Status of Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Case Study of South Korea

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as an environmental-impact assessment tool has received increasing attention over the years. Unlike the water footprint (WF) and carbon footprint (CF) assessments, whose focus is only on a single environmental aspect, the LCA systematically analyzes the different impacts along the entire life cycle, making possible the identification of potential environmental tradeoffs. In Korea, LCA has drawn much attention from both industry and academia since the mid-1990s. However, the level of Korean-related LCA studies with respect to different sectors in the last 20 years has not been analyzed. This study, therefore, sought to assess the status of environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies in South Korea. Specifically, the study focused on a bibliometric review of LCAs conducted in South Korea in the last 20 years and identified potential research gaps. Online searches of English-written articles published between 2000 and 2019 were conducted on Google, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, using eligible keywords. At the end of the search, about 91 LCA-related studies were discovered for South Korea within the study period. The majority of these studies focused on the construction (47%) and energy (30%) sectors, with fewer environmental studies on manufacturing (11%), transportation (9%), agriculture (2%), and information and communication (1%) industries. Based on publication trends, results show that LCA studies in South Korea have been on the rise in the past 20 years, even though the number of publications has not followed a constant pace. In comparison with the economic sectors of the country, reports show an inadequacy in the coverage of major industries of growing economic relevance, such as tourism, health, and agriculture, suggesting a need to increase and improve LCA-related studies in these sectors.

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Concrete Water Footprint Assessment Methodologies

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.668.247 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 668 ◽

pp. 247-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yazmin Lisbeth Mack ◽

Lidiane Santana Oliveira ◽

Vanderley Moacyr John

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Water Footprint ◽

High Water ◽

Iso 14044 ◽

Life Cycle Perspective ◽

Water Assessment

Concrete is the single most widely used material in the world and is only surpassed by water in terms of consumption. By 2013, 4 billion tonnes of Portland cement were produced worldwide, enough to produce about 32 billion tonnes of concrete, which represents more than 4.6 tonnes of concrete per person per year. The high water consumption and large amount of wastewater generated in the concrete industry has become a very important environmental issue. Due to the large global use of concrete, it is essential to correctly assess the environmental impacts of this material including impacts related to water consumption. Life cycle perspective is important because it allows identifying and reducing water related potential environmental impacts associated with products. In concrete life cycle assessment, these impacts are not considered mostly because of lack of data. There are several methodologies for water footprint assessment, as The Water Footprint Assessment Tool and the ISO 14046:2014 standard -that is based on life cycle assessment (ISO 14044)-, as well as sustainable reporting guidelines, which include water assessment for organizations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate existing water footprint methodologies based on life-cycle assessment, their concepts and difficulties, and link them to concrete industry. Out of at least eighteen existing water footprint methodologies, it was found that four of them are feasible for cement based materials industry, however there are differences between the definitions and criteria adopted by each methodology.

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Case study of a water bioengineering construction site in Austria. Ecological aspects and application of an environmental life cycle assessment model

International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering ◽

10.1007/s40095-021-00419-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

M. von der Thannen ◽

S. Hoerbinger ◽

C. Muellebner ◽

H. Biber ◽

H. P. Rauch

Keyword(s):

Global Warming ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Construction Site ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽

The Impact ◽

Soil And Water

AbstractRecently, applications of soil and water bioengineering constructions using living plants and supplementary materials have become increasingly popular. Besides technical effects, soil and water bioengineering has the advantage of additionally taking into consideration ecological values and the values of landscape aesthetics. When implementing soil and water bioengineering structures, suitable plants must be selected, and the structures must be given a dimension taking into account potential impact loads. A consideration of energy flows and the potential negative impact of construction in terms of energy and greenhouse gas balance has been neglected until now. The current study closes this gap of knowledge by introducing a method for detecting the possible negative effects of installing soil and water bioengineering measures. For this purpose, an environmental life cycle assessment model has been applied. The impact categories global warming potential and cumulative energy demand are used in this paper to describe the type of impacts which a bioengineering construction site causes. Additionally, the water bioengineering measure is contrasted with a conventional civil engineering structure. The results determine that the bioengineering alternative performs slightly better, in terms of energy demand and global warming potential, than the conventional measure. The most relevant factor is shown to be the impact of the running machines at the water bioengineering construction site. Finally, an integral ecological assessment model for applications of soil and water bioengineering structures should point out the potential negative effects caused during installation and, furthermore, integrate the assessment of potential positive effects due to the development of living plants in the use stage of the structures.

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