Selected project activity: EU project “LC-IMPACT”

Agricultural land use is one of the main causes increased soil erosion. The cultivation of crops contributes to accelerated soil loss, which in turn degrades arable land. This topic has received insufficient attention in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) community. Thus, for LC-IMPACT, ESM developed characterization factors (CFs) for erosion regulation due to global crop cultivation using global EPIC simulations of, among other things, cassava, rapeseed, corn, and wheat for three levels of agricultural intensification defined by fertilizer and irrigation uses.

Grid (A) and country (B)-specific characterization factors ($ kg-1 crop) for wheat over the world for the SS scenario without fertilizer use and irrigation.

Different management of the crops results in different crop yields. Thus, the CFs express the damage caused per kg of crop and not per m2 of land use, the more common measurement until now. The damage will be in terms of extra on- and offsite costs (in $/kg crop) due to soil loss caused by crop production.

Rangeland and trees were simulated with EPIC around the world to estimate the potential natural vegetation if there were no crop cultivation. The global potential natural vegetation map from Ramankutty and Foley (2010) was used to allocate grass or forest to each grid. Based on Pimentel et al. (1995), on- and offsite erosion costs in 2012 were estimated to be 13 US$ per ton of eroded soil (van Zelm et al., in preparation).

Last edited: 21 October 2013