Energy flow, carbon and water footprints in vineyards and orchards to determine environmentally favourable sites in accordance with Natura 2000 perspective

Energy Analysis, and Carbon and Water Footprint for Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices in Agroecosystems and Agroforestry

“…Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology to investigate the environmental impact of products, taking into account all relevant impacts during production. LCA is a method to estimate the energy use in agriculture and to calculate CF and WF for the life cycle of the crop species, applied to the product, the process, and the farm level [28,70,71]. The real advantage of an LCA is the determination of environmental impacts related to a specific system, to locate life cycle phases for process improvements, create data, and compare alternatives for products, services, and processes [72].…”

“…In agroecosystems, human labor, application of fossil fuels, machinery, electricity for irrigation, and agrochemicals are considered as energy inputs [28]. Energy consumption for the production of fertilizers, chemical products, machinery and any other that was used in agricultural production is also included as energy inputs [28]. This complementary energy contributes to the maximization of output (production) per hectare [29].…”

“…Energy analysis is an approach of agroecosystems' production, which is based on the conversion of all inputs and outputs into energy units. According to this method, both the energy that flows into the agroecosystem and the energy outputs are calculated [28]. The evaluation of agroecosystems from an energy standpoint is crucial for minimizing energy inputs and improving environmental aspects of production [32].…”

“…The evaluation of agroecosystems from an energy standpoint is crucial for minimizing energy inputs and improving environmental aspects of production [32]. Consequently, effective use of energy resources is vital, taking into account the need for increasing agricultural production [23,28,29]. Energy analysis is used for the estimation of energy efficiency and environmental resilience of the productive systems [33].…”

Sustainable Viticulture: First Determination of the Environmental Footprint of Grapes

“…In addition, LCA and EF could be used for spatial planning [15] and ecosystem services-related research [16]. Although there are publications where LCA was applied for the environmental impact assessment of agricultural products [6,17,18], few works used the recently developed PEF approach. Soode-Schimonsky et al [19] applied the PEF methodology to determine the environmental impacts of various strawberry production systems in Germany and Estonia.…”