Page 272 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

258 R.K. Rosenbaum et al.

scarcity as a modelling parameter, and hence scarcity does not represent a “true
midpoint” for ecosystem quality.
The assessment of impacts on the impact category resources,or ecosystem
services and resources, is still subject to debate and development. The main
question pending being “what exactly are we trying to quantify?”. For the case of
water, this can be answered in different ways: future generation deprivation,
resource-equivalent approach or monetarisation, but these still require further
development. The use of non-renewable sources of water fromfossil aquifers would
fall in this category.
For further details see Chap. 40 and Hauschild and Huijbregts (2015). Water is a
precious resource for humans and ecosystems and our attempts to protect it come in
different forms and from different angles. Numerous initiatives exist and indicators
of all kinds are emerging regularly and, for the time being, continuously evolving.
This should not be perceived as a problem or a sign of lesser value for these
indicators; it simply reflects the fact that potential issues associated with water are
diverse and so are the approaches to quantify and minimise them. The LCA
approach aims to quantify potential impacts associated with human activities (a
product, a service or an organisation) on specific areas of protection. Water-related
indicators developed within the LCA framework are aligned with this goal, and
efforts have been made to build consensus on these methodologies. The WULCA
(water use in LCA) expert working group of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle
Initiative has fostered the development and global harmonisation through interna-
tional consensus of the water-related impact assessment methods in LCA. For
further information on the existing methods, the reader is encouraged to explore the
website: www.wulca-waterlca.org.

10.16 Abiotic Resource Use

10.16.1 Problem

Natural resources constitute the material foundation of our societies and economies
and, paraphrasing the definition of sustainability by the United Nation’s
Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission), they
are as such fundamental for our abilities to fulfil our needs as well as for future
generations’ possibilities to fulfil their own needs. Since we don’t know with any
certitude what the needs of future generations for specific resources will be, and in
order to respect the principle of sustainability, we have to ensure that the future
resource availability is as good as possible compared to the current generation’s
situation, i.e. we have to consider the future availability for all resources that we
know and dispose of today.
The definition of natural resources has an anthropocentric starting point. What
humans need from nature in order to sustain their livelihood and activities is a