Various existing EIA methods complement each other by
covering different aspects (Bartley et al. 2007). Life cycle
assessment (LCA) is an EIA method that systematically
evaluates the environmental aspects of a product’s life cycle
(from resource extraction, through all subsequent processes
involved in production, up to the end of the product’s
lifetime). LCA can be used to identify dominant environmental
issues in a product’s life cycle and to set priorities for
policy interventions. The EIA described here employed LCA
for this purpose and complemented it with an assessment of
water use and quality, and of flooding hazards.