Hofstetter Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

A Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4615-5127-0
Verlag: Springer US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 484 Seiten, eBook

Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach toCombine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere describes the relationship between subjective and objective elements in Life Cycle Impact Assessment. It suggests a new framework which will allow people to master two of the major problems associated with LCA, the difficulty of separating subjective from objective elements and the tendency for impact assessment to record `phantoms' rather than actual damages. Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach toCombine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere presents a proposal for a second generation framework and method for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Many of the suggested elements are either based on other tools for environmental analysis, e.g. risk assessment, or fit in well with tools and concepts such as industrial ecology, technology assessment, or environmental impact assessment. The research presented in this book goes beyond the scope of presently used methods for Life Cycle Assessment and may stimulate new developments in a variety of areas. The book will appeal to persons from a wide range of scientific disciplines who are interested in learning more about Life Cycle Assessment. It will be especially valuable to members of SETAC and to students and researchers in the fields of environmental impact assessment, risk assessment and industrial ecology.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hofstetter, Patrick

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction To Life Cycle Assessment and Its Positioning.- 1.1 Reader’s guide.- 1.2 LCA — a short introduction.- 1.3 Overview of methods for Life Cycle Impact Assessment.- 1.4 Positioning of LCA.- 1.5 Life Cycle Impact Assessment revisited by decision theory.- 2 Shift of Paradigm — Propositions — Objectives.- 2.1 LCA - the art to combine three spheres.- 2.2 Proposition.- 2.3 Objectives and the book’s contribution.- 3 Modelling The Valuesphere by Cultural Theory.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Cultural Theory — an overview.- 3.3 Cultural Theory in relation to other typologies.- 3.4 Cultural Theory in LCA.- 3.5 Final remarks.- 4 Modelling The Ecosphere by The Structured Aggregation Procedure.- 4.1 Damage assessment and damage attributes.- 4.2 The model framework: Damage, unknown damage, and manageability.- 4.3 Damage assessment by Impact — Pathway — Analysis.- 4.4 Proxy for unknown damage.- 4.5 Index for manageability.- 4.6 The structured aggregation procedure.- 4.7 Concluding remarks.- 5 Dalys — An Index for Human Health Assessment.- 5.1 Overview.- 5.2 Some facts and figures about human health.- 5.3 Indices to measure human health.- 5.4 The DALYs concept.- 6 Damage To Human Health From Environmental Chemicals That Cause Cancer.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Fate analysis.- 6.3 Effect analysis.- 6.4 Life of Years Lost (YLL) and Years Lived Disabled (YLD).- 6.5 Results for the complete damage functions.- 6.6 Index for Manageability of Cancer.- 6.7 Remaining aspects, the main assumptions, and conclusions.- 7 Damage To Human Health from Respiratory Effects.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Fate analysis.- 7.3 Effect analysis.- 7.4 Years of Life Lost (YLL) and Years Lived Disabled.- 7.5 Results for the full damage functions.- 7.6 Index for manageability.- 7.7 Main assumptionsand conclusions.- 8 Perfection of The Framework.- 8.1 Graphical dominance analysis.- 8.2 Compatible value choices reduce the uncertainty in LCA.- 8.3 The framework as meta-method.- 9 Results and Discussion.- 9.1 The structured aggregation procedure.- 9.2 Results from the case studies.- 9.3 Evaluation of the framework.- 9.4 Validation and empirical work.- 9.5 Dependent or not? — Consequences.- 10 Conclusions.- 10.1 The perspectives.- 10.2 Propositions.- 10.3 What is new?.- 10.4 Problems solved?.- 10.5 Outlook.- References.