Abstract
The transport sector contributes globally around 14% of the greenhouse gas emissions, and one-third to the European Union’s. As an important economic sector, it requires an in-depth discussion, especially regarding environmental impacts. This paper focuses on transport-related life cycle assessment studies, as they are vital for the decision-making processes at various levels. We have framed our research on the requirements of the International organization for Standardization. We have given particular attention to the quality of life cycle assessment phases (goal and scope, inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation). We have explored 34 research and review papers, acquired from the Web of Science database. Furthermore, we have carried out a content scope analysis using Leximancer to determine and assess existing research areas and future trends. Results are represented via concept maps, giving a comprehensive overview of the life cycle assessment research in the transport. Our study indicates several incompatibilities with the standardised methodology. The findings suggest improvements in the methodological perspective. For example, system boundary represents a weakness in several studies as well as a comprehensive definition of goals or functional unit. Reliable and standardised studies are better-supporting decision-making process, leaving out any ambiguous understandings or manipulation of the results. A content analysis revealed most frequently discussed concepts, which were ‘impact’, ‘transport’, ‘emissions’, and ‘carbon’, suggesting existing research trends, and identifying research gaps, such as consumption-related topics.
Graphic abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Albertí J, Civancik-Uslua D, Contessottoa D, Balaguera A, Fullana-i-Palmera P (2019) Does a life cycle assessment remain valid after 20 years? Scenario analysis with a bus stop study. Resour Conserv Recy 144:169–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.01.041
Albrecht S, Brandstetter P, Beck T, Fullana-i-Palmer P, Grönman K, Baitz M, Deimling S, Sandilands J, Fischer M (2013) An extended life cycle analysis of packaging systems for fruit and vegetable transport in Europe. Int J Life Cycle Ass 18(8):1549–1567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0590-4
Ally J, Pryor T (2007) Life-cycle assessment of diesel, natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell bus transportation systems. J Power Sources 170(2):401–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.04.036
Angus D, Rintel S, Wiles J (2013) Making sense of big text: a visual-first approach for analysing text data using Leximancer and Discursis. Int J Soc Res Methodol 16(3):261–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2013.774186
Bach V, Lehmann A, Grömer M, Finkbeiner M (2018) Product environmental footprint (PEF) pilot phase—comparability over flexibility. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082898
Baldauf RB, Kaplan RB (2010) Australian applied linguistics in relation to international trends. Aust Rev Appl Linguist 33(1):4.1–4.32. https://doi.org/10.2104/aral1004
Bamber N, Turner I, Arulnathan V, Li Y, Zargar Ershadi S, Smart A, Pelletier N (2020) Comparing sources and analysis of uncertainty in consequential and attributional life cycle assessment: review of current practice and recommendations. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25:168–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01663-1
Belizaro Silva F, Horta Arduin R, Diestelkamp E, Alves de Oliveira L, Teixeira (2017). The importance of primary data for life cycle assessment of construction products in Brazil conference. In: VII international conference on life cycle assessment in Latin America
Bianco I, Panepinto D, Blengini GA, Onofrio M, Zanetti M (2019) Inventory and life cycle assessment of an Italian automotive painting process. Clean Technol Environ Policy 22:247–258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-019-01780-3
Biesentahal C, Wilden R (2014) Multi-level project governance: trends and opportunities. Int J Proj Manag 32(8):1291–1308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.06.005
Brambilla Pisoni E, Raccanelli R, Dotelli G, Botta D, Melià P (2009) Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans. Int J Life Cycle Ass 14(3):248–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-009-0061-0
Campbell C, Pitt LF, Parent M, Berthon PR (2011) Understanding consumer conversations around ads in a Web 2.0 world. J Advert 40(1):87–102. https://doi.org/10.2753/joa0091-3367400106
Cañas AJ, Novak JD (2014) Concept mapping using Cmap Tools to enhance meaningful learning. In: Okada A, Buckingham Shum S, Sherborne T (eds) Knowledge cartography Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing. Springer, London, pp 23–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6470-8_2
Cevallos-Sierra J (2016) Estimating road transport fuel consumption in Ecuador. Energy Policy 92:359–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.02.008
Clarivate Analytics (2019) Web of science core collection. https://clarivate.com/products/web-of-science/databases/. Accessed 15 Dec 2019
Cluzel F, Leroy Y, Yannou B (2013) Toward a structured functional unit definition framework to limit LCA results variability. In: 6th international conference on life cycle management—LCM 2013, August 2013, Gothenburg, Sweden. Paper no. 484
Cuenca-Moyano GM, Zanni S, Bonoli A, Valverde-Palacios I (2017) Development of the life cycle inventory of masonry mortar made of natural and recycled aggregates. J Clean Prod 140(3):1272–1286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.029
Curran MA (2016) Overview of goal and scope definition in life cycle assessment. goal and scope definition in life cycle assessment. LCA compendium—the complete world of life cycle assessment. Springer, Dordrecht, p 2016
De Feo G, Ferrara C, Iuliano C, Grosso A (2016) LCA of the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of source separated municipal waste: a Southern Italy case study. Sustainability 8(11):1084–1097. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111084
Del Pero F, Delogu M, Pierini M, Bonaffini D (2015) Life cycle assessment of a heavy metro train. J Clean Prod 87:787–799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.10.023
Dente SMR, Tavasszy L (2018) Policy oriented emission factors for road freight transport. Transp Res D 61:33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2017.03.021
Emarni N, Marteinsson B, Heinonen J (2016) Environmental impact assessment of a school building in iceland using lca-including the effect of long distance transport of materials. Buildings 6(4):46–61. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings6040046
Eriksson O, Jonsson D, Hillman K (2016) Life cycle assessment of Swedish single malt whisky. J Clean Prod 112:229–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.050
Esnouf A, Heijungs R, Coste G, Latrille É, Steyer J, Hélias A (2019) A tool to guide the selection of impact categories for LCA studies by using the representativeness index. Sci Total Environ 658:768–776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.194
European Commission (2016) Environmental footprint pilot guidance document. Guidance for the implementation of the EU product environmental footprint (PEF) during the Environmental Footprint (EF) pilot phase. Version 5.2, February 2016. https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/pdf/Guidance_products.pdf. Accessed 21 Dec 2019
European Commission (2018a) Transport in the European Union: current trends and issues. https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/2018-transport-in-the-eu-current-trends-and-issues.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb 2019
European Commission (2018b) Product environmental footprint category rules guidance. Version 6.3, May 2018. https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/permalink/PEFCR_guidance_v6.3-2.pdf. Accessed 21, 26 Dec 2019
European Commission (2019) The European green deal. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf. Accessed 23 Dec 2019
European Environment Agency (2018) Greenhouse gas emissions from transport in Europe. https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/transport-emissions-of-greenhouse-gases/transport-emissions-of-greenhouse-gases-11. Accessed 10 Feb 2019
Federici M, Ulgiati S, Basosi R (2009) Air versus terrestrial transport modalities: an energy and environmental comparison. Energy 34(10):1493–1503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2009.06.038
Fridrihsone A, Romagnoli F, Cabulis U (2018) Life cycle inventory for winter and spring rapeseed production in Northern Europe. J Clean Prod 177:79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.214
Glavič P, Kovačič Lukman R (2007) Review of sustainability terms and their definitions. J Clean Prod 15(18):1875–1885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.12.006
González-García S, Berg S, Feijoo G, Teresa Moreira M (2009) Comparative environmental assessment of wood transport models: a case study of a Swedish pulp mill. Sci Total Environ 407(11):3530–3539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.02.022
Greschner Farkavcova V, Rieckhof R, Guenther E (2018) Expanding knowledge on environmental impacts of transport processes for more sustainable supply chain decisions: a case study using life cycle assessment. Transp Res D 61:68–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2017.04.025
Guinee JB, Heijungs R, Huppes G, Zamagni A, Masoni P, Buonamici R, Ekvall T, Rydberg T (2011) Life cycle assessment: past, present, and futures. Environ Sci Technol 45(1):90–96
Hyndmann B, Pill S (2018) What’s in a concept? A Leximancer text mining analysis of physical literacy across the international literature. Eur Phys Educ Rev 24(3):292–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X17690312
Islam S, Ponnambala SG, Lam HL (2016) Review on life cycle inventory: methods, examples and applications. J Clean Prod 136(B):266–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.144
ISO 14040 (2006a) Environmental management: life cycle assessment—principles and framework
ISO 14044 (2006b) Environmental management: life cycle assessment—requirements and guidelines
Joint Research Centre European Commission (2010) General guide for life cycle assessment—detailed guidance. https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/ILCD-Handbook-General-guide-for-LCA-DETAILED-GUIDANCE-12March2010-ISBN-fin-v1.0-EN.pdf. Accessed 23 Dec 2019
Jones H, Moura F, Domingos T (2017) Life cycle assessment of high-speed rail: a case study in Portugal. Int J Life Cycle Ass 22(3):410–422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1177-7
Jørgensen AM, Ywema PE, Frees N, Exner S, Bracke RA (1996) Comparative evaluation of the importance of transport in four LCAs. Int J Life Cycle Ass 1(4):218–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02978698
Kalverkamp M, Karbe N (2018) Comparability of life cycle assessments: modelling and analysing LCA using different databases. In: Pehlken A, Kalverkamp M, Wittstock R (eds) Cascade use in technologies 2018. Springer, Berlin, pp 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57886-5_8
Kannan N, Saleh A, Osei E (2016) Estimation of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of transportation in beef cattle production. Energies 9:960–982. https://doi.org/10.3390/en9110960
Kliucininkas L, Matulevicius D, Martuzevicius J (2012) The life cycle assessment of alternative fuel chains for urban buses and trolleybuses. J Environ Manag 99:98–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.01.012
Klöpffer W, Grahl B (2014) Life cycle assessment (LCA): a guide to best practice. Wiley, Hoboken
Kovačič Lukman R, Virtič P (2018) Developing energy concept maps—an innovative educational tool for energy planning. J Sustain Dev Energy Water Environ Syst 6(4):742–754. https://doi.org/10.13044/j.sdewes.d6.0219
Kuhn T, Kokemohr L, Holm-Müller K (2018) A life cycle assessment of liquid pig manure transport in line with EU regulations: a case study from Germany. J Environ Manag 217:456–467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.03.082
Li T, Zhang H, Liu Z, Ke Q, Alting L (2013) A system boundary identification method for life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19:646–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0654-5
Li T, Yang W, Zhang H, Cao X (2016a) Evaluating the impact of transport investment on the efficiency of regional integrated transport systems in China. Transp Policy 45:66–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.09.005
Li Y, Liu Y, Gong X, Zuoren N, Cui S, Wang Z, Chen W (2016b) Environmental impact analysis of blast furnace slag applied to ordinary Portland cement production. J Clean Prod 120:221–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.12.071
Liu J, Yuan C, Hafeez M, Yuan Q (2018) The relationship between environment and logistics performance: evidence from Asian countries. J Clean Prod 204:282–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.310
Meisterling K, Samaras C, Schweizer V (2009) Decisions to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture and product transport: lCA case study of organic and conventional wheat. J Clean Prod 17(2):222–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.04.009
Mellino S, Petrillo A, Cigolotti V, Autorino C, Jannelli E, Ulgiati S (2017) A life cycle assessment of lithium battery and hydrogen-FC powered electric bicycles: searching for cleaner solutions to urban mobility. Int J Hydrog Energy 42:1830–1840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.10.146
Michailidou AV, Vlachokostas C, Moussiopoulos N, Maleka D (2016) Life Cycle Thinking used for assessing the environmental impacts of tourism activity for a Greek tourism destination. J Clean Prod 111:499–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.099
Muñoz E, Vargas S, Navia R (2015) Environmental and economic analysis of residual woody biomass transport for energetic use in Chile. Int J Life Cycle Ass 20(7):1033–1043. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0891-x
Mutchek M, Cooney G, Pickenpaugh G, Marriott J, Skone T (2016) Understanding the contribution of mining and transportation to the total life cycle impacts of coal exported from the united states. Energies 9:559–579. https://doi.org/10.3390/en9070559
Nguyen L, Moseson AJ, Farnam Y, Spatari S (2018) Effects of composition and transportation logistics on environmental, energy and cost metrics for the production of alternative cementitious binders. J Clean Prod 185:628–645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.247
Olawumi TO, Chan DWM (2018) A scientometric review of global research on sustainability and sustainable development. J Clean Prod 183:231–250
Panepinto D, Blengini GA, Genon G (2015) Economic and environmental comparison between two scenarios of waste management: MBT vs thermal treatment. Resour Conserv Recycl 97:16–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.02.002
Paolotti L, Martino G, Marchini A, Pascolini R, Boggia A (2015) Economic and environmental evaluation of transporting imported pellet: a case study. Biomass Bioenergy 83:340–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2015.09.011
Prudêncio da Silva V, van der Werf HMG, Spies A, Roberto Soares S (2010) Variability in environmental impacts of Brazilian soybean according to crop production and transport scenarios. J Environ Manag 91(9):1831–1839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.04.001
Rehermann F, Pablo-Romero M (2018) Economic growth and transport energy consumption in the Latin American and Caribbean countries. Energy Policy 122:518–527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.006
San Miguel G, Corona B, Ruiz D, Landholm D, Laina R, Tolosana E, Sixto H, Cañellas I (2015) Environmental, energy and economic analysis of a biomass supply chain based on a poplar short rotation coppice in Spain. J Clean Prod 94:93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.070
Sanfilippo S, Raimondi A, Bernardo R, Fino D (2012) Dietary vs. transport: an analysis of environmental burdens pertaining to a typical workday. Int J Consum Stud 36(2):133–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2011.01079.x
Saxe S, Kasraian D (2020) Rethinking environmental LCA life stages for transport infrastructure to facilitate holistic assessment. J Ind Ecol 2020:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13010
Schleiniger R (2016) Implicit CO2 prices of fossil fuel use in Switzerland. Energy Policy 96:411–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.06.022
Sharp H, Grundius J, Heinonen J (2016) Carbon footprint of inbound tourism to Iceland: a consumption—based life-cycle assessment including direct and indirect emissions. Sustainability 8(11):1147–1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147
Simon B, Ben Amor M, Földényi R (2016) Life cycle impact assessment of beverage packaging systems: focus on the collection of post-consumer bottles. J Clean Prod 112:238–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.06.008
Singh R, Sharma C, Agrawal M (2017) Emission inventory of trace gases from road transport in India. Transp Res D 52:64–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2017.02.011
Smith AE (2003) Automatic extraction of semantic networks from text using Leximancer. In: Proceedings of HLT-NAACL 2003-demonstrations, Edmonton, May–June, 2003, pp 23–24. https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/N03-4012.pdf
Song Q, Wang Z, Wu Y, Li J, Yu D, Duan H, Yuan W (2018) Could urban electric public bus really reduce the GHG emissions: a case study in Macau? J Clean Prod 172:2133–2142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.206
Statista (2020) Transportation and Logistics. Logistics industry worldwide. Statistics and facts. Mar 12, 2020. https://www.statista.com/topics/5691/logistics-industry-worldwide/ Accessed 26 Mar 2020
Suh S, Lenzen M, Treloar GJ, Hondo H, Horvath A, Huppes G, Jolliet O, Klann U, Krewitt W, Moriguchi Y, Munksgaard J, Norris G (2004) System boundary selection in life-cycle inventories using hybrid approaches. Environ Sci Technol 38(3):657–664. https://doi.org/10.1021/es0263745
The Paris Agreement—Transport and environment (2015) Transport climate targets and the Paris Agreement. https://www.transportenvironment.org/what-we-do/transport-climate-targets-and-paris-agreement. Accessed 23 Dec 2019
The World Bank (2019) Transport Overview - The World Bank Group. 23 September 2019. Available online: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/transport/overview. Accessed 19 Sept 2020
Timmermann V, Dibdiakova J (2014) Greenhouse gas emissions from forestry in East Norway. Int J Life Cycle Ass 19(9):1593–1606. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0773-7
Tóffano Pereira RP, Mattos Ribeiro G, Filimonau V (2017) The carbon footprint appraisal of local visitor travel in Brazil: a case of the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo itinerary. J Clean Prod 141:256–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.049
Trydeman Knudsen M, Yu-Hui Q, Yan L, Halberg N (2010) Environmental assessment of organic soybean (Glycine max) imported from China to Denmark: a case study. J Clean Prod 18(14):1431–1439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.05.022
Turk J, Cotič Z, Mladenovič A, Šajna A (2015) Environmental evaluation of green concretes versus conventional concrete by means of LCA. Waste Manag 45:194–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.06.035
United Nations (2015) Sustainable development goals. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
United States Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) (2020) Carbon pollution from transportation. https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/carbon-pollution-transportation Accessed 9 Sept 2020
Van den Berg NW, Huppes G, Lindeijer EW, van der Ven BL, Wrisberg MN (1999) Internal report. Quality assessment for LCA. CML report 152, Leiden, The Netherlands
Van Fan Y, Perry S, Klemeš JJ, Lee CT (2018) A review on air emissions assessment: transportation. J Clean Prod 194:673–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.151
Wang S, Ge M (2019) Everything you need to know about the fastest growing source of global emissions: transport. World Resources Institute, October 16, 2019. https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/10/everything-you-need-know-about-fastest-growing-source-global-emissions-transport Accessed 26 Mar 2020
Wang J, Zhuang H, Lin PC (2016) The environmental impact of distribution to retail channels: a case study on packaged beverages. Transp Res D 43:17–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2015.11.008
Weidema BP (1997) Guidelines for critical review of product LCA. SPOLD. https://lca-net.com/files/critical_review.pdf
Wulf C, Zapp P (2018) Assessment of system variations for hydrogen transport by liquid organic hydrogen carriers. Int J Hydrog Energy 43:11884–11895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.01.198
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments in the process of improving the manuscript. Furthermore, the authors would also like to thank emeritus Prof. Dr. Peter Glavič for the comments regarding the functional units.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix
Appendix
See Table 5.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Omahne, V., Krajnc, D. & Kovačič Lukman, R. A critical overview of scientific publications on life cycle assessment in transport-related topics. Clean Techn Environ Policy 23, 711–730 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01954-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01954-4