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UMA could be applied to such a system to investigate its impact on the supporting
environment.
1.5.2.2. Life cycle assessment
According to ISO 14040:2006, the life cycle of a product system consists of all successive
phases from raw material extraction or natural resource generation to disposal and waste
treatment (ISO, 2021). It is a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts of a system
that includes all activities associated with a product or service (Rousseaux, 1999; Grisel &
Osset, 2004). This approach quantifies the input and output flows of materials and energy at
each stage of the life cycle, and are frequently used, particularly in industry, to consider the
environmental component (Lenzen, 2001). Typically, LCA comprises four main stages, namely
goal and scope definition (setting the study boundaries), life cycle inventory analysis (LCI), life
cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and life cycle interpretation (Inaba, 2004; ISO, 2022).
LCA is conducted through specific software (e.g., SimaPro, OpenLCA) using processes database
(e.g., Ecoinvent), updated with the users' modeling results. LCA is an emerging science in
Algeria and is currently used in several sectors outside the industry. Indeed, a literature review
(table 4) shows that LCA studies were initiated a decade ago (2010), with the first applications
in the cement industry (REF), agriculture (irrigation and fertilizers) (Makhlouf et al., 2019;
Redouane et al., 2018), wastewater treatment (Messaoud-Boureghda et al., 2011; Mohamed–
Zine & Hamouche, 2016), building materials (Boughrara et al., 2015; Dakhia & Zemmouri,
2021), and more recently in aquaculture which Lourguioui et al. (2017) consider as necessary
to inform management policies for such activities.
Figure 3. Energy and material flow associated with dwelling