Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models

Itten, René; Götz, Michael; Kröhnert, Hanna

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Peer review (abstract)
Title:	Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models
Authors:	Itten, René Götz, Michael Kröhnert, Hanna
et. al:	No
Conference details:	11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023
Issue Date:	8-Sep-2023
Language:	English
Subjects:	Life cycle assessment (LCA); LCIA; Remote sensing; Satellite imaging; Life cycle inventory (LCI)
Subject (DDC):	333: Economics of land and resources 658.408: Security management, environmental management
Abstract:	The inclusion of indirect lifecycle-based environmental impacts (Scope 3) of products is becoming increasingly important for companies as well as for investors, consumers and other stakeholders in value chains. Life Cycle Assessment can provide valuable decision support for companies, investors and consumers. However, the availability of representative, consistent and reliable regionalised Life Cycle Inventory models is still lacking. In the preparation of life cycle assessments, the collection of the necessary data is a time-consuming and difficult step. This large effort is especially a problem if one wants to compare different large companies or different product groups. In addition to the large effort for data collection, in almost all cases the cooperation of the respective companies is required, and the underlying data are therefore mostly collected by the companies themselves, which limits the reliability and makes them susceptible to greenwashing. The aim of this project was to identify possible approaches to reduce the effort for data collection and at the same time the dependency on data collected by the companies themselves. To achieve this, we explored approaches to link remote sensing data from satellite imagery to LCI models. In the last ten years the availability of satellite imagery has increased significantly, and data providers have developed advanced remote sensing-based data products. Together with remote sensing and geoinformation systems experts we identified remote sensing-based data sources, which can be used for life cycle inventory models. The focus was on three economic sectors, (1) agriculture, (2) mining and (3) energy supply. However, satellite images cannot be used directly for LCA studies, but have to be processed and evaluated in order to derive information which can be used within LCA inventories, such as land use changes or transportation distances. There are several commercial providers which offer already processed remote sensing-based data products. The range of application of offered data sets is rather wide. The primary target groups of commercial data providers appear to be ESG analysts for businesses, financial risks analysts and supply chain managers (i.e., Scope 3 management). Other potential applications mentioned by the data providers are environmental risk management (fire, water), marketing, academia, institutional agriculture (e.g., ministries), journalism and NGO activities. All these data can also contribute to more refined and spatially detailed life cycle inventory models. Land use and land use changes, as well as information on biodiversity and CO2 stored in biomass are the most common offered data sets with respect to the considered sectors (agriculture, mining, energy). Remote sensing-based data products have the potential to facilitate the data collection for large-scale LCI modelling covering both longer time periods and larger spaces with more regionalised parameters.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/30518
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Not specified
Departement:	Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR)
Published as part of the ZHAW project:	Spatial sustainable finance: Satellite-based ratings of company footprints in biodiversity and water
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Itten, R., Götz, M., & Kröhnert, H. (2023, September 8). Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models. 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023.

Itten, R., Götz, M. and Kröhnert, H. (2023) ‘Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models’, in 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023.

R. Itten, M. Götz, and H. Kröhnert, “Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models,” in 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023, Sep. 2023.

ITTEN, René, Michael GÖTZ und Hanna KRÖHNERT, 2023. Remote sensing based data products for large scale life cycle inventory models. In: 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023. Conference presentation. 8 September 2023

Itten, René, Michael Götz, and Hanna Kröhnert. 2023. “Remote Sensing Based Data Products for Large Scale Life Cycle Inventory Models.” Conference presentation. In 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023.

Itten, René, et al. “Remote Sensing Based Data Products for Large Scale Life Cycle Inventory Models.” 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM), Lille, France, 6-8 September 2023, 2023.