title: A perspective on LCA application in site remediation services: critical review of challenges.
abstract: The remediation of contaminated sites supports the goal of sustainable development but may also have environmental impacts at a local, regional and global scale. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has increasingly been used in order to support site remediation decision-making. This review article discusses existing LCA methods and proposed models focusing on critical decisions and assumptions of the LCA application to site remediation activities. It is concluded that LCA has limitations as an adequate holistic decision-making tool since spatial and temporal differentiation of non-global impacts assessment is a major hurdle in site remediation LCA. Moreover, a consequential LCA perspective should be adopted when the different remediation services to be compared generate different site's physical states, displacing alternative post-remediation scenarios. The environmental effects of the post-remediation stage of the site is generally disregarded in the past site remediation LCA studies and such exclusion may produce misleading conclusions and misdirected decision-making. In addition, clear guidance accepted by all stakeholders on remediation capital equipment exclusion and on dealing with multifunctional processes should be developed for site remediation LCA applications.
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE/Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431 4200-072, Porto, Portugal. sacm@isep.ipp.pt
authors.forename: Sérgio Alberto
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Morais
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Delerue-Matos
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014873:Water Pollutants