the use of the ecosystem services concept in life...

The use of the ecosystem services concept

in Life Cycle Assessment

Prof. Dr. Thomas Köllner Professorship of Ecological Services (PES), University of Bayreuth

Professorship of Ecological Services (PES), University of Bayreuth, www.pes.uni-bayreuth.de

The assessment of land use impacts on ecosystem services can be done for …

… regional systems or

2

… product systems.


Land use/cover change scenarios and Ecosystem Services

3

Nelson, E., et al. 2009 Front Ecol Environ 7: 4-11

Professorship of Ecological Services (PES), University of Bayreuth, www.pes.uni-bayreuth.de 4

Nelson, E., et al. 2009


Regional systems are open systems!

Global Land Cover GLC2000

Leakage of ES damage i.e., shifting environmentally damaging activities elsewhere in space


Soybean field in Brazil

Source: http://www.proteger.org.ar/archivos/SojaEnAmazonasFotoGpeaceLarge.JPG


THE EUROPEAN UNION AS AN OPEN REGIONAL SYSTEM

8


  Land cover of the EU 24 is 3.6 Mill km2

9

Eur

opea

n E

nviro

nmen

tal A

genc

y,. L

and

acco

unts

for E

urop

e 19

90-2

000.

To

war

ds in

tegr

ated

land

and

eco

syst

em a

ccou

ntin

g. (

2006

) pp.

107

  But agricultural land use of the EU is much more!!!


Land flows of the EU27 embedded in agricultural trade

0

50

100

150

200

FAne

t in

1000

km

2

a) Total net land flows FAnet of the EU

-40

0

40

80

120

North America

South & Meso America

Western Europe

Central & Eastern Europe Africa

Arabia

Asia

Australia

FAne

t in

1000

km

2

b) EU land net flows FAnet split by region

Chapter 5 in Koellner, T. ed. (2011). Ecosystem Services and Global Trade of Natural Resources: Ecology, Economics and Policies. Routledge. / Data source: FAOSTAT


Ecological consequences of EU net land flows

14

-40

0

40

80

120

yes

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

weighted with EcoIndex weighted with DEFOREST

FAne

t in

1000

km

2

Eco

glob

al in

100

0 pt

s

c) EU net land flows FAnet split by deforestation d) Global ecological performance Eco global

ca. 2000 km2 more land used per year in countries with

deforestation (mainly Brazil)


Conclusion of the analysis

  Land use flows for EU27   Ca. 150’000 km2 of net land flows versus 1’044’000 km2 of arable land   But, processed products are not considered   System boundary is EU27, although EU25 was formed May 1, 2004 and

Bulgaria and Romania joined 2007

  Further planned to model impacts on ecosystem services!!!

16


Land use assessment for

Closed regional systems

17

Open regional systems

Global product systems


LAND USE IN GLOBAL PRODUCT SYSTEMS

18


Environmental system Product system

Product life cycle

Product Use

Resources extraction

Production

Transportation

Recycling/Waste

Noise and radiation

OUTPUT

Chemical Emission

Waste

Ecosystem services & biodiversity

Biotic Resources (e.g. timber)

Land

INPUT

Abiotic Resources (e.g. water)

Ecosystem services


Global land use and milk?


Land use to produce 1000 kg of milk

22

Cederberg, 2000, J Cleaner Production


Global land use for milk production

•  Argentina (sunflower) •  Belgium (potatoes) •  Brazil (soybean) • Denmark (sugar beet, rape seed) •  France (sunflower, maize) • Germany (rape seed) • Malaysia (palm oil) • Netherlands (potatoes) •  Poland (sugar beet)

•  South America (sugar cane) •  Sweden (sugar beet, rape

seed)

Cederberg, 2000, J Cleaner Production

Raw materials for the concentrate feed that is used to raise livestock in Sweden are produced in:


Elementary flows of land use in the Life Cycle Inventory are…

  …for land occupation: m2*years, land use type i, and region k

  …for land transformation: m2, initial land use type i -> final land use type j, and region k

24


Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Transformation

Occupation

Curve adapted from Milà i Canals et al. (2007)

Ecosystem Service (ES)

Time (t)

ES0

Impacts from transformation and occupation

t1 t2 t3

Permanents impacts

Impact = A * ∫dES(t)*dt

25

ES3

ES1 ES2


Life Cycle Impact Assessment for Natural Environment

Endpoints

Life Cycle Inventory

Time

Area

Land use type

Location/ Topography

Ecosystem Services Damage Potential

(ESDP)

Biodiversity Damage Potential (BDP)

Midpoints

Carbon Sequestration

Biotic Production

Biodiversity

Fresh Water Regulation

Erosion Regulation

Water Purification

Effects

Water quality and quantity

Chemical and physical properties of soil

Populations/Habitats/ Landscapes

Properties of below/above ground biomass

Microclimate

Impact pathways


Assessment of actual land use against reference in the region

Land use in the product system Natural situation as reference


LAND USE TYPOLOGY IN LC INVENTORIES

28


Land use typology in LC inventories

  The challenge   For foreground systems land use might be known in detail   For the background system land use might be only known very course

  Hierarchical land use classification   Level 1 uses very general land use and land cover classes (from GLC

2000),   Level 2 refines the categories of level 1 (using mainly the classification

of ecoinvent v2.0 and Globio3),   Level 3 and level 4 mostly specify the intensity of the land uses.

29


REGIONALIZATION IN LC INVENTORIES

34


Regionalization in LC inventories

  The challenge   For the foreground system the location of land use can be known   For the background system the location of land use is often not known

  Hierarchical regionalization   Level 1: Differentiation between terrestrial biomes, freshwater biomes,

coastal water and shelf/deep sea biomes   Level 2: Climatic regions ((sub)tropical, temperate, boreal, polar)   Level 3: Terrestrial and freshwater biomes (n=16) by Olson et al.

(2001) and for marine biomes (n=3) by Spalding et al. (2007)   Level 4: Olson terrestrial and freshwater ecoregions (n=867 and

n=238 priority regions) and Spalding coastal/shelf ecoregions (n=232);   Level 5: Exact geo-referenced information of land use

35


Regionalization on the level of biomes


Regionalization on the level of ecoregions


LAND USE TYPOLOGY X REGIONALIZATION

38


Cross tabulation of land use types and regions for calculation of characterization factors

39

a)  Unspecified land occupation

b)  Forest occupation in climatic region of (sub)tropcial terrestrial biomes

c)  Land transformation from Forest, natural to Forest intensive in the biome of Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests


IMPACT FACTORS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

40


Area Time of occupation

Country Land use type

INPUT PARAMETER

Source: World Water Assessment Program, ISRIC, FAO, JRC

OM [%]

Skeleton [%]

Precipitation [mm/an]

Texture

Evapotranspiration [mm/an] Slope [°]

Depth to ground-water level (m)

CECeff [cmolc/kg]

pH

Land use activity description

Soil properties

Climatic condition and landscape

GIS DATASETS

Erosion resistance capacity

Groundwater replenishment

capacity

Chemical filtration capacity

Mechanical filtration capacity

OUTPUT PARAMETER

(Approach by Baitz, 2002)

Calculation with LANCA


Impact factors per land use type for Canada

43

Saad et al. 2011 Int J LCA


Impact on erosion regulation for Canada

44

Saad et al. 2011 Int J LCA


Reduction in groundwater recharge for a hectare of urban land occupation

45 Saad et al. submitted Int J LCA


Reduction in groundwater recharge for a hectare of urban land occupation

46 Saad et al. submitted Int J LCA

What is the damage to human well-being?


Impact assessment: Cause - effect chain


CONCLUSION

48


Spatial pattern of environmental factors influence ecosystem services e.g. land use, topography

49

Ecoregion ID 50510: Central Pacific coastal forests

Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests


B4) Erosion Regulation Potential: Capacity of forest ecosystems to stabilize soil and to prevent sediment accumulation downstream

50


Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests

Sediment retained in tons/year/pixel (30x30m)


B4) Erosion Regulation Potential: Capacity of forest ecosystems to stabilize soil and to prevent sediment accumulation downstream

51


Ecoregion ID 50417: Willamete Valley Forests Sediment retained

in tons/year/pixel (30x30m)


Support of decision-makers

  Optimizing regional systems

  Replace cropland with forest

  Impact on biodiversity, ecosystem services and costs?

  Leakage!!?

  Regional simulation models (e.g. InVEST, Uni Stanford)

52

  Optimizing product systems

  Replace Brazilian soybean with wheat from Ukraine

  Impact on biodiversity, ecosystem services and costs?

  Regionalization!!?   Life Cycle Assessment (e.g.

SimaPro, Pre)


COMING SOON: Special issue in the International Journal of LCA

53

the use of the ecosystem services concept in life...

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