Abstract
Life cycle inventory (LCI) databases are commonly used in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. They enable modern, larger case studies, make data collection more efficient, and help to establish comparability across different case studies. A database typically tries to provide one coherent and consistent modeling space, thereby allowing users to take different datasets in the appropriate database, which implies that the goal and scope of datasets in the database match the goal and scope of case studies done with the database.
This chapter explains the principal elements of LCI data, different types of databases in LCA, and explores common issues in modern LCA databases: starting a database, maintaining it, providing quality assurance, and not the least, making the database available to users. The second part of the chapter deals with data exchange and data exchange formats, as well as with interoperability concepts to allow the use of datasets from different databases in one study.
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Notes
- 1.
Introduction to “Life Cycle Inventory Analysis”
- 2.
Development of Unit Process Datasets
- 3.
We implicitly define LCI data library here; in an LCI library, the provider of the datasets does not attempt to harmonize them, for example, to preserve the original modeling of the datasets. A “classic” example of an LCI library is ProBas, from the German Environmental Protection Agency, http://probas.umweltbundesamt.de/
- 4.
ISO/TS 14048 (2002) Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Data documentation format. 1st ed Geneva, Switzerland. ISO/TS 14048 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207 “Technical Management,” Subcommittee SC 5 “Life Cycle Assessment” in 1993. This standard was last reviewed and confirmed in 2013, therefore the version of 2002 remains current
- 5.
Development of Unit Process Datasets
- 6.
- 7.
The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code, http://www.unspsc.org/
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Data Quality in Life Cycle Inventories
- 11.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/ef_pilots.htm#compliant, accessed April 21, 2019
- 12.
- 13.
The link between life cycle inventory analysis and life cycle impact assessment
- 14.
Since no database starts with guaranteed financial support over an unlimited time
- 15.
For example, Thinkstep, with the GaBi LCA software and the various GaBi databases, and GreenDelta, with the PSILCA social LCA database.
- 16.
XML was first proposed by the W3C consortium in 1998 with the idea to provide a language that is usable over the internet, easy to write and to process, with formal and concise design, among other things (https://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210). It has been broadly adopted since.
- 17.
JSON-LD was developed with support from search engines, to overcome some disadvantages of XML in data interchange; it is now a recommendation of W3C (https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/). In JSON, data is not organized in a hierarchical tree as in XML but in a “map” (https://www.educba.com/json-vs-xml/), with simple annotations, with makes processing faster and the overall format less heavy. JSON-LD is simply speaking JSON for linked data, so that the format can directly represent ontologies for example.
- 18.
- 19.
Weidema B. SPOLD ‘99 format – an electronic data format for exchange of LCI data (1999.06.24) https://lca-net.com/files/sis.pdf
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
https://github.com/USEPA/Federal-LCA-Commons-Elementary-Flow -List/tree/master/fedelemflowlist
- 26.
Data quality in life cycle inventories
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Ciroth, A., Burhan, S. (2021). Life Cycle Inventory Data and Databases. In: Ciroth, A., Arvidsson, R. (eds) Life Cycle Inventory Analysis . LCA Compendium – The Complete World of Life Cycle Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62270-1_6
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