EFO-LCI: A New Life Cycle Inventory Database of Forestry Operations in Europe

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become a common methodology to analyze environmental impacts of forestry systems. Although LCA has been widely applied to forestry since the 90s, the LCAs are still often based on generic Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). With the purpose of improving LCA practices in the forestry sector, we developed a European Life Cycle Inventory of Forestry Operations (EFO-LCI) and analyzed the available information to check if within the European forestry sector national differences really exist. We classified the European forests on the basis of "Forest Units" (combinations of tree species and silvicultural practices). For each Forest Unit, we constructed the LCI of their forest management practices on the basis of a questionnaire filled out by national silvicultural experts. We analyzed the data reported to evaluate how they vary over Europe and how they affect LCA results and made freely available the inventory data collected for future use. The study shows important variability in rotation length, type of regeneration, amount and assortments of wood products harvested, and machinery used due to the differences in management practices. The existing variability on these activities sensibly affect LCA results of forestry practices and raw wood production. Although it is practically unfeasible to collect site-specific data for all the LCAs involving forest-based products, the use of less generic LCI data of forestry practice is desirable to improve the reliability of the studies. With the release of EFO-LCI we made a step toward the construction of regionalized LCI for the European forestry sector

Rapid response to the M_w 4.9 earthquake of November 11, 2019 in Le Teil, Lower Rhône Valley, France

On November 11, 2019, a Mw 4.9 earthquake hit the region close to Montelimar (lower Rhône Valley, France), on the eastern margin of the Massif Central close to the external part of the Alps. Occuring in a moderate seismicity area, this earthquake is remarkable for its very shallow focal depth (between 1 and 3 km), its magnitude, and the moderate to large damages it produced in several villages. InSAR interferograms indicated a shallow rupture about 4 km long reaching the surface and the reactivation of the ancient NE-SW La Rouviere normal fault in reverse faulting in agreement with the present-day E-W compressional tectonics. The peculiarity of this earthquake together with a poor coverage of the epicentral region by permanent seismological and geodetic stations triggered the mobilisation of the French post-seismic unit and the broad French scientific community from various institutions, with the deployment of geophysical instruments (seismological and geodesic stations), geological field surveys, and field evaluation of the intensity of the earthquake. Within 7 days after the mainshock, 47 seismological stations were deployed in the epicentral area to improve the Le Teil aftershocks locations relative to the French permanent seismological network (RESIF), monitor the temporal and spatial evolution of microearthquakes close to the fault plane and temporal evolution of the seismic response of 3 damaged historical buildings, and to study suspected site effects and their influence in the distribution of seismic damage. This seismological dataset, completed by data owned by different institutions, was integrated in a homogeneous archive and distributed through FDSN web services by the RESIF data center. This dataset, together with observations of surface rupture evidences, geologic, geodetic and satellite data, will help to unravel the causes and rupture mechanism of this earthquake, and contribute to account in seismic hazard assessment for earthquakes along the major regional Cévenne fault system in a context of present-day compressional tectonics

Assessing business sustainability practices: Methodological guidance in simplifying LCA and evaluating triple bottom line principles using parametric modelling

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Temporalis, a generic method and tool for dynamic Life Cycle Assessment

The limitations of the static nature of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are well known. To overcome the loss of temporal information due to the aggregation of flows in the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), several dynamic LCA methodologies have been proposed. In this paper we present a new generic and operational methodology for dynamic LCA that allows for the introduction of temporal information in both in the inventory and the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phases. The method makes use of graph traversal and convolution to calculate the temporally differentiated inventory, and makes it possible to use several types of dynamic impact assessment. We describe our method and apply it to a cradle-to-grave dynamic LCA of a glued laminated timber (glulam) product. We also test the sensitivity of the global warming results to temporal explicit LCI data. There is a considerable difference in outcome between the static and dynamic approaches. We have implemented our framework in the free and open source software Temporalis that is fully operational and can be used with existing LCA databases.status: publishe

Temporalis, a generic method and tool for dynamic Life Cycle Assessment

The limitations of the static nature of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are well known. To overcome the loss of temporal information due to the aggregation of flows in the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), several dynamic LCA methodologies have been proposed. In this paper we present a new generic and operational methodology for dynamic LCA that allows for the introduction of temporal information in both in the inventory and the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phases. The method makes use of graph traversal and convolution to calculate the temporally differentiated inventory, and makes it possible to use several types of dynamic impact assessment. We describe our method and apply it to a cradle-to-grave dynamic LCA of a glued laminated timber (glulam) product. We also test the sensitivity of the global warming results to temporal explicit LCI data. There is a considerable difference in outcome between the static and dynamic approaches. We have implemented our framework in the free and open source software Temporalis that is fully operational and can be used with existing LCA databases.SCOPUS: ar.jDecretOANoAutActifinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Life-cycle assessment of eucalyptus short-rotation coppices for bioenergy production in Southern France

Short rotation coppices (SRCs) are considered prime candidates for biomass production, yielding good-quality feedstock that is easy to harvest. Besides technical, social and economical aspects, environmental issues are important to take into account when developing SRCs. Here, we evaluated the environmental impacts of delivering 1 GJ of heat from eucalyptus SRC using life cycle assessment (LCA), based on management scenarios involving different rotations lengths, fertilizer input rates, stem densities and harvest methods. Compared to equivalent fossil chains, all eucalyptus scenarios achieved savings of fossil energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the 80%-90% range, and had generally lower impacts, except for eutrophication. The 3-year rotation scenario was the most energy and GHG-intensive, while manual felling for the longer rotations resulted in 2-fold larger photochemical ozone impacts compared to the other scenarios. Transportation of wood chips and fertilization were the top two contributors to the impacts, the latter being more important with the shorter rotation lengths due to the evergreen character of eucalyptus. The possibility of including ecosystem carbon dynamics was also investigated, by translating the temporary sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in the above- and below-ground biomass of eucalyptus as CO2 savings using various published equivalence factors. This offset the life-cycle GHG emissions of heat provision from eucalyptus SRCs by 70 to 400%

Quantification des impacts environnementaux associés au traitemant biologique et à l'utilisation agricole des produits organiques - bilan des connaissances

National audienc

Impacts environnementaux associés au traitement biologique et à l'utilisation agricole des déchets organiques. Bilan des connaissances en vue de l'évaluation environnementale globale des filières

National audienceFace à l'accroissement des exigences sociales et environnementales, les pays européens s'engagent de plus en plus dans une politique de gestion des déchets organiques tournée vers les filières de traitement biologique de ces déchets et leur utilisation agricole. Ces filières de gestion, qui mettent en jeu des phénomènes biologiques et physico-chimiques spécifiques et complexes, demandent encore à être confortées quant à leur coût, leur efficacité et leur impact environnemental. Cet article nous présente ici la démarche et les résultats d'une étude de synthèse bibliographique visant à rassembler les connaissances de base nécessaires à la réalisation d'évaluations environnementales de ces filières