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Impact Assessment

Impact Assessment. Did You Miss Me?. Real question: Did I miss you? Sydney. Did You Miss Me?. Auckland. Admin Issues. FCE Reminder HW 3 Final Comments HW 4 Due Wednesday Project Comments Info on “Advanced LCA” Mini (st 4/19/07) Impact Assessment Exercise/Lecture. HW #3 follow up.

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Impact Assessment

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  1. Impact Assessment

  2. Did You Miss Me? • Real question: Did I miss you? Sydney.

  3. Did You Miss Me? • Auckland

  4. Admin Issues • FCE Reminder • HW 3 Final Comments • HW 4 Due Wednesday • Project Comments • Info on “Advanced LCA” Mini (st 4/19/07) • Impact Assessment Exercise/Lecture

  5. HW #3 follow up • This was a group assignment on purpose • In general, if you worked alone you did worse • Although highest grade worked alone • Question 2 - water allocation / $million • Question 3 - energy IO model • Think about $-based production functions that form basis of model, do same with energy • First thing - common units (BTU) - not lbs • Maybe late, but “what should you turn in”?

  6. HW #4 • Talk to me with questions (or try Heather) • Should be straightforward

  7. Projects • Listed due date is Thursday 3/8/07 • Extensions ok - grades due Mon night 3/12/07 • So a day or so more is ok (just ask) • Handed in after Saturday will get Incomplete • Will update grade after deadline • See original project guidelines • Many of you have changed scope. • Questions?

  8. Advanced LCA Class • Mini 4 (starts 3/19) • Not part of “sustainability sequence” • Intended to be a follow-on course in more detail than what we have done - mostly a guided seminar • Primarily for students who are currently, or expect to be doing, research involving LCA • We will use software in more depth (e.g., MATLAB, Excel) and deal with making more robust models with uncertainty • Will read actual LCA papers and critique • So everyone still invited, just realize its intent/scope!

  9. Some Environmental Effects

  10. Midpoints vs. Endpoints • Typical LCI result is ‘an emission, waste generation, etc.’ - This is a midpoint • Breathing emissions, etc. potentially leads to health effects - these are endpoints or impacts • Now you can see why many studies stop at LCI stage!

  11. Personal Exercise (< 5 mins) • Handout on Personal Preferences of Importance of Various Environmental / Energy flows

  12. Quick Group Exercise (< 5 mins) • Take your individual exercise results and as a group decide on new results representative of all of you

  13. Impact Assessment Intro • Inventory is the last objective step of LCA • e.g., list of estimated inputs and outputs across life cycle for a product • 12 tons CO2, 4 MJ energy, 4 pounds coal • But how to actually assess / compare across these? How do we compare them? • Impact is usually assessed “on ecosystems” • Requires more concrete information than provided on impact assessment exercise

  14. Challenges • Data - as always. • Not enough data to calculate ecosystem damage • No accepted way of calculating damage • Rules - as with LCA framework, LCIA says to “choose impact categories consistent with scope” and “reference your work” • Again, it has no prescribed categories/impacts that must be included (eg climate change)

  15. Impact Assessment (LCIA) • Mandatory Elements: • Selection (impact categories, their indicators, and characterization models) • Classification (assigning LCI results to categories) • Characterization (calculation of category results) • Optional Elements: • Normalization (comparing to reference info) • Grouping (sorting/ranking impact categories) • Weighting (with numerical factors/value choices) • Data Quality Analysis (uncertainty/sensitivity) • i.e., - at least get things into correct categories

  16. Classification • Just what it sounds like • GHGs all in one pile. Ozone depleters, etc. • Some in several piles, e.g. NOx (toxic, acidic, eutrophication)

  17. Characterization • Make effect scores for each category • Uses available weightings to condense multiple units into a single unit • GHG example. Use GWP weights (e.g. CO2-equivalents). • CO2 =1 • CH4 = 24 • N2O = 310, etc. • Effect score is x “GWP” units in CO2-equivs

  18. LCIA ‘Model’ Example Source: ISO 14042 Doc • Should have a comprehensive set of impact categories/indicators • Your own “values” should not bias your model

  19. Sample Output • What are useful, problematic issues?

  20. Limitations • Scientific method combined with values • Lack of comprehensive focus/boundary • Category indicators not equally important or precise • Lack of complete data • All of this very subjective compared to LCI

  21. Models

  22. Eco-indicator • Will talk about more on Wednesday • See reading on website (read first 20 pages - sections 1 and 2 - skim rest, including Annex 1) • A tool to help normalize the characterized effects • Until then, how might we take our exercise results and make use of them to help? • What different questions would we ask?

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