Implementation of an adapted LCA framework to environmental assessment of a territory: important learning points from a French Mediterranean case study

Indicators of land use functions are compared to different references to highlight the main features of the territory (e.g., high level of societal functions). For environmental impacts, the results point out that most impacts occur beyond the territory borders. Four environmental issues are identified, i.e., climate change, particulate matter formation, human toxicity and land occupation. Finally, the associated driving forces are determined (i.e., the most important ones are imports of food, goods and services and manufacturing activities). For these hotspots, the strategy applied to bridge data gaps was discussed (i.e., using environmental input output tables (EIOT)). In addition, the sensitivity to the chosen impact assessment method was analyzed by using another LCIA method (Impact World+).