Impact assessment

Abstract

Impact Assessment (LCIA) is the phase in which the set of results of the Inventory analysis-mainly the inventory table-is further processed and interpreted in terms of environmental impacts and societal preferences. To this end, a list of impact categories is defined, and models for relating the environmental interventions to suitable category indicators for these impact categories are selected. The actual modeling results are calculated in the characterisation step, and an optional normalisation serves to indicate the share of the modeled results in a worldwide or regional total. Finally, the category indicator results can be grouped and weighted to include societal preferences of the various impact categories.