Development of metal's terrestrial ecotoxicological characterization factors within life cycle assessment

在生命周期影响评估(LCIA)研究中，金属往往是生态毒理影响的主要贡献者。然而，这些高影响得分主要来自未适应的模型，往往导致高估了几个数量级。环境署/SETAC最近的讲习班达成了共识，认识到LCIA模型没有充分考虑到金属的影响，因为它们忽视了金属的具体性质和行为，因此应加以加强，以提供更有意义的生态毒性结果。特别是，与会者强调了说明金属形态及其空间变异性的重要性，因为金属的去向和迁移在很大程度上受当地物理化学和生物参数的影响，而且相关影响在不同地点可能会有几个数量级的差异。该项目的主要目标是在考虑到空间和时间方面的全球区域化的LCIA方法Impact World内改善金属冲击的特征。具体目标是：1)改进大气命运模型，以确定从空气到其他环境区块的命运因素；2)将金属形态纳入土壤命运因素的确定；3)为金属产生新的生态毒理陆地影响因素，说明金属形态；4)确定如何处理时间问题，并提出动态方法；5)提出一个总框架，以确定锌、铜和镍向空气和土壤排放的不同地理分辨率尺度下的区域化生态毒理学特征因子及其不确定性，并在个案研究中加以使用；6)将总框架扩展到其他类型的金属，产生更多的金属毒理学特征因子，并将其纳入影响世界生态毒理特征分析方法。改进的金属影响评估将提高生命周期评估的科学相关性和可信度，以及从业人员和决策者对其的接受程度。

Metals often appear as main contributors to ecotoxicological impacts in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) studies. However, these high impact scores are mainly obtained from unadapted models, often leading to an overestimation by several orders of magnitude. A consensus was reached in recent UNEP/SETAC workshops recognizing that LCIA models inadequately consider the impacts of metals given that they neglect their specific properties and behaviour and should therefore be enhanced in order to provide more meaningful ecotoxicity results. In particular, the importance of accounting for metal speciation and its spatial variability was highlighted, as metal fate and transport are highly influenced by local physicochemical and biological parameters, and as related impacts can vary by several orders of magnitude from site to site. The main goal of the project is to improve metal impact characterization within the globally regionalized LCIA method IMPACT World + accounting for spatial and temporal aspects. Specific objectives are to: 1) Improve atmospheric fate modelling in the determination of the fate factors from air to other environmental compartments; 2) Include metal speciation in the determination of fate factors from soil; 3) Generate new ecotoxicological terrestrial effect factors for metals accounting for metal speciation; 4) Determine how to deal with temporal aspects and propose a dynamic approach; 5) Propose a general framework to determine regionalized ecotoxicological characterization factors (CFs) and their uncertainty at different geographical resolution scales for zinc, copper and nickel for emissions to air and to soil and operationalize their use in case studies, and 6) Extend the general framework to other types of metals, generate additional metal CFs and incorporate them into the IMPACT World+ LCIA method. The improved impact assessment of metals will enhance the scientific relevance and the credibility of LCA and its acceptance by practitioners and decision makers.