Coupling Life Cycle Assessment with Environmental and Demgraphic Models to Understand Social Impacts of Agriculture

Although life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to assess environmental and health impacts at a regional and global scale, there are few data and life cycle inventories available that support regionalized LCA. A regionalized... [ view full abstract ]

Although life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to assess environmental and health impacts at a regional and global scale, there are few data and life cycle inventories available that support regionalized LCA. A regionalized LCA is particularly important to capture the inherent variability in agricultural systems, which have high spatial variability in terms of production processes and environmental conditions. Agricultural production systems impact human health and populations that are in themselves highly variable over space with respect to demographics and environmental and economic conditions.

The goal of this project is to develop a model framework that includes the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model, a biogeochemical model, and the California Communities Environmental Health Screening (CalEnvironScreen) Tool, a map-based model that tallies population risk based on both demographic and environmental variables. The results from this work provide quantitative estimates of social impact hotspots with risk of agricultural production system impacts on affected communities. As a proof-of-concept for this framework, this study focuses on the DNDC nitrate leaching process and the CalEnvironScreen population risk score to examine the intersection of risks from potential production system impacts with the larger economic and environmental risk landscapes of local communities in the western portion of California’s Fresno County. The results from this study provide a framework and new insights on the risk of exposure of disadvantaged communities to the environmental burdens of agricultural inputs such as nitrogen fertilizer and will be useful for policymakers, who develop policies and regulatory mechanisms for the agricultural sector.