Preamble. Data collection for life cycle inventories (LCI) is still a critical factor for successful work in the area of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). To facilitate reliable LCI data collection, the SETAC-Europe LCA Working Group 'Data Availability and Data Quality' was formed in April 1998. The goal of the Working Group is to focus on the key features of improving the efficiency and quality of data collection (Fig. 1).
Exchange
Presentation Quality
Fig. 1: The key features of data collection A series of five articles presenting the activities of the working group and its five subgroups through the past three years is being published in Int J LCA. This isstie provides the first three subgroup papers: A description of how to assess data quality is presented in the article 'Framework for ModeNing Data Uncertainty in Life Cycle Inventories' (Huijbregts et al. 2001). Tbe second article focuses on the driving forces for data exchange (Van Hoof et al. 2001 ). The third article deals with the availability and quality of energy, transport and waste models (Braam et al. 2001). Two forthcoming papers concern recommendations for a standardized list of environmental interventions (Hischier et al. 2001 ) and interfaces to existing software (Jean et al., in preparation). On the occasion of the 1 lth Annual Meeting of SETAC-Eurape in Madrid, Spain, 6-10 May 2001, the working group has met for its last session to conclude its work. The full report of the SETAC Working Group 'Data Availability and Data Quality' will be published after external peer review as a 'Code of Life Cycle Inventory Practice' by SETAC (De Beaufort & Bretz 2001 ). The results are fed into the ISO 14048 finalisation process and lay a foundation for the newly starting LCI subprogram of the UNEP-LCI Life Cycle Initiative. Thus, Madrid has become an important step for the future advancement of LCI data availability and data quality.
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