Environmental impact

Yahong Dong and Md Uzzal Hossain

Chapter 63 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 227-233 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The term “environmental impact” refers to the consequences caused by human activities, which lead to diverse impacts on human health, ecosystems, and resources. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic methodology to quantify the potential environmental impacts associated with a product or an organization. This entry provides the definition of environmental impact and presents an overview of its historical development, as well as the international efforts made in the past century to address and mitigate environmental impacts. Next, we scrutinize the substantial environmental impacts of climate change, ozone depletion, eutrophication, acidification, toxicity, particulate matter, and resource depletion, with elucidation on definitions, underlying pollutants, assessment methods within the context of LCA, and strategies to mitigate these impacts. Lastly, we explore other environmental impacts, encompassing emerging concerns like microplastics.

Keywords: Environmental degradation; Environmental impact; Climate change; Ozone depletion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309887
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035309894.00068 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22215_63

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().