| Titre : | Environmental assessment of digitalisation in agriculture: a systematic review (2024) |
| Auteurs : | C. Huck ; A. Gobrecht ; T. Salou ; V. Bellon-Maurel ; E. Loiseau |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | Journal of Cleaner Production (vol. 472, September 2024) |
| Article en page(s) : | p. 143369 |
| Langues : | Anglais |
| Langues du résumé : | Anglais |
| Catégories : |
Catégories principales 07 - ENVIRONNEMENT ; 7.5 - Dégradation : Impact, DésertificationThésaurus IAMM AGRICULTURE NUMERIQUE ; AGRICULTURE DE PRECISION ; IMPACT SUR L'ENVIRONNEMENT ; EVALUATION IMPACT SUR ENVIRONNEMENT ; ANALYSE DU CYCLE DE VIE |
| Résumé : | Since the agricultural sector is one of the main drivers responsible for the transgression of planetary boundaries, there is an urgent need to reduce its environmental impacts. To address this issue, international institutions advocate for digital agriculture, but formalised and comprehensive assessment of its environmental impacts is still lacking. This systematic review aims at studying papers dedicated to the environmental assessment of the use of digital technologies in agriculture (DATs), i.e. of digital agriculture. In the 69 studies selected by the PRISMA method, most of the DATs dealt with crop production, supporting technical production management (e.g. fertilisation or irrigation). Almost a third of DATs were robots or automation tools. Out of the selected studies, 36 applied the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework. A focus was placed on these 36 case studies, which were examined in the light of the four LCA standardised stages, i.e. goal and scope, life cycle inventory (LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation. Our review results show that most of the studies aimed to assess the environmental impacts of digitalising an agricultural system using either a mass or surface-based functional unit, or sometimes both. The system boundaries seldomly included the DAT life cycle which were sometimes modelled with proxies and assumptions at the LCI stage to address data gaps. Assumptions were also needed to quantify the effects of DAT on the agricultural system, such as yield benefits or food waste reduction. At the LCIA stage, midpoint indicators were often selected. Turning to the interpretation step, it is worth noting that few studies carried out uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Finally, most of these 36 studies concluded that digitalisation reduced the environmental impacts of the agricultural system due to efficiency gains, or the use of electricity instead of fossil fuel. Conversely, three studies determined that digitalisation increased the environmental impacts of their agricultural system in terms of toxicity, mineral resource use, marine eutrophication, land use and ionising radiations, as high technologies (robots and drones) were being assessed in these works. Based on our review, recommendations were made on how to conduct LCA when assessing the environmental impacts of digitalising an agricultural system. Research perspectives for DAT environmental assessment were also discussed that take into consideration their emerging nature, their multifunctionality and the rebound effects they may generate. |
| Cote : | Réservé lecteur CIHEAM |
| URL / DOI : | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143369 |
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