Introducing Life Cycle Impact Assessment

This chapter serves as an introduction to the presentation of the many aspects of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) in this volume of the book series ‘LCA Compendium’. It starts with a brief historical overview of the development of life cycle impact assessment driven by numerous national LCIA methodology projects and presents the international scientific discussions and methodological consensus attempts in consecutive working groups under the auspices of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) as well as the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, and the (almost) parallel standardisation activities under the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). A brief introduction is given on the purpose and structure of LCIA. As a common background for the 11 chapters dealing with the characterisation modelling of the most common impact categories, the chapter concludes with an introduction of the general principles and features of characterisation.