Wesley W Ingwersen1, Ezra Kahn2, Joyce Cooper3. 1. US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, USA. 2. National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, USA. 3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: New platforms are emerging that enable more data providers to publish life cycle inventory data. BACKGROUND: Providing datasets that are not complete LCA models results in fragments that are difficult for practitioners to integrate and use for LCA modeling. Additionally, when proxies are used to provide a technosphere input to a process that was not originally intended by the process authors, in most LCA software this requires modifying the original process. RESULTS: The use of a bridge process, which is a process created to link two existing processes, is proposed as a solution. DISCUSSION: Benefits to bridge processes include increasing model transparency, facilitating dataset sharing and integration without compromising original dataset integrity and independence, providing a structure with which to make the data quality associated with process linkages explicit, and increasing model flexibility in the case that multiple bridges are provided. A drawback is that they add additional processes to existing LCA models which will increase their size. CONCLUSION: Bridge processes can be an enabler in allowing users to integrate new datasets without modifying them to link to background databases or other processes they have available. They may not be the ideal long-term solution, but provide a solution that works within the existing LCA data model.
INTRODUCTION: New platforms are emerging that enable more data providers to publish life cycle inventory data. BACKGROUND: Providing datasets that are not complete LCA models results in fragments that are difficult for practitioners to integrate and use for LCA modeling. Additionally, when proxies are used to provide a technosphere input to a process that was not originally intended by the process authors, in most LCA software this requires modifying the original process. RESULTS: The use of a bridge process, which is a process created to link two existing processes, is proposed as a solution. DISCUSSION: Benefits to bridge processes include increasing model transparency, facilitating dataset sharing and integration without compromising original dataset integrity and independence, providing a structure with which to make the data quality associated with process linkages explicit, and increasing model flexibility in the case that multiple bridges are provided. A drawback is that they add additional processes to existing LCA models which will increase their size. CONCLUSION: Bridge processes can be an enabler in allowing users to integrate new datasets without modifying them to link to background databases or other processes they have available. They may not be the ideal long-term solution, but provide a solution that works within the existing LCA data model.
Entities:
Keywords:
LCI publishing; crosswalks; data interoperability; data sharing; process linking; proxy
Authors: Brandon Kuczenski; Chris Mutel; Michael Srocka; Kelly Scanlon; Wesley Ingwersen Journal: Int J Life Cycle Assess Date: 2021 Impact factor: 4.141