How transport modelling affects the building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results: a case study analysis

Abstract

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a building involves the use of various types of information about the building, including the products, processes, and services related to the building throughout its life cycle. The modelling of the transport process can be complex and may be performed based on a variety of approaches and assumptions. With existing approaches, the most accurate results those closest to the real scenario, are calculated once the building has already been built. Other approaches are based on estimations at the design stage using generic scenarios and data sources. The variation of the LCA results when employing different modelling options for transport modules is studied herein. To this end, and to identify the possible errors or dispersion of the LCA results related to the various transport modelling options, transport impacts are calculated using a case study, whereby five different modelling options are compared. The results show that the transport impact difference between the lowest values (the real scenario) and the highest values (normalised detailed scenario) is approximately 30%. To conclude, efforts should be made to better define the default scenarios, especially regarding transport distances and the correction for volumetric capacity of the transport vessels, adapted to the real scenario.