Impact pathway

Bo P. Weidema

Chapter 90 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 337-340 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: An impact pathway is a consecutive series of cause-effect relations that link pressure indicators (elementary flows) of the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis result to midpoint impact category indicators and eventually to an endpoint impact category indicator of the level of Areas of Protection. Identifying cause–effect relations is best done backwards from the endpoint impact indicators by analysing each observed impact (effect) for possible causes. In the strict sense, causality can never be observed, while its plausibility and strength can be inferred from observations. When looking for causes of an impact, it should be avoided to take correlation as the sole evidence for causation. Likewise, the fact that one event follows another in time should not in itself be taken as evidence for causation. Causality does not work backwards in time. The basic concepts of observational studies, counterfactuals, and confounding are explained.

Keywords: Cause-effect relations; Causality; Correlation; Temporal sequence; Observational studies; Confounding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309887
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