Page 114 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

96 LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT HANDBOOK

existing LCIA methodologies only offer deterministic CFs without any addi-
tional information as to their uncertainty. Recently, a few researchers have
published papers that to provide methods to assess uncertainty propagation
LCI and LCIA. A project within the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aims
to establish recommended practice in uncertainty assessment and estimation
within LCA and elaborate on guidance for practitioners and method develop-
ers on estimation, communication, interpretation, and management of uncer-
tainty in both LCI and LCIA. (http://lcinitiative.unep.fr/sites/lcinit/default.
asp?site=lcinit&page_id=B70F576C-23B9-4D5F-9D87-6CA59AE3E0E6).
The next generation of LCIA methodologies will systematically include
uncertainty information associated with their CFs. For example, based on the
analytical uncertainty propagation method developed by (Hong, Shaked et ah
2010), IMPACT World + already proposes uncertainty information associated
with the CFs of impact categories. In addition, to address various sources of
uncertainty, it also determines the uncertainty related to an unknown location
of an emission by associating the corresponding geographical variability to
each CF at a given geographical scale.
Parallel initiatives, such as the cited LC-IMPACT project are also putting
significant amount of research effort into providing quantitative information
on various sources of uncertainty in life cycle impact assessment methods and
corresponding factors.

4.7.3 Improving the Characterization of Resources
Since the development of LCA in the early 1990s, impacts from resource
use have been an integral part of LCA (Udo de Haes 2006). However, their
evaluation and quantification of potential impacts remain one of the most
debated issues in LCA methodology. Abiotic natural resources use (mineral
and energy carrier) is already assessed by a wide variety of methods, how-
ever, none were considered mature enough to be recommended for use in
LCA (EC-JRC 2011b). A distinction is generally made between biotic and abi-
otic natural resources. Although both are generally considered to be equally
important, biotic resources have not received as much attention (Finnveden
et ah 2009).
Among the abiotic resources, the assessment of potential impacts related to
water use and land use are still in their infancy, although two initiatives under
the aegis of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative are raising interest and
research activities around these issues (see WULCA (Water Use in Life Cycle
Assessment) and LULCIA (Land Use in Life Cycle Impact Assessment) proj-
ects at http://lcinitiative.unep.fr/). Depletion of minerals and fossil fuels are,
nevertheless, addressed by several approaches that can be grouped into three
categories (Finnveden, Hauschild et ah 2009; EC-JRC 2010):

(i) Methods based on and an inherent property of the material
such as exergy consumption or entropy production (Finnveden
and Ostlund 1997; Bosch, Hellweg et ah 2007);