Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing for assessing maritime transport: a comprehensive literature review

The maritime transport sector is nowadays an object of interest for the scientific community and shipping companies due to its embodied environmental and economic impacts. In this context, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methods can provide support in obtaining useful information through a detailed analysis of both the environmental and economic performances related to the whole life cycle of maritime means of transport. Based on this, the scope of this study is to provide a comprehensive literature review focused on the analysis of scientific articles in which the environmental and economic impacts of maritime means of transport have been assessed using the LCA and LCC methods. In particular, this study analyses 77 scientific articles in which the above-mentioned methods, as well as integrated approaches, have been applied. The analysis is performed using three review methods: bibliometric, network, and systematic analysis. The results outline the state of the art connected to the research area, as well as identifying the main scientific evidence and the availability of life cycle inventory data. Furthermore, methodological and practical issues are discussed through a critical analysis. This article is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled “Assessing maritime transport through LCA and LCC: a literature review” presented at “IX Convegno dell’Associazione Rete Italiana di LCA”, Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy), 9-11th December 2020.