LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

GROUP 6, SESSION B: METHODS, TOOLS, DATABASES 8 th Table 1. Stages of multi-criteria assessment methods for farming systems
Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
Stage Description
1 Sustainability di- Some methods only assess environmental impacts; other methods also assess
mensions defined societal and/or economic impacts and/or overall sustainability.
2 Objectives identi- Dimensions of sustainability cannot be directly quantified; a set of more specific
fied
objectives (issues of concern) for each dimension is required.
3 Indicators defined To quantify the extent to which objectives are attained, indicators serving as assessment
criteria are required. This stage may involve the definition of thresholds
or reference values, which help to interpret indicator values.
4 System definition The system is characterised, its boundaries and functions are defined.
5 Calculation algo- This stage involves the determination of calculation algorithms for the indicators.
rithms defined Calculation algorithms can be very simple (e.g. emission factors) or much more
sophisticated (dynamic simulation models).
6 System technical Farmer production practices including amounts and timing of inputs used are
description described, technical parameters (feed efficiencies, crop yields) are quantified,
pedoclimatic conditions are defined.
7 Indicators calcu- Indicator values are calculated for each of the systems or scenarios to be comlatedpared.
A partial or total aggregation of indicator values may facilitate their interpretation.
8 Interpretation Interpretation of results, identification of improvement options. This stage obviously
is crucial; unfortunately few methods explicitly include this stage.
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Figure 1. Representation of the platform’s architecture and tools, allowing the implementation of different
methods for the multi-criteria assessment of agri-food systems.