A New Indicator for the Assessment of Anthropogenic Substance Flows to Regional Sinks

Doctoral Thesis

A new indicator for the assessment of anthropogenic substance flows to regional sinks.

submitted in satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering of the Vienna University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering

Dissertation

Ein neuer Indikator zur Bewertung von anthropogenen Stoffflüssen in regionale Senken.

ausgeführt zum Zwecke der Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der technischen Wissenschaft eingereicht an der Technischen Universität Wien Fakultät für Bauingenieurwesen von

Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich Kral Matrikelnummer 0225854 Lacknergasse 35/6, 1170 Wien

Gutachter: o. Univ. Prof. Dr. Paul H. Brunner Institut für Wassergüte, Ressourcenmanagement und Abfallwirtschaft, Technischen Universität Wien, Karlsplatz 13/226, 1040 Wien, Österreich

Gutachter: o. Univ. Prof. Dr. Stefanie Hellweg Institut für Umweltingenieurwissenschaften, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Schafmattstraße 32, 8093 Zürich, Schweiz

Wien, Juni 2014

Abstract

Satisfying human needs requires an anthropogenic material turnover. After utilization, materials either remain in the anthroposphere in terms of recycling products, or they leave the anthroposphere in terms of waste and emission flows. The last two enter downstream sinks, man-made and natural ones. The problem is that material flows to natural sinks may cause risks for human and environmental health. To avoid overloading, several assessment frameworks have been put forward. In an economy-wide perspective, a single score indicator focusing on substances that leave the anthroposphere to regional sinks is missing. To overcome this gap, the thesis aims to develop a new indicator and to compute the score for selected case studies.

To achieve these goals, four steps are needed. First, the indicator is defined as the environmentally acceptable mass share of a substance in material flows that leave the anthroposphere to downstream sinks. The resulting score ranges between 0% as worst case and 100% as best case. Second, a methodology to determine the indicator components is presented, including (i) inventories based on substance flow analysis, and (ii) impact assessment based on a distance-to-target approach. Third, the framework developed is applied in three case studies including copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) on an urban scale (City of Vienna) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) on a national scale (Switzerland). Fourth, recommendations are given for increasing the indicator score by means of sink load reduction or enhancement of sink capacities.

The following results are obtained: In Vienna, 99% of Cu mass flows to regional sinks are acceptable. However, the 0.7% of Cu entering urban soils and the 0.3% entering receiving waters surpass acceptable levels. In the case of Pb, 92% of all mass flows to sinks prove to be acceptable, and 8% are disposed of in local landfills with limited capacity. For PFOS, 96% of all flows to sinks are acceptable. 4% cannot be evaluated due to a lack of quality criteria, despite posing a risk for human health and the environment. The examples demonstrate the need for: (i) enhanced regional landfill capacities or increased recycling rates, (ii) regional standards for assessing substance flows to urban soils and receiving waters, (iii) appropriate data of good quality, and (iv) the extension of the methodology to include exports to sinks in the hinterland.

The new indicator is of relevance for managing wastes and emissions because it identifies substance flows to sinks that observe or neglect quality criteria, or that cannot be assessed due to missing knowledge. Moreover, it serves for monitoring the performance of waste and environmental management within a region, and for comparing the performance with other regions. For strategic decisions such as design and evaluation of policies, the indicator allows an examination of the effectiveness of directing substance flows to appropriate sinks. Finally, the indicator aggregates complex information into an easy to understand score and is therefore highly instrumental for communicating scientific research to decision makers and the public.

Acknowledgements

I thank Paul H. Brunner for initiating and promoting the strategy concerning “clean material cycles and final sinks”, for his supervision of this thesis and for his continuous support during the last four years. My thanks goes also to Stefanie Hellweg for co-supervising the thesis.

I thank my scientific colleagues, with whom I collaborated on an international joint research project, from which this thesis results. Katharina Kellner gathered so much data diligently and contributed to a common research article. My thanks goes also to Hwong-Wen Ma, Pi-Cheng Chen, Chih-Yi Lin, and Shi-Rong Chen from National Taiwan University for making the project possible, and for their obligingness, kindness and efforts, which made the collaboration smooth and my visits in Taiwan an unforgettable experience. I appreciate their endeavors in gathering data as well as their generosity for contributing their broad scientific knowledge and for being available for discussion in untold online-meetings.

I dedicate my special thanks and admiration to Claudia. She looked after our two sons Jakob and Adrian with loving care while I was traveling to scientific conferences around the world to present my research. Beyond that she is going to enrich our lives by giving birth to our third son, Lorin, in the near future.

My gratitude also goes to Andrew Clarke. His painstaking proof-reading gave the textual quality the necessary professional dimension. I am also indebted to at least ten anonymous researches for reviewing the project proposal and the papers included in the thesis. I am grateful to Inge Hengl for her support to improve the graphical quality of the figures, Claudia Klapproth and Maria Gunesch for administrating the financial concerns and several trips to scientific conferences during the last four years.

Finally, I acknowledge the funding by the Vienna University of Technology and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for enabling scientific work to be carried out as a job without having to worry about financial safeguarding.

Content

1 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Background and problem definition ...... 1 1.2 Goal, scope and research questions ...... 3 1.3 Structure of the thesis ...... 3 2 State of the Art ...... 5 2.1 Introduction ...... 5 2.2 Policy ...... 5 2.3 Science ...... 6 2.4 Need for a new indicator ...... 9 3 Proposal for a new indicator ...... 11 3.1 Indicator definition and interpretation ...... 11 3.2 Framework ...... 14 3.3 Inventory analysis ...... 15 3.3.1 Applying substance flow analysis tool ...... 15 3.3.2 Quantifying actual flows ...... 17 3.4 Impact assessment ...... 17 3.4.1 Selecting normative criteria and reference values ...... 17 3.4.2 Quantifying critical flows ...... 19 4 Case studies ...... 21 4.1 Selection of case studies ...... 21 4.2 Inventory analysis ...... 22 4.3 Impact assessment ...... 26 4.3.1 Selecting normative criteria and reference values ...... 26 4.3.2 Quantifying critical flows ...... 28 5 Results and discussion ...... 31 5.1 What are substance flows to sinks? ...... 31 5.2 How can the indicator be defined and quantified? ...... 31 5.3 What is the indicator score for selected case studies? ...... 32 5.3.1 Overview ...... 32 5.3.2 Cu in Vienna ...... 34 5.3.3 Pb in Vienna ...... 35 5.3.4 PFOS in Switzerland ...... 36 5.4 What’s the benefit of the new indicator? ...... 37 6 Future research and outlook ...... 39 References ...... 41 Appendices ...... 51 Appendix I: Literature survey “The definition of sinks” ...... 51 Appendix II: Literature survey “SFA studies” ...... 57 Appendix III: Articles ...... 67 Included articles and link to the thesis ...... 67 Statement from Co-authors...... 68 Authors contribution ...... 69 Appended articles ...... 71 vi

Introduct