Relinking file and report

[bsteubing]

What do you want to report?

In the new relinking procedure, it would be great if:

1. the user could supply an Excel/CSV file for the relinking of those exchanges that are not a 1:1 match (the unlinked)
2. the user could get a relinking report at the end of the process that transparently describes how each exchange has been relinked (I suggest this is the same file structure as in 1) )

More thoughts on 1):

• I imagine a button "use relinking file" (or similar) to load a spreadsheet that contains the information for the automated relinking. The user can define whether the scope of the relinking is limited to a) unlinked exchanges only or b) all exchanges (providing also the possibility to relink 1:1 matches for experimental databases)
• file structure: left side "old exchange", right side "new exchange". Each side consists of the columns we use in the superstructure format, i.e. product name, process name, geography, unit, database, and code.
• the algorithm for the relinking based on the relinking file is roughly as follows: for each unlinked exchange (or each exchange depending on the user choice) try to find that exchange on the left side of the file/table. Then try to use the exchange on the right side of the same row as the new exchange. If successful, go to the next exchange, if not, keep that exchange unlinked (for the user to manually relink afterwards). After finishing the automated relinking, the list of unlinked exchanges may be partially or completely reduced.

More thoughts on 2):

• By default the relinking report lists only the exchanges that have been relinked (not those that are equal before/after), but the user should get the option to also get the full file with all exchanges
• this file is super useful as it can serve as a recipe for the next relinking; e.g. if the user wants to import that database again, he does not have to go through all of the manual relinking again, but can simply use this file. Or he can use that file for another database as a basis to make the manual work shorter

Final remarks:

• we know of Randonneur (https://github.com/brightway-lca/randonneur). Possibly in the future we could build upon that. But I hesitate a bit as the suggestions above are very simple and do not require to build upon a way more complex framework and yet another library.
• users can reformat ecoinvent correspondence files or premise correspondence files to match our format. In the future we may offer refined functionality that accepts these formats

Relevant errors

Version

No response

Installation method

PyPI (pip)

Operating system

Windows 11