Eco-indicator 99 Method for Environmental Impact

The Eco-indicator 99 method belongs to the methods used for modeling environmental impact at the level of an environmental mechanism’s final points. The characterizing process is performed for 11 impact categories within the three largest groups which are referred to as impact areas or damage categories. The impact areas include human health, ecosystem quality, and resources [45 (link),46 (link)]. The first damage category condenses respiratory and carcinogenic effects, effects on climate change, ozone layer depletion, and ionizing radiation into one value expressed in DALY (disability adjusted life-years). The damage to ecosystem quality is expressed in terms of the percentage of species that have disappeared in a certain area due to the environmental load (percentage of vascular plant species km²yr). Ecotoxicity covers the percentage of all species present in the environment living under toxic stress (PAF: Potentially affected fraction). Regarding acidification/eutrophication, the damage to a specific target species (vascular plants) in natural areas is modeled (PDF: Potentially disappeared fraction). The damage category covering resource extraction gives a value expressed in MJ surplus energy to indicate the quality of the remaining mineral and fossil resources Table 2 [47 ].