
LUC effects on plant species diversity, thus considering SH as a surrogate of cross-taxon, within-taxon or
environmental surrogates. To this end, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on two
satellite images (a 1984 Landsat TM and a 2014 Landsat8 image) acquired in the same seasonal period (end
of the autumn period). First PCA components (rescaled from 0 to 255) explained respectively 83% and 71%
in the 1984 and 2014 images. Hence, they were used to calculate heterogeneity by 33 moving windows.
Reprocesssed pixels of the first component were scaled into the range 0-255 to standardize the magnitude of
the input values by making the two images comparable on the 30 years. The whole processing was done in
GRASS GIS 7. 0 [8] and the code is available upon request. Final output of this approach was to obtain
variation coefficients for the average SH over the 30 years of LUC in the local analysed area, considering
different grains: total (SH calculated on the full cropland area), and disaggregated (SH for vineyards and the
rest of croplands). This helped to infer on the statistical discrepancies between the mean heterogeneity in
1984 and in 2014, and thus to determine the influence of crop-LUC to biodiversity patterns at a very local
scale.
4. Results & Discussion
SH tends to decrease in all cases by 11% on average (increase in mean variability between SH variation
coefficients in 1984 and in 2014) (Fig.1a, bottom). This is mainly due to shadows in the 2014 image. This
discrepancy is considered too low to argue on the actual impact on plant biodiversity. In fact, Fig.1b shows
that, while the mean SH decreases, the overall variability (standard deviation range) increases over time.
However, the diversity between the three paired cases (total crop area, vineyards and other crops) is not
statistically significant per p>0.05 and p>0.01. Because of this, and even if occurring in terms of SH change
according to the ‘spectral variation hypothesis’ [6], we can argue that changes in biodiversity patterns, at this
very local scale are caused by factors other than LUC patterns (i.e. presence of shadows).
275
A)
Remotely
sensed
imagery
(Landsat)
2014
Spectral
heterogeneity
maps
1984
N
B)
30
50
70
90
110
Total Vineyards Other crops
dim
en
sio
nle
ss
Spectral heterogeneity by (crop) land cover class
Figure 1: A) Elaboration by GRASS GIS of SH maps (bottom) from Landsat remotely sensed imagery (top; land use
classes of vineyards (pink) and other cultures (green) are superimposed); B) variability (mean and standard deviation)
in SH over considering different land cover hierarchical aggregations
The proposed SH-based approach can capture the changes associated with plant species diversity over time at
multiple scales, by possibly linking lifecycle land occupation (~LU) and transformation (~LUC) flows with
heterogeneity patterns. These could be translated in the LCIA jargon according to the hypothesis that
variability in the remotely sensed signal relates to landscape diversity, which is considered a good proxy of
diversity at species level [4, 6]. In this regard, for impact characterization at community and ecosystem scales,
methods based on the SH rationale could complement existing CF calculations based on species-area
relationship (SAR) [2, 9, 10], e.g. by improving the calculation of species richness factors in the SAR
equation. It has been observed, for example, that spectral diversity is correlated with the area of each floras
bounding box, because more habitats are expected to be present in larger areas, on average (which is
analogous to the SAR rationale) [11]. Despite these opportunities, still some drawbacks and challenges must
be overcome: 1) construction of a consistent mathematical framework to incorporate SH in LCIA; 2)
quantitative comparison and/or combination with current LCIA methods; 3) the proposed SH approach can
only address plant species diversity, without distinguishing among species abundance [7] or taxonomic
groups.
5. Conclusion
This short paper illustrates a preliminary idea for potential development of SH-based CF for plant
biodiversity in LCIA. An intensive research activity is still on-going to improve the analytical framework for
routine assessment at multiple scales of land use and land use change. This could avoid using reference states
or distance-to-target rationales, which are useful concepts to create archetypes but can also propagate large
uncertainties in the calculation of CF for local scale assessments. Using times series SH maps (both annual
and seasonal) can further reduce this subjectivity and uncertainty, while increasing the representativeness of
biodiversity LCIA indicators (remotely sensed imagery provides ‘real’ state references).
6. Acknowledgements
Authors thank the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR) for financing this research within the
VALUES project framework (C13/SR/5903117; www.list.lu/en/project/values/).
276
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Acknowledgements
Rete Italiana LCA acknowledges the scientific committee for their precious contribution in
evaluating the abstracts and in defining the conference program and the organising committee for
their valuable commitment
The conference is organized in cooperation with Livestock Environmental Assessment and
Performance (LEAP) Partenership
Rete Italiana LCA acknowledges Nestlé for its generous financial support to the organisation of
lunches during the Conference in Stresa
Rete Italiana LCA acknowledges Selerant for its financial support to the organisation of the coffee-
breaks during the Conference in Stresa
Published by ENEA
Relations and Communication Unit
Lungotevere Thaon di Revel, 76
00196 Rome
www.enea.it
Editorial review: Giuliano Ghisu
Cover design: Cristina Lanari
On-line in October 2015
