LCA comprises four key steps: (1) goal and scope definition, (2) inventory analysis, (3) impact assessment, and (4) interpretation. LCA methodology is particularly challenged by spatiotemporal limitations during inventory analysis (where the material-energy balances of products are compiled) and impact assessment (where inventories are translated into environmental impacts). While methods to quantify land-related life cycle impacts are increasingly established, land use inventories are largely lacking. LCA relies on such data inventories which are particularly important because land use impacts are localized and site dependent. Energy systems planning models (e.g., integrated assessment models, capacity expansion and grid operations / dispatch optimization models) are similarly challenged by scarcity of robust datasets at a time when land use constraints are increasingly important for the transition to a net zero future. As a result, large inconsistencies persist for life cycle assessment and energy systems models that examine land use. ETAPA research on quantifying the land use of energy infrastructure has focused on three areas (1) manual delineation using geographic information systems (GIS) where datasets are sufficiently small (typically 1 to 500 infrastructure elements), (2) supervised classification where analyses will be time intensive (typically around 500 infrastructure elements), and (3) combining energy infrastructure data with machine learning methods (typically 500 to >100,000 infrastructure elements).

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