Abstract
Impact assessment of chemical compounds in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and Environmental
Risk Assessment (ERA) requires a vast amount of data on the properties of the chemical
compounds being assessed. These data are used in multi-media fate and exposure models,
to calculate risk levels and other indicators. ERA typically addresses one specific chemical, but
in an LCIA, the number of chemicals encountered may be quite high, up to hundreds or thousands.
This study explores the development of meta-models, which are supposed to reflect the
“true”multi-media fate and exposure model in an approximate way. The idea is that not all data
needed in a multi-media fate and exposure model are completely independent and equally important,
but that there are physical-chemical and biological relationships between sets of chemical
properties. A statistical model is constructed to underpin this assumption, and to provide simplified
proxies for the more complicated “real”model relationships.
In the presented study two approaches for the reduction of the data demand associated with characterization
of chemical emissions in USEtoxTM are tested:
The first approach yields a simplified set of mode of entry specific meta-models with a data demand
of app. 63 % (5/8) of the USEtoxTM characterization model.
The second yields a simplified set of mode of entry specific meta-models with a data demand of
75 % (6/8) of the original model.
The results of the study indicate that it is possible to simplify characterization models and lower
the data demand of these models applying the presented approach. The results further indicate
that the second approach relying on 75 % of the original data set provides the meta-model sets
which best mimics the original model. An overall trend observed from the 75 % data demand
meta-model sets, is that except for fate factors covering the route from soil emission (natural
and agricultural soil) to aquatic compartments, good correlation between the predicted fate factors
(derived from the meta-models) and the observed fate factors (modeled in USEtoxTM) are
obtained. The regression coefficients obtained for the predicted fate factors plotted against the
observed fate factors, excluding the fate factors covering the route from emission to soil to aquatic
compartments, were all in the range 0.6818≤ R2 ≤0.9470
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | SETAC Europe 21st Annual Meeting Abstract Book |
| Number of pages | 354 |
| Publisher | SETAC Europe |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| Event | SETAC Europe 21st Annual Meeting: Ecosystem Protection in a Sustainable World: A Challenge for Science and Regulation - Milano Convention Centre, Milano, Italy Duration: 15 May 2011 → 19 May 2011 Conference number: 21 http://milano.setac.eu/home/?contentid=291&pr_id=290 |
Conference
| Conference | SETAC Europe 21st Annual Meeting |
|---|---|
| Number | 21 |
| Location | Milano Convention Centre |
| Country | Italy |
| City | Milano |
| Period | 15/05/2011 → 19/05/2011 |
| Internet address |