title: How Well Does LCA Model Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity?--A Comparison with Approaches from Ecology and Conservation.
abstract: The modeling of land use impacts on biodiversity is considered a priority in life cycle assessment (LCA). Many diverging approaches have been proposed in an expanding literature on the topic. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative is engaged in building consensus on a shared modeling framework to highlight best-practice and guide model application by practitioners. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of 31 models from both the LCA and the ecology/conservation literature (20 from LCA, 11 from non-LCA fields) according to a set of criteria reflecting (i) model completeness, (ii) biodiversity representation, (iii) impact pathway coverage, (iv) scientific quality, and (v) stakeholder acceptance. We show that LCA models tend to perform worse than those from ecology and conservation (although not significantly), implying room for improvement. We identify seven best-practice recommendations that can be implemented immediately to improve LCA models based on existing approaches in the literature. We further propose building a "consensus model" through weighted averaging of existing information, to complement future development. While our research focuses on conceptual model design, further quantitative comparison of promising models in shared case studies is an essential prerequisite for future informed model choice.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zürich , Zurich 8093, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Curran
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Uppsala SE-750 07, Sweden.|Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre , Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 4B1, Canada.|Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3 , Canada.
authors.forename: Danielle Maia
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.affiliation: IRTA, Barcelona 08140, Spain.
authors.forename: Assumpció
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antón
authors.affiliation: MARETEC - Marine, Environment and Technology Centre, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa , Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.|Center of Excellence PLECO (Plant and Vegetation Ecology), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp , Wilrijk 2610, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ricardo F M
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.affiliation: NTNU Sustainability, Norwegian University of Science and Technology , Trondheim NO-7491, Norway.
authors.forename: Ottar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Michelsen
authors.affiliation: European Commission - Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Sustainability Assessment Unit , Ispra, Italy.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vidal-Legaz
authors.affiliation: European Commission - Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Sustainability Assessment Unit , Ispra, Italy.
authors.forename: Serenella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.affiliation: UNEP-DTIE, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics , Paris 75015, France.
authors.forename: Llorenç
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Milà i Canals
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological