Within the field of life cycle assessment (LCA), simplifications are a response to the practical restrictions in the context of a study. In the 1990s, simplifications were part of a debate on streamlining within LCA. Since then, many studies have been published on simplifying LCA but with little attention to systematise the approaches available. Also, despite being pervasive during the making of LCA studies, simplifications remain often invisible in the final results. This paper therefore reviews the literature on simplification in LCA in order to systematise the approaches found today. A review of the LCA simplification literature was conducted. The systematic search and selection process led to a sample of 166 publications. During the review phase, the conceptual contributions to the simplification discourse were evaluated. A dataset of 163 entries was created, listing the conceptual contributions to the simplification debate. An empirically grounded analysis led to the generative development of a systematisation of simplifications according to their underlying simplifying logic. Five simplifying logics were identified: exclusion, inventory data substitution, qualitative expert judgment, standardisation and automation. Together, these simplifying logics inform 13 simplification strategies. The identified logics represent approaches to handle the complexities of product systems and expectations of the users of LCA results with the resources available to the analyst. Each simplification strategy is discussed with regard to its main applications and challenges. This paper provides a first systematisation of the different simplification logics frequently applied in LCA since the original streamlining discussion. The presented terminology can help making communication about simplification more explicit and transparent, thus important for the credibility of LCA. Despite the pervasiveness of simplification in LCA, there is a relative lack of research on simplification per se, making further research describing simplification as a practice and analysing simplifications methodologically desirable.

中文翻译：

---

完成工作的方法：LCA 文献中简化实践的回顾和系统化

在生命周期评估 (LCA) 领域内，简化是对研究背景下的实际限制的回应。在 1990 年代，简化是 LCA 内部关于精简的辩论的一部分。从那时起，已经发表了许多关于简化 LCA 的研究，但很少关注将可用方法系统化。此外，尽管在 LCA 研究的制作过程中普遍存在简化，但最终结果中往往看不到简化。因此，本文回顾了有关 LCA 简化的文献，以便系统化当今发现的方法。对 LCA 简化文献进行了审查。系统的搜索和选择过程产生了 166 份出版物的样本。在审查阶段，对简化论述的概念贡献进行了评估。创建了一个包含 163 个条目的数据集，列出了对简化辩论的概念贡献。以经验为基础的分析导致根据其潜在简化逻辑的简化系统化的生成发展。确定了五个简化逻辑：排除、清单数据替换、定性专家判断、标准化和自动化。这些简化逻辑共同构成了 13 种简化策略。确定的逻辑代表了处理产品系统复杂性和 LCA 结果用户的期望以及分析人员可用资源的方法。讨论了每种简化策略的主要应用和挑战。本文首次系统化了自最初的精简讨论以来在 LCA 中经常应用的不同简化逻辑。所提供的术语有助于使有关简化的交流更加明确和透明，因此对于 LCA 的可信度很重要。尽管 LCA 中的简化无处不在，但对简化本身的研究相对缺乏，这使得进一步研究将简化描述为一种实践并在方法上分析简化是可取的。