Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 109107 |
| Journal | Ecological indicators |
| Volume | 141 |
| Early online date | 1 Jul 2022 |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2022 |
Abstract
Agriculture's primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.
Keywords
- Multi-criteria assessment, Environmental issues, Environmental policies, Conceptual framework
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Decision Sciences(all)
- Environmental Science(all)
- Ecology
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Ecological indicators, Vol. 141, 109107, 08.2022.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating agri-environmental indicators, ecosystem services assessment, life cycle assessment and yield gap analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of agriculture
AU - Bergez, J-E
AU - Bethinger, A.
AU - Bockstaller, C.
AU - Cederberg, C.
AU - Ceschia, E.
AU - Guilpart, N.
AU - Lange, S.
AU - Müller, F.
AU - Reidsma, P.
AU - Riviere, C.
AU - Schader, C.
AU - Therond, O.
AU - van der Werf, H. M. G.
N1 - Funding Information: This study was funded by INRAE with a grant from Tempag (OECD). The authors wish to thank the INRAE librarians (S. Le-Perchec and V. Lelièvre) who helped in starting the project by a general literature query and A. Lewer for the English editing.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Agriculture's primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.
AB - Agriculture's primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.
KW - Multi-criteria assessment
KW - Environmental issues
KW - Environmental policies
KW - Conceptual framework
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133331912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109107
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109107
M3 - Article
VL - 141
JO - Ecological indicators
JF - Ecological indicators
SN - 1470-160X
M1 - 109107
ER -