If a characterisation factor is not available for a specific land-use process, it can be estimated at different levels of detail depending on the objective of the specific LCA study. Lindner & Knuepffer (2020) describe the step-by-step determination of the quality level. A rough distinction is first made between land use types: Forest/woodland, grassland/savannah, arable land, resource extraction. Within a land use type, the land-use-specific biodiversity value (BVLU) is determined. The BVLU indicates the proportion of the biodiversity potential that is mathematically achieved within the respective land use type. The standardised biodiversity value (BVloc) is calculated from the BVLU in two further transformation steps. The BVloc indicates the proportion of the local biodiversity potential (within a specific ecoregion) that is mathematically achieved. By weighting with the ecoregion factor (EF), the BVloc is transformed into the global biodiversity value BVglo. The BVglo indicates the proportion of the global biodiversity potential that is mathematically achieved at the location of the process in question. The BVglo corresponds to the quality as defined in the Land Use Framework. The quality level in the reference state is defined as BVloc = 1, i.e. at the global level, the reference quality level differs depending on the ecoregion and corresponds to the EF. The quality difference (the characterisation factor) is then CF = ΔQ = EF (1 – BVloc).