Formulation of sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment using a perturbation method

Abstract

In this paper, a new method for the efficient sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment is proposed. Introduction of a perturbation method to matrix-based life cycle assessment will enable one to evaluate the degree of influence of each element on the total sum of environmental loads. The mathematical background is described in detail together with its formulation. Special emphasis is placed on the advantage that the sensitivity matrix, in which each entity denotes the sensitivity of the corresponding element, is derived as a result of matrix operation. Therefore, even if the number of processes becomes larger, all sensitivities can be calculated easily. Furthermore, the process sensitivity is also formulated. The proposed method is compared with another sensitivity analysis by Heijungs [Heijungs R (1994) Ecol Econ 10:69–81] and the validity of the current method is examined using the example given by Heijungs.