| Department of Agricultural Sciences
80 % Forest & Landscape 20 % | |||||||||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | MSc. 1 year to MSc. 2 year | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | One block | ||||||||||||||||||
| Credits | 7.5 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Course Level | MSc | ||||||||||||||||||
| Examination | Final Examination written examination and oral examination All aids allowed Description of Examination: Evaluation of 3 individual reports on defined cases. Individual oral examination. Weight: Individual oral examination 60%. Individual reports 40 %. 7-point scale, internal examiner | ||||||||||||||||||
| Requirement For Attending Exam | Submitted group report | ||||||||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Lectures and exercises with pre-defined case-studies. Group project on a product of a biological production system of the students' interest/study direction. Two day excursions to the relevant biological production systems. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Block Placement | Block 4 Week Structure: A yes | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | 280002 Environmental and Ecotechnology 230009 Environmental Chemistry of Biological Systems | ||||||||||||||||||
| Areas of Competence the Course Will Address | |||||||||||||||||||
| Competences within Basic science: - Understand the theory of life cycle assessment (LCA) - Comprehend the definition of scope, goal, inventory analysis and impact categories - Make judgments about system boundaries and delineation - Comprehend the use of normalization metrics for weighting impacts - Comprehend the transfer of results to economic cost-benefit analysis (CBA) - Knowledge about alternative environmental assessment tools and their applicability Competences within Applied science: - apply LCA on different kinds of products of biological production systems. - make simple estimations of economic cost-benefit based on LCA - make judgments about the conclusions in LCA-reports - Knowledge about how LCA is used for improving production systems Competences within Ethics and Values - reflect on environmental impacts of biological production systems - be aware of ethical values inherent in LCA weighting methods - be aware of the limitations LCA and CBA methods | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Objectives | |||||||||||||||||||
| The course is a multi-disciplinary course on a tool, the life cycle assessment (LCA). The objective of the course is to learn the theory and to apply life cycle assessment for analysis. The course will teach the students the basic principles on conducting LCA and to evaluate environmental impacts of biological production. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Contents | |||||||||||||||||||
| The course is basically divided in two major parts: 1. Introduction to the theory, principles and application of LCA; 2. Use of the acquired LCA competences on a self-chosen case-study of a product of a biological production system. On the first part, various environmental and resource conservation problems that arise in conjunction with products of biological production systems (e.g. horticultural crops, field crops, production animals, aquaculture, food industry, pharmaceutics) are used as case studies. Products from different biological systems will be analysed and evaluated on their environmental impact such as their use of non-renewable resources, water use, eutrophication potential etc. Special emphasis will be on defining the system boundaries (e.g. how do I define the effective borders of a biocide used on a field). The linking of LCA-outcomes to economic analysis tools, primarily CBA, is standard in much assessment work. Students are introduced to the concepts of CBA (incl. the concept of externalities) and illustrative examples of CBA based on value transfer will given. A spreadsheet-based LCA calculation model will be used. The students will work on three cases and prepare a report on each of them. In the second part the students will define/choose a product from a biological system of their own interest. This will be done in groups. The system analysis starts with a thorough delineation of the system boundaries. LCA is then performed. Measures to reduce negative effects on the environment are worked out and suggestions for modification are made and analysed. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||||||||||
| The basics of life cycle analysis (LCA) will be taught in the form of lectures and exercises. The students will then be introduced to three defined cases dealing with products (e.g. protected crops, field crops, organic waste) from biological systems. In group exercises supported by lectures given by specialists of relevant fields, LCA will be applied to all of these cases. These projects teach the students how to formulate and analyse life cycles. Two days of excursions to the three pre-defined biological production systems gives the students the possibility to get a more concrete relation to the production system. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||||||||
| Knowing how to use the life cycle analysis - Be able to determine system boundaries - Knowledge about factors that influence directly or indirectly the environmental impact of biological systems - Apply life cycle analysis to products from different biological systems - Identification of major environmental impacts in biological systems - Improving biological systems in terms of environmental impact with the aid of life cycle analysis - Transferring life cycle analysis skills to other production systems - Knowing how to link LCA-outcomes with the CBA of economists. On completion of the course student should be able to describe, analyse, evaluate and improve biological production systems. The student should also know how LCA can be generally applied in other non-biological systems. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Litterature | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course material will be announced at the beginning of the course and papers and print outs will be distributed during the course. For preparation the students may start with: - Henrikke Baumann & Anne-Marie Tillman: The hitch hiker's guide to LCA. Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||||||||
| Oliver Körner, oli@life.ku.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Crop Science, Phone: 35332217 Dvora-Laiô Wulfsohn, dw@life.ku.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Environment, Resources and Technology, Phone: 35333395 Sander Bruun, sab@life.ku.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Plant and Soil Science, Phone: 35333481 Bo Jellesmark Thorsen, bjt@life.ku.dk, Danish Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning/Unit of Forestry, Phone: 35331700 Søren Nors Nielsen, snn@dfh.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Environment, Resources and Technology, Phone: 3528 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance Fee | |||||||||||||||||||
| None | |||||||||||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||||||||||
| Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Scope | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||