Decision Theoretic Life Cycle Assessment for Drinking Water Safety

The decision theoretic life cycle assessment (DT-LCA) framework revolutionizes the way LCA is conducted by tightly coupling it with stakeholder decision-making through serious gaming. This will enable LCA to address important questions regarding how various human decision factors influence sustainability outcomes, and in turn, how sustainability outcomes influence decision-making. DT-LCA uses an immersive game-based approach to engage stakeholders in simplified but realistic decision scenarios. Unlike the deterministic LCA approach, DT-LCA simulates sustainability outcomes in an iterative, dynamic manner based upon actual decisions made by stakeholders during the game. It combines social experimenting, computer modeling, education, and outreach into one integrated framework. Particularly, this research uses DT-LCA to address the health, economic, and environmental aspects related to drinking water emergency planning and response. Decision factors including risk attitudes, interorganizational networks, and access to LCA results will be introduced into the game’s experimental design to investigate their influences on sustainability outcomes. 

Funding

• National Science Foundation CAREER Grant, #2047199

Relevant Publications

• M Cramton, S Berg, J Huang, TS Bixler, W Mo, "A Preliminary Investigation on Drinking Water Emergency Planning and Response in the State of New Hampshire," Journal of AWWA, in press. 

• W Mo, D Hart, CM Ashcraft, M Chester, S Cucurachi, Z Lu, SA Miller, “Integrating knowledge co-production with life cycle assessment,” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 188, 106650, 2022.