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Characterization of waterborne nitrogen emissions for marine eutrophication modelling in life cycle impact assessment at the damage level and global scale

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Abstract

Current life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods lack a consistent and globally applicable characterization model relating nitrogen (N, as dissolved inorganic nitrogen, DIN) enrichment of coastal waters to the marine eutrophication impacts at the endpoint level. This paper introduces a method to calculate spatially explicit characterization factors (CFs) at endpoint and damage to ecosystems levels, for waterborne nitrogen emissions, reflecting their hypoxia-related marine eutrophication impacts, modelled for 5772 river basins of the world.

Environment Environment general Environmental Economics Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology Environmental Chemistry SC7 Characterization factors Damage to ecosystem Effect Endpoint Exposure Fate LCIA River basin