Evaluating the risks in the construction wood product system through a criticality assessment framework

Abstract

The increasing use of wood in product eco-design focuses on the environmental merits of wood. Nevertheless, forest cover loss and other threats may hamper the supply of certain wood species, hence significantly impacting the economic sector. Supply risk has been intensively studied in the field of mineral resources; this has led to the emergence of the criticality concept, which evaluates the supply risks and main impacts of limited accessibility. In the case of biotic, renewable resources, lack of sustainable management can result in supply shortage. We developed here a criticality framework for wood to assess the risk of supply shortage of different wood species in different regions. Our motivation to look at wood is that it is the biotic resource most used in construction. The indicators used in the framework express all factors that can disturb the forest growth, such as fire and diseases, the sustainable supply of harvested wood, such as trade barriers and country governance, as well as the impacts of the aforementioned factors on the construction wood product system. The value of the framework and of the observations that can be derived thereof is shown through application to four different wood species. Such a criticality assessment can help define points of intervention at different geographic scales.