Land use indicators in life cycle assessment. Case study: The environmental impact of Mediterranean greenhouses

The importance of land use evaluation has recently been recognised in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Even so, there is still a considerable lack of definition, particularly concerning what parameters should be considered and – as a result – what particular methodology should be used. This paper presents a review of the different methods proposed for assessing the environmental impact of land use. The methodology is specially developed for assessing endpoint categories such as biodiversity and life support systems. We evaluated the environmental impact associated with protected horticulture and compared it with other forms of human activity. The study was carried out in the area of El Maresme. This has traditionally been an agricultural area, although it is now under heavy pressure from urban and industrial developments due to its proximity to Barcelona. On the basis of the results obtained in the case study, it was demonstrated that agricultural uses ranked at the same level or slightly below those of urban uses, and that both uses clearly scored lower than forest uses, from the point of view of biodiversity. When a productivity indicator was used, agricultural use registered a smaller environmental impact than urban use, but larger than for forestry. Finally, we discuss the problems and limitations encountered when these methods were applied in our case study.