Integrating life cycle assessment into landscape studies: a postcard from Hulunbuir

CONTEXT: Conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly criticized for lacking spatial information, especially for agricultural systems where high spatial variation and sensitivity is present. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research is twofold: first, to assess the potential environmental impacts and the production efficiency of pastoralism farming, and, second, to identify the influence of the spatial distribution of farms on the environmental impacts, if any. METHODS: A cradle-to-gate spatialized agricultural LCA was conducted for 45 farms surveyed from the Hulunbuir Grassland by splitting direct onsite processes from upstream processes, adopting the spatialized characterization factors (SCFs) of IMPACT World+. RESULTS: Contrasting results were observed for different impact categories regarding whether upstream or onsite processes served as the environmental hotspot. While direct onsite animal emissions did not show spatial dependency at the inventory stage, its resulting impact scores demonstrated the most contrasting spatial patterns among various impact categories, depending on whether and how spatial resolution and location were introduced during the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) stage. Statistical evidence supported a high emission cluster for farms located close to Hailar city compared to a low cluster for those located further south/west of the city. CONCLUSIONS: A cradle-to-gate spatialized agricultural LCA was proposed and applied to assess the environmental impacts of pastoralism farming in Hulunbuir Grassland. The overall spatial dependency of the LCA results was weak at the individual farm level, if present; it depended on the interactions between the spatial variation within the life cycle inventory and the spatial resolution and location of the SCFs. Environmental burden shifting occurred between different impact categories, and the policy challenge of how to increase production efficiency in the pastoralism system remains.