Abstract
A novel approach is proposed to evaluate the impact of forestry on ecosystem quality in life cycle assessment (LCA) combining a naturalness assessment model with a species richness relationship. The approach is applied to a case study evaluating different forest management strategies involving concomitantly silvicultural scenarios (plantation only, careful logging only or the current mix of both) combined with an increasing share of protected area for wood production in a Québec black spruce forest. The naturalness index is useful to compare forest management scenarios and can help evaluate conservation needs considering the type of management foreseen for wood production. The results indicate that it is preferable to intensify forest management over a small proportion of the forest territory while ensuring strict protection over the remaining portion, compared to extensive forest management over most of the forested area. To explore naturalness introduction in LCA, a provisory curve relating the naturalness index (NI) with the potential disappeared fraction of species (PDF) was developed using species richness data from the literature. LCA impact scores in PDF for producing 1 m3 of wood might lead to consistent results with the naturalness index but the uncertainty is high while the window leading to consistent results is narrow.
Highlights
Green building relies on quantitative tools such as life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of alternative design choices, among them the supply of different building materials [1], to support environmentally sound choices in the context of decisionmaking based on scientific evidence [2]
The two parameters involved in the LCA impact score calculation, the potentially disappeared fraction of species (PDF) and the terrestrial area required annually to produce 1 m3 of wood (TAR), showed opposite non-linear effects that have to be properly put in balance in order to lead to impact score results consistent with existing scientific knowledge about the impacts of forest management
The transformation in potential disappeared fraction of species (PDF) using the provisional curve provided a range of values and a distribution allowing to offset the effect of the terrestrial area annually required (TAR) and led to impact scores correlated with the PDF rankings (i.e., PL only showing the greater impact followed by Current Mix and clearcut logging (CL) only)
Summary
Green building relies on quantitative tools such as life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of alternative design choices, among them the supply of different building materials [1], to support environmentally sound choices in the context of decisionmaking based on scientific evidence [2]. According to the LCA framework, the impact corresponds to the marginal change in ecosystem quality related to a given land use during a certain period of time (considered here on an annual basis), multiplied by the area required to produce the functional unit [7], corresponding here to 1 m3 of wood used in building structure. These impacts are assumed to grow linearly with the quantity produced [2], whereas land use intensity should be related to impact using non-linear functions [8].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call