Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is intensively employed in the residential building sector, the incompleteness problem threatens the reliability of LCA. Considering the incompleteness of LCA studies, this study aims at developing a new calculation tool by evaluating an index of completeness (IoC) of LCA on residential buildings. An in-depth review on the existing LCA studies is conducted, and the frequently involved processes/materials are identified and listed. The calculation tool, IoC-Res, is subsequently developed, enclosing all the processes/materials in the checklist. IoC-Res can evaluate the completeness of the entire life cycle stages of a residential building, giving results for six impact categories. Case studies are conducted with the evaluation of IoCs for six building cases using IoC-Res. The results demonstrate that IoCs can be significantly different among impact categories. High IoCs are found in the impact categories such as climate change and particulate matter, while low IoCs are observed in eutrophication and metal depletion. The developed IoC-Res can provide a quantitative evaluation on the completeness of LCA of residential buildings and hence helps to guarantee the study quality and ultimately improve the reliability of LCA.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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评估住宅建筑LCA研究的完整性

尽管生命周期评估（LCA）广泛用于住宅建筑领域，但残缺性问题威胁着LCA的可靠性。考虑到LCA研究的不完整性，本研究旨在通过评估住宅建筑中LCA的完整性指数（IoC），开发一种新的计算工具。对现有LCA研究进行了深入审查，并确定并列出了经常涉及的过程/材料。随后开发了计算工具IoC-Res，将所有过程/材料包含在清单中。IoC-Res可以评估住宅建筑物整个生命周期阶段的完整性，并给出六个影响类别的结果。使用IoC-Res对六个建筑案例的IoC进行了案例研究。结果表明，影响类别之间的IoC可能存在显着差异。在诸如气候变化和颗粒物等影响类别中发现了较高的IoC，而在富营养化和金属耗竭中则发现了较低的IoC。研发的IoC-Res可以对住宅LCA的完整性提供定量评估，从而有助于保证研究质量并最终提高LCA的可靠性。

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