Carbon footprint of Eucalyptus-rice agroforestry in Thailand by life cycle assessment | |
| Author | Rajbhandary, Jayshree |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-15-08 |
| Subject(s) | Agroforestry--Thailand Rice--Thailand Eucalyptus--Thailand Climate change mitigation--Thailand Footprints--Thailand |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. EV-15-08 |
| Abstract | Eucalyptus in agroforestry systems for climate change compatibility and sustainability is expanding in Thailand and other South East Asian countries. It becomes increasingly important for maintaining both the quality of end products and environmental performance. This joint research effort was carried out in terms of the carbon and water footprints, and sustainability evaluation (the latter two done by other team students). The aim of this study was to investigate the carbon footprint of the Eucalyptus-Rice agroforestry systems using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a technique to assess the impacts from the farm gate to farm gate using 1 kg of rice as functional unit in 8 crop cycle and 1 life cycle of Eucalyptus plants as the reference flow of the study. It was conducted as based on the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data of the rice field with and without fringe Eucalyptus tree plantation obtained from field studies, followed by the carbon footprint analysis by LCA SimaPro 8.0.4 model. The carbon footprint was quantified using IPCC 2013 100a method, which showed the carbon footprint of the rice field without trees to be 1.72 kg CO₂eq and that with the Eucalyptus tree plantation 1.83 kg CO₂eq. The growing period had the maximum impact on the production of greenhouse gases. These emissions were mainly due to use of chemical fertilizers and irrigation processes. For the impact analysis midpoint level ReCiPe midpoint (H) was used. The characterization was carried out for climate change, ozone depletion and terrestrial acidification. Overall this research showed that the agroforestry systems have a great potential for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shipin, Oleg V.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit, P.;Soni, Peeyush; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |