Life Cycle Assessment of Terrestrial Production Systems
Summary
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offers a structured framework for evaluating environmental impacts of terrestrial production systems, spanning crop cultivation, livestock rearing and forestry operations. By tracing all inputs and outputs from raw-material extraction to end-of-life—so-called cradle-to-grave analysis—LCA quantifies resource use and emissions across multiple impact categories. The methodology comprises four stages: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. System boundaries and the functional unit guide comparisons, while hotspot identification highlights stages with greatest environmental burden. Recent advances integrate spatially explicit data, water-footprint metrics and biodiversity considerations, alongside coupling with life cycle costing or multicriteria analysis for holistic appraisals. Applications range from assessing open-field cereal rotations to precision viticulture and controlled-environment farming, providing evidence to inform policy, improve management practices and validate sustainability claims. Examples include contrasting greenhouse-gas profiles of conventional versus organic pepper cultivation and optimising nutrient and water use in precision vineyards. Such studies underscore the global significance of terrestrial LCAs in guiding sustainable agricultural transitions, balancing productivity with reduced environmental footprints.
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Life Cycle Assessment of Terrestrial Production Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in life cycle assessment of terrestrial production systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A systematic methodology for quantifying environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life cycle.
Functional Unit: A quantified reference unit for comparing systems (e.g. one kilogram of crop yield).
Hotspot: A stage or process within the life cycle that contributes disproportionately to overall environmental impact.
Cradle-to-Grave: A boundary setting in LCA that encompasses all life cycle phases from resource extraction to disposal.
Impact Category: A grouping of environmental effects (e.g. climate change, eutrophication) used to aggregate and interpret inventory data.
References
- Environmental life cycle assessment of a large-scale commercial vertical farm. Sustainable Production and Consumption (2023).
- Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Vine-Growing Combining Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Multicriterial Analysis. Sustainability (2016).
- Life cycle assessment of the environmental performance of conventional and organic methods of open field pepper cultivation system. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2016).
- Energy use in open-field agriculture in the EU: A critical review recommending energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources adoption. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2022).
- Analysis of Energy Input–Output of Farms and Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study of Cotton Growers. Frontiers in Environmental Science (2022).
- Life Cycle Assessment of Two Vineyards after the Application of Precision Viticulture Techniques: A Case Study. Sustainability (2017).
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