Environmental impacts of water and land use are often omitted or treated in an over-simplified manner in life cycle assessments (LCAs). This may provide insufficient foundation for LCA-based decision-making when product life cycles include agriculture or forestry. The aim of this paper is to assess water and land use impacts of biobased textile fibres and contribute to the development of methods for characterising such impacts in LCA. This was done by applying and developing methods suggested in literature to an LCA case study of a wood-based textile fibre under development. The water use assessment method considers water deprivation at the midpoint level and the impact on human health, ecosystem quality and resources at the endpoint level. The land use assessment method measures the impact on biodiversity, by considering changes in the vascular plant species richness and the vulnerability of the surrounding ecosystem. In the case study, five wood-based fibre production scenarios were set up in order to account for uncertainties in the future location of operations. For comparison, two cotton production scenarios were set up. An innovative consequential approach was applied in the inventory analysis of water use, in order to capture the system-scale effects of how forestry and cotton farming influence the hydrological cycle. This was compared to a more traditional attributional approach. The results show that the location of operations influences water use impacts, as water extracted from relatively water stressed environments leads to higher impacts. Furthermore, for some scenarios, the result differed considerably between the consequential and attributional inventory approaches. Moreover, it is shown that the consequential approach adds the possibility of recognising increased runoff as a potential benefit of certain types of land use. Biodiversity impacts from the transformation of natural land are much higher than impacts from the occupation of land. If transformation of land takes place, and all impact is allocated to the first harvest, cotton production appears to have a particularly high impact. However, if the transformational impact is allocated over several subsequent harvests, the impact of cotton and wood-based fibres becomes more similar. How to handle this allocation problem deserves further attention in the development of characterisation methods for land use impacts. The study has contributed to the development of characterisation methods by developing a water use inventory approach and by illuminating several methodological aspects of both water and land use impact assessment which need further research.

Multi-storey timber buildings up to 6 and more floors are increasingly built in many European countries. The challenge with these buildings can be that with traditional intermediate floor constructions in timber it can be difficult to fulfill the standard requirements and even when they are met, low frequency transmission can still cause complaints. Additionally it is difficult to develop appropriate light weight floor constructions since it is well known that the correlation between the standardized evaluation methods using the tapping machine and the human perception of impact noise can be poor, especially in buildings with light weight structures. In the AcuWood project, measurements and recordings on different intermediate timber floor constructions in the laboratory and the field were performed covering a wide range of modern intermediate timber floor constructions. Additionally, one intermediate concrete floor with different floor coverings was included in the study. Besides the standardized tapping machine, the modified tapping machine and the Japanese rubber ball and "real" sources were employed. Subjective ratings from listening tests were correlated to many technical single number descriptors including the standardized descriptors and non-standardized proposals. It was found that the Japanese rubber ball represents walking noise in its characteristics and spectrum best, taking into account the practical requirement of a strong enough excitation for building measurements. The standardized tapping machine, with an appropriate single number descriptor, L' nT, w + CI,50-2500 or slightly better, L' nT, w Hagberg 03, leads also to an acceptably high determination coefficient between the descriptor and the subjective ratings. Additionally, the study delivered data, from which proposals for requirements for the suggested single number ratings are deduced, based on the subjective ratings.

This is the very first technical guideline on the European level for the fire safe use of timber structures and wood products in buildings. It aims at providing the highest scientific knowledge and covers the extended use of European design codes and standards, practical guidance, examples for fire safe design and principles of performance based design. The guideline presents information for architects, engineers, educators, regulatory authorities and building industry. The guideline is focusing on structural fire design by providing the latest detailed guidance on separating and load-bearing functions of timber structures under standard fire exposure. Reference is made to the Fire Part of Eurocode 5 and, where new knowledge is available, to other references. Depending on national regulations, some of the new design methods may need agreement by the competent authority. This new information will be potential input to the next revision of the Fire Part of Eurocode 5. The guideline also includes information on reaction to the fire performance of wood products according to the European classification system. The importance of proper detailing in building design is stressed by practical examples. Active measures of fire protection and quality of construction workmanship and inspection at building sites are presented as important means for fulfilling the fire safety objectives. The guideline has been developed within the European research project FireInTimber (Fire Resistance of Innovative Timber structures). Leading experts and researchers from nine European countries have been participating and guarantee its quality and relevance. The project has been initiated by the European initiative BWW Building With Wood under the umbrella of the European Wood Industries CEI Bois. It is sponsored by the European wood industry in cooperation with national funding organisations within the WoodWisdom-Net Research Programme.