The Mathematics of LCA : Relation Propagation and Function Structure
Overview
What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and what mathematical structure lies beneath it?
LCA has long been used to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and processes. Yet behind its familiar calculations lies a deeper mathematical structure-one that describes how materials, energy, and activities are connected throughout industrial systems and society.
The Mathematics of LCA revisits LCA from this fundamental perspective.
At the heart of the book is relation propagation: a mathematical way of describing how the activities required to provide a function propagate through interconnected networks. From this viewpoint, system boundaries, allocation, recycling, and shared processes can be reconsidered within a common mathematical framework.
The book then turns to the circular economy. A circular economy cannot be understood simply by measuring how much material circulates. Repair, refurbishment, sharing, and information connectivity change the relationships between functions and the activities required to deliver them. To describe these transformations, LCA must move beyond fixed assumptions about function and begin to address variable function structures.
This perspective also opens a path toward reconstructing LCA as a mathematical framework for AI. As AI, digital platforms, remote monitoring, and information networks transform industrial and social activities, LCA needs a mathematical foundation capable of representing their changing relationships-not merely adding new processes to existing calculations.
Through eight chapters, the book explores the foundations of LCA, relation networks, system boundaries, the mathematics of circularity, and the changing structure of function. It brings these ideas together to examine how LCA may develop beyond conventional product assessment.
This is not simply a book about how to calculate LCA. It is a book about what LCA is-and what it may become.
Written for researchers, graduate students, LCA practitioners, and professionals working in sustainability, industrial ecology, and the circular economy, it offers a mathematical perspective on the future development of life cycle assessment.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9784991500121
- ISBN-10: 4991500125
- Publisher: Susdi Publishing
- Publish Date: October 2026
- Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.86 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.24 pounds
- Page Count: 424
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