Consulting and research
Social LCA: NotebookEstablishment of a Continuous Life Cycle Inventory Database Registry
Project goal
The project 'Establishment of a Continuous Life Cycle Inventory Database Registry' aims to develop and maintain a registry of databases worldwide, in a long-term perspective. Aim of the registry is very basic:
Connect life cycle data users with life cycle data providers, and create in the long term a market place for life cycle data that allows users find the best suitable (and therefore best quality) data, and that allows data providers across the world to get into contact with users, worldwide.
The registry shall be open and easily available for LCA scientists and practitioners worldwide, and shall provide information on available life cycle data sources in general as well as on content and quality of the sources as good as ever possible.
Project description
The project is part of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, and extends and continues a previous database registry project running from 2004-2006. The UNEP/SETAC database registry will apply a flexible access scheme. There will be no mandatory access level. First, every data provider is free to choose whether to join the registry or not. Second, every data provider can decide about the possible level of detail that is made available to the registry. An initial decision can be revised later on.
There will be no rules that force data providers to reveal all key information. But a demand from users to see key information from data providers will motivate data providers to reveal information even if this is not mandatory.
There will be no rules to prevent users to look only for a specific kind of data. This prevents the registry from assuming a superior knowledge of what data sets users indeed require, and from limiting the freedom of users. Advice will be provided though as best as possible.
This principle of the registry can be put as ?beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder?. This principle reflects perfectly the ISO standards understanding of data quality:
ISO 14040 defines data quality as
'characteristics of data that relate to their ability to satisfy stated requirements?; [..] Transferred to the task of the database registry this means that it is not an absolute property of a data set to be of high or low quality. Rather, data quality is result of properties of a data set and of what users require from the data set'.
The working mode of the registry therefore perfectly matches the ISO concept of data quality.
Technical aspects
The registry is located on a web server, accessible via an own domain, http://lca-data.org/. Users can get in contact with the registry via an internet browser. The website has two main sections: For one, it provides a search site similar to a Google site, with a simple search and a configurable search. Second, the site provides a repository of resources, including data stock, pages of individual data providers, and pages of potential moderators for the registry.
Data is stored on the server if possible; version numbers are used to ensure consistency. Links to the origins of the data are provided as well, as far as possible. If data cannot be uploaded onto the server, the link to the origins of the data is the way to guide users to these data.
Time period
since 2007
Commissioner/Cooperation partner
The project is financed by German ministries of environment and research and education, and is conducted by GreenDeltaTC (project lead) in cooperation with Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and UNEP.
Resources
http://lca-data.org/http://www.lca-data.org/