Page 175 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C04.fm Page 147 Tuesday, October 21, 2003 3:13 PM

Although the IPA is a complex approach, its application is quite easy thanks to
the support of integrated impact assessment models like EcoSense, developed by
Krewitt et al. (1995), or PathWays (Rabl et al., 1998). In this study the EcoSense
model was applied; therefore, further details are given about this model.
EcoSense stems from the experiences learned in the ExternE project (EC, 1995;
EC, 2000) to support the assessment of priority impacts resulting from exposure to
airborne pollutants, namely, impacts on health, crops, building materials, forests,
and ecosystems. Although global warming is certainly among the priority impacts
related to air pollution, EcoSense does not cover this impact category because of
the very different mechanism and the global nature of impact. Priority impacts like
occupational or public accidents are not included either because the quantification
of impacts is based on the evaluation of statistics rather than on modeling. Version
3.0 of EcoSense covers 13 pollutants, including the “classical” pollutants SO , NO ,
2
x
particulate matter and CO, and photochemical ozone creation as well as some of
the most important heavy metals and hydrocarbons, but does not include impacts
from radioactive nuclides.
In view of increased understanding of the major importance of long-range
transboundary transport of airborne pollutants, also in the context of external costs
from electricity generation, there was an obvious need for a harmonized European-
wide database supporting the assessment of environmental impacts from air
pollution. In the beginning of the ExternE project, work was focused on the assess-
ment of local scale impacts and teams from different countries made use of the data
sources available in each country. Although many teams spent a considerable amount
of time compiling data on, e.g., population distribution, land use etc., it was realized
that country-specific data sources and grid systems were hardly compatible when
the analysis had to be on a European scale. Thus, it was logical to set up a common
European-wide database by using official sources like EUROSTAT and make it
available to all ExternE teams. Once there was a common database, the consequent
next step was to establish a link between the database and all the models required
for assessment of external costs to guarantee a harmonized and standardized imple-
mentation of the theoretical methodological framework (EC 1995).
Taking into account this background, the further objectives for the development
of the EcoSense model were:
• To provide a tool supporting a standardized calculation of fuel cycle
externalities
• To integrate relevant models into a single system
• To provide a comprehensive set of relevant input data for the whole of
Europe
• To enable the transparent presentation of intermediate and final results
• To support easy modification of assumptions for sensitivity analysis

Because health and environmental impact assessment is a field of large uncer-
tainties and incomplete but rapidly growing understanding of the physical, chemical
and biological mechanisms of action, it was a crucial requirement for the develop-
ment of the EcoSense system to allow easy integration of new scientific findings

© 2004 CRC Press LLC