AN APPROACH FOR HANDLING GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION IN LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT USING A RELATIONAL DATABASE

A new data model has been developed to handle information relevant to site-specific life cycle assessments (LCA). The model is orientated to wards GIS-representations of three generalised subsystems; the technic al, the environmental and the social subsystems. The technical and env ironmental systems are mainly linked through flows of energy and matte r, which are the causes of environmental impacts, which subsequently i s perceived, evaluated and acted upon by the social subsystem. For all three systems important differences, attributable to geographical loc ations can be determined. With the new data model a possibility to enh ance LCA and reach more relevant results emerge due to a higher site s pecificity. The high level data model is expressed as relations betwee n different entities using the entity relationship (ER) modelling lang uage. An existing LCA-database, SPINE, which is already used by severa l companies for decision support in product development, can be utilis ed since the structure of the database supports geographical informati on. So far, applications with GIS-data are limited, but examples of ar ea specific LCA impact characterisation factors exist. (C) 1998 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.