Problems with ELCD import
Problems with ELCD import
Hi everyone,
I'm new with the forum and with openLCA that I am now trying to learn.
My problem is:
I've just imported ELCD database that I dowloaded from this page http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasetArea.vm
During the import, openLCA was showing a message about problems with units and flows properties ("cannot open/import units and flows properties").
But, when it finished the operation, it seems all right: I tried to open some units and flow properties editors and they all worked.
Can you explain what the problem is? And how can I fix it?
Thank you
Sara
I'm new with the forum and with openLCA that I am now trying to learn.
My problem is:
I've just imported ELCD database that I dowloaded from this page http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasetArea.vm
During the import, openLCA was showing a message about problems with units and flows properties ("cannot open/import units and flows properties").
But, when it finished the operation, it seems all right: I tried to open some units and flow properties editors and they all worked.
Can you explain what the problem is? And how can I fix it?
Thank you
Sara
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Hi Sara, I had the same question here
http://www.openlca.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21985
So no problems working with the database? I am also wondering what LCIA method to use with the ELCD database. What do you use? Regards
Ludwig
University of Southampton
http://www.openlca.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21985
So no problems working with the database? I am also wondering what LCIA method to use with the ELCD database. What do you use? Regards
Ludwig
University of Southampton
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Dear Sara and ELCD_user,
many thanks for your posts; in short, the ELCD database is not correct. I will try to explain why.
For a test, I created a new database in openLCA...
...imported the ELCDIII database...
...imported the zip archive into openLCA...
...and the import throws errors:
.
Flow properties for radioactive waste (different types) cannot be found.
Checking one of the original process data sets where one of these flows occurs (for example, highly radioactive waste as output, which is a product flow in the ELCD database) ...
...and checking also the flow (we cannot use a browser for this since the links are broken, therefore I use a simple editor) ...
...we see that there are flow properties such as "UBP ecological scarcity" values and "EDIP 1997" values, i.e. impact category results, as a constant property of flows.
These are common in the GaBi modeling environment, which is also indicated by the administrative section of the flow data set:
This is not incorrect of course. When we open the flow property data set of 'UBP ecological scarcity', we see:
And finally, if we follow the unit group referenced in this file, 'Unit of Ecological scarcity - Environmental impact points', we detect that this is missing:
Therefore, due to at least one missing unit group, the import fails.
We have forwarded this as a feedback to JRC, but we have also created a corrected version of the ELCDIII database that can be downloaded for free at the openLCA nexus https://nexus.openlca.org. This database can be imported into openLCA.
Comments welcome!
Andreas
many thanks for your posts; in short, the ELCD database is not correct. I will try to explain why.
For a test, I created a new database in openLCA...
...imported the ELCDIII database...
...imported the zip archive into openLCA...
...and the import throws errors:
.
Flow properties for radioactive waste (different types) cannot be found.
Checking one of the original process data sets where one of these flows occurs (for example, highly radioactive waste as output, which is a product flow in the ELCD database) ...
...and checking also the flow (we cannot use a browser for this since the links are broken, therefore I use a simple editor) ...
...we see that there are flow properties such as "UBP ecological scarcity" values and "EDIP 1997" values, i.e. impact category results, as a constant property of flows.
These are common in the GaBi modeling environment, which is also indicated by the administrative section of the flow data set:
This is not incorrect of course. When we open the flow property data set of 'UBP ecological scarcity', we see:
And finally, if we follow the unit group referenced in this file, 'Unit of Ecological scarcity - Environmental impact points', we detect that this is missing:
Therefore, due to at least one missing unit group, the import fails.
We have forwarded this as a feedback to JRC, but we have also created a corrected version of the ELCDIII database that can be downloaded for free at the openLCA nexus https://nexus.openlca.org. This database can be imported into openLCA.
Comments welcome!
Andreas
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Thanks Andreas for your exhaustive answer!
Though, I have to admit, since I began to use openLCA a few weeks ago, I'm not skilled enough to deeply understand what you so precisely explained. I hope the trainings I'm attending next week will help.
Anyway, I've already downloaded ELCD from nexus some days ago. So, I have to say thanks for having fixed this problem!
In order to answer to Ludwig, as I wrote before, I'm still a very beginners with openLCA. Though, I think there is somehing interesting about LCIA characterisation factors in ILCD format at the bottom of this page (maybe you already knew it) http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment/assessment/data.
Andreas, please, what do you think about these methods? Are they correct and usable?
Thanks to all
Sara
Though, I have to admit, since I began to use openLCA a few weeks ago, I'm not skilled enough to deeply understand what you so precisely explained. I hope the trainings I'm attending next week will help.
Anyway, I've already downloaded ELCD from nexus some days ago. So, I have to say thanks for having fixed this problem!
In order to answer to Ludwig, as I wrote before, I'm still a very beginners with openLCA. Though, I think there is somehing interesting about LCIA characterisation factors in ILCD format at the bottom of this page (maybe you already knew it) http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment/assessment/data.
Andreas, please, what do you think about these methods? Are they correct and usable?
Thanks to all
Sara
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Great that Andreas is looking into this. Much appreciated. I checked and also found that the unit group 'UBP, Ecological scarcity method' with UUID ea76b8b2-9712-4d51-96e8-8cc388273ae9.xml is referenced in 'Highly radioactive waste' but does not exist in the ELCDIII.zip database. I then installed the Nexus plugin and tried to import the following Nexus databases:
1) ELCD_complete.nexuspack (14007568 bytes plain text document it says on my machine)
2) NEEDS_complete.nexuspack (16825250 bytes plain text document)
I couldn't import either of the two: I am using Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64-bit. Best wishes and many thanks
Ludwig
University of Southampton
1) ELCD_complete.nexuspack (14007568 bytes plain text document it says on my machine)
2) NEEDS_complete.nexuspack (16825250 bytes plain text document)
I couldn't import either of the two: I am using Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64-bit. Best wishes and many thanks
Ludwig
University of Southampton
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Sara, were you able to import the corrected ELCD nexus database into openLCA? Regards
Ludwig
Ludwig
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Hello everyone,
please use the ELCDIII database from our openlca Nexus (https://nexus.openlca.org/). It is there available for free but we ask you to register. This database does not have the import issues.
However, you will need to update the nexus plugin, as follows, to avoid the issue Ludwig was running into:
in openLCA, go to settings/plugin manager
If you already have the plugin installed, update it to the newer version:
If you do not have the plugin installed, install it from the plugin manager.
In both cases, you will need to restart openLCA.
You can then import the ELCDIII database
please use the ELCDIII database from our openlca Nexus (https://nexus.openlca.org/). It is there available for free but we ask you to register. This database does not have the import issues.
However, you will need to update the nexus plugin, as follows, to avoid the issue Ludwig was running into:
in openLCA, go to settings/plugin manager
If you already have the plugin installed, update it to the newer version:
If you do not have the plugin installed, install it from the plugin manager.
In both cases, you will need to restart openLCA.
You can then import the ELCDIII database
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Many thanks Andreas. Under the latest Nexus plugin version 1.5 importing Nexus databases is fine. There still is a minor error message, my log file is http://www.soton.ac.uk/~lg1e08/Nexus_log.html
Between the two ELCD versions I noticed differences in the unit groups:
1) Original ELCD database: 20 unit groups
2) NEXUS ELCD database: 6 unit groups
Also, when I looked into the mySQL tables, then
1) Original ELCD database: 1089 rows in tbl_flows
2) NEXUS ELCD database: 1070 rows in tbl_flows
So the Nexus version of the ELCD seems to be different from the original?
Many thanks
Ludwig
University of Southampton
Between the two ELCD versions I noticed differences in the unit groups:
1) Original ELCD database: 20 unit groups
2) NEXUS ELCD database: 6 unit groups
Also, when I looked into the mySQL tables, then
1) Original ELCD database: 1089 rows in tbl_flows
2) NEXUS ELCD database: 1070 rows in tbl_flows
So the Nexus version of the ELCD seems to be different from the original?
Many thanks
Ludwig
University of Southampton
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Out of curiosity I have now looked at all mySQL tables with mySQL query select count(*) from tbl_.... and found 9 tables where there are differences between orginal ELCDIII.zip database and the Nexus pack version:
Why is that? Regards
Ludwig
Ludwig
Re: Problems with ELCD import
Hi Ludwig,
excellent observation, it seems the ELCDIII database was updated recently by JRC, and I think it was not mentioned anywhere. We have now updated also our version at the openLCA nexus, https://nexus.openlca.org. I only corrected obvious errors but did not change the content otherwise (you may wonder why a product flow has a certain LCIA impact as a flow property, independent of any goal and scope setting, but this is the ELCD database content).
Thanks again and all the best,
Andreas
excellent observation, it seems the ELCDIII database was updated recently by JRC, and I think it was not mentioned anywhere. We have now updated also our version at the openLCA nexus, https://nexus.openlca.org. I only corrected obvious errors but did not change the content otherwise (you may wonder why a product flow has a certain LCIA impact as a flow property, independent of any goal and scope setting, but this is the ELCD database content).
Thanks again and all the best,
Andreas
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