Assessment of ecosystem productivity damage due to land use
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Land is known as the component of the ecosystem necessary for life in terms of being an input for food production and dwelling. Land is also considered significant for economic activities since it is used in manufacturing and service operations.
Because land is a limited resource, an increase in land use for one activity thus decreases the area available for others. To maximize profit, the landholder/producer generally determines the type of land use based on its potential income generation. However, determining land use based on only economic gain cannot sustain human well-being. Land utilization can also have an effect on terrestrial ecosystems that in turn affects organisms including humans who use the services provided by the ecosystems. Therefore, land use should be managed in a way where not only economic gain is considered, but also the effect on ecosystems.
Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool for assessing the potential environmental impacts generated from the whole life cycle of products, processes, and/or services (Goedkoop et al., 2009), can be used to estimate land use impacts. Under LCA approach, the impact of land use on ecosystems can be measured in the phase of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) where the area of land use is converted into an indicator for ecosystem quality measurement. There have been several LCIA proposals assessing the potential damage to ecosystems due to land use. Most of them operationalize damage through the number of species lost (Goedkoop et al., 2009, de Baan et al., 2013a, Gabel et al., 2016). The number of species is, however, more related to intrinsic values of ecosystems; it does not directly represent the damage related to loss of functional values of ecosystems (European Commission, 2010, Callesen, 2016). For example, humans do not directly obtain economic benefit from having many types of plant species (they just feel good to know that those species still exist because it represents a good quality of ecosystem) rather than from using plants and their products in life support activities. In order to cover all ecosystem values, the potential loss related to the functional values of ecosystems should also be taken into account.
Following the guidance of the European Commission (2010), the potential loss related to functional values of ecosystems can be presented through the biotic productivity loss of ecosystem using net primary production (NPP) as an indicator. NPP is the net amount of carbon assimilated in a given period by vegetation (Haberl et al., 2007, DAAC (Distributed Active Archive Center for Biogeochemical Dynamics), 2016). It represents the total available energy for ecological trophic webs and reproduction of biological biomass stocks, i.e. the amount of plant biomass produced (Haberl et al., 2007, Haberl et al., 2012, Petrosillo et al., 2013, Pei et al., 2015). Because the amount of plant biomass could imply the capability of ecosystems in producing natural resources to serve economic production, NPP can be used to characterize the damage due to land use impacts on the functional value of ecosystems. Damage to NPP due to land use impacts has been considered in several LCIA methods, e.g. the LC-IMPACT (Life Cycle Impact assessment Methods for imProved sustAinability Characterisation of Technologies) and LIME2 methods (Lifecycle Impact Assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling) (de Baan et al., 2013b, Itsubo and Inaba, 2014). However, their damage models for land-use impacts are limited only to a few regions.
As land use is location-specific (Stranddorf et al., 2005), damage to ecosystem productivity caused by land use should be evaluated spatially-dependent and thus differently for different regions or countries. In Thailand, almost 50% of land is under agriculture (OAE, 2015), which can have a significant impact on land. The Thai agricultural sector is contributing up to 10.5% to Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) (The World Bank Group, 2016). On the other hand, the support of biofuels in this country leads to an increase in the demand for biofuel feedstocks, i.e. cassava, sugarcane, and oil palm (DEDE, 2015), as well as the land required for this. Expansion of agricultural land is needed for cultivation of this biofuel feedstock that would in turn bring about the ecosystem damage due to the impacts of land occupation and land transformation. Therefore, to support decision-making on land use management in Thailand, this study aims to present the method for assessing damage of land use (land occupation and land transformation) to NPP in Thailand.
This damage is estimated by adjusting the procedures in LIME2. In addition, to convert the damage into monetary units, economic valuation of NPP is conducted using the production function approach which estimates how much a given ecosystem service contributes to the market value of economic goods/service (Pascual et al., 2010). Next, the results are applied to a case study on biodiesel. The method presented in this paper could contribute to future land use impact assessment research. Furthermore, expressing damage to NPP due to the effects on land use in monetary unit facilitates integration of land use impacts and other impact categories (which would lead to a single score of environmental externality). These could then be incorporated into economic analysis tools such as cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and system for economic and environmental accounting (SEEA) (Finnveden and Moberg, 2005, Höjer et al., 2008).
The method to assess the damage of land use to NPP as well as the economic valuation of NPP is explained below. Next, damage factors are calculated and discussed based on this method. These damage factors are then applied to a case study on biodiesel. Finally, conclusions are presented, followed by recommendations for future research.
Section snippets
Methods
To assess the damage to NPP caused by the effects of land use, NPP damage factors are needed. The cause-effect chain for land use impacts on ecosystems related to NPP is illustrated in Fig. 1. The methods for calculating NPP damage factors for land occupation and land transformation are described in Section 2.1. Moreover, to facilitate the integration and comparison among damage and impact categories, this study adds a monetary weighting method to the existing NPP damage approach for converting
Damage and monetary weighting factors
The results derived from the methods in 2.1 NPP damage functions, 2.2 Monetization of NPP are presented and discussed part by part in this section.
Discussion
As the life-support function of ecosystems is associated with its ability to produce natural resources, it is quite difficult to identify which area of protection that NPP should be a component of (ecosystems or resource productivity). In this study, NPP is considered as the component of ecosystems area of protection because it is used to express the ability of life-support function of ecosystems. However, in another viewpoint, when the amount of natural resource produced is focused, NPP can be
Application
According to the biodiesel development in Thailand (DEDE, 2015), an increment of biodiesel feedstock, i.e. oil palm, is required to serve the future demand. This will lead to the additional cultivation of oil palm leading to an impact on ecosystem productivity. Taking into account the effects of land use on ecosystem productivity would make the impact assessment of the biodiesel production and use (see the life cycle stages of biodiesel in Fig. 4) more complete. Hence, to present the
Conclusions
The focus of this study is to present the method for assessing the damage to ecosystem productivity caused by the effects of land use (land occupation and land transformation) in Thailand. The damage is expressed through net primary production (NPP) by adjusting the procedures in the LCIA method, LIME2 and using the geographical data sets from previous research. It is found that the damage to NPP due to the effects of land occupation and land transformation are in the ranges of 0–8 t·ha− 1·yr− 1
Recommendations for future research
Three issues are recommended to be considered for future research. First is the update of the geographical data sets on potential NPP, actual NPP, and land use classes that are used in NPP damage functions. Second, only six essential classes of land use are concerned in this study which does not distinguish the damage brought about by the utilization of sub-land use categories. For example, based on the factors in this study, the damage to NPP due to the transformation of oil palm land to
Acknowledgements
Financial support by the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE) and the Thailand Research Fund under the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. program (Grant PHD/0046/2555) are gratefully acknowledged. Facilities provided by CML, Leiden University are also acknowledged.
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