Temporal Differentiation

When looking at a product's life cycle, emissions and resource use as well as the resulting impacts usually occur at different points in time. For instance, construction materials are often 'stored' in buildings for many decades before they are recycled or disposed of. In order to capture such system dynamics, we use scenario analysis in combination with substance flow analysis and temporally differentiated fate models to quantify possible future emission flows. Temporally differentiated analyses raise the question whether the same weight should be assigned to current and future emissions. In this context, we discuss the transferability of economical concepts such as discounting to environmental problems.

Large-scale hydrological modeling for calculating water stress indices: Implications of improved spatiotemporal resolution, surface-groundwater differentiation, and uncertainty characterization

Laura Scherer, Aranya Venkatesh, Ramkumar Karuppiah, and Stephan Pfister
Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), 49.8 (2015): 4971-4979

Spatial and temporal specific characterisation factors for water use impact assessment in Spain

Montserrat Núñez, Stephan Pfister, Mar Vargas, and Assumpció Antón
The international journal of life cycle assessment, 20.1 (2014): 128-138
DOI  E-Citations

Monthly water stress: Spatially and temporally explicit consumptive water footprint of global crop production

Stephan Pfister, and Peter Bayer
Journal of cleaner production, 73.2014 (2013): 52-62
DOI  E-Citations

Time-dependent life-cycle assessment of slag landfills with the help of scenario analysis: the example of Cd and Cu

Hellweg, S.; Hofstetter, T. B.; Hungerbuhler, K.
Journal of Cleaner Production 2005, 13, 301-320

Discounting and the environment - Should current impacts be weighted differently than impacts harming future generations?

Hellweg, S.; Hofstetter, T. B.; Hungerbuhler, K.
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2003, 8, 8-18

Contact

Stefanie Hellweg,

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