ISO 14048
Environmental management —
Life cycle assessment — Data
documentation format
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E)
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E) Introduction
•
This Technical Specification provides a framework and requirements for the
unambiguous documentation of Life Cycle Inventory analysis (LCI) data.
Following the general framework for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), laid down
in ISO 14040, and the requirements and guidance on LCI, provided in ISO
14041, this specification intends to support a transparent reporting,
interpretation and review of data collection, data calculation, data quality
and data reporting, as well as facilitating data exchange. This Technical
Specification supports LCA use and development, and is aimed primarily for
data suppliers, LCA practitioners and LCA information system developers.
•
The data documentation format facilitates the reporting of LCI data and
compliance with the requirements from ISO 14040 and ISO 14041 on data
collection, data documentation and data quality. It also facilitates
interpretation of LCI data as described in ISO 14043. In addition, the data
documentation format allows the documentation and use of important
information for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), ISO 14042, including
environmental information, environment condition and location.
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E) Documentation Format
ISO 14048 INPUT CELL 1.1.3.2
ISO 14048 File View
ISO 14048
QUANTITATIVE
REFERENCE
DESCRIPTION CLASS
Name
ISO 15926 Product Model (Ontology)
1.1.3.2
class_of_relationship_with_signature
ISO 14048
ANNEX B ROW ?????
ISO 14048
ANNEX BCOLUMN ????
ISO 14048
Field Reference 1.1.3.2
ISO 14048
QUANTITATIVE
REFERENCE NAME
Class
ISO 9000 PROCESS
Superclass
Template
Instances
Member
Net production of electricity
#1
MY ACTUAL
REFERENCE
#3(#1-#2)
Subclass
1 KWH POWER GENERATION
#2
Qualifier
ISO 14048 PROCESS DESCRIPTION CLASS
Qualified
ISO 14048 PROCESS DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 9000
PROCESS
class_of_class_of_identification
EXPRESS_string
pattern
ACC#
represented
ISO 14048 PROCESS NAME
Qualifier
ISO 9000 PROCESS QUALIFICATIONS
ISO 14048 PROCESS DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 PROCESS CLASSIFICATION CLASS
ISO 14048 QUANTITATIVE REFERENCE DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 TECHNOLOGY DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 9000
PROCESS ACC#
ISO 14048 INTERMEDIATE PRODUCT FLOW REFERENCE CLASS
Quqlification_of_class
Qualified
ISO 14048 PROCESS CONTENT REFERENCE CLASS
ISO 14048 MATHEMATICAL MODEL DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 VALID TIME SPAN DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 VALID GEOGRAPHY DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 DATA AQUISITION DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 SAMPLE VOLUME DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 RELATED EXTERNAL SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT IDENTIFICATION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT PROPERTY DOCUMENTATION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT AMOUNT DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION PARAMETER DEFINITION CLASS
ISO 14048 MATHEMATICAL RELATION DESCRIPTION CLASS
ISO 14048 INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA DOCUMENTATION CLASS
These class instances represent the headings of the table in Annex A
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E) Nomenclatures
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E) Nomenclature Ontology
ISO/TS 14048:2002(E) Summary
• The complete document content, not the layout and
structure, has been mapped
• Can be mapped to tabular and, preferably, to XML
representations
• All required ISO 14040 series concepts have been
included in the RDL
• All ISO 14048 defined terms have been included in the
ontology
• All ISO 14048 Nomenclatures have been mapped, both
at document content level and as an ontology
• A prototype has been developed
• An ISO 9000 Product Model has been developed
• All required ISO 14048 RDL items are available and
ready for use
EU LCA InfoHub
• A useful set of LCA data
– somewhat sparse – but an pilot which can extended
– material products and energy products
– generic data for typical products
• Contents defined by ISO 14048 Environmental
management — Life cycle assessment — Data
documentation format
• Contents represented according to the ELCD (European
Life Cycle Database) XML schema
– a concrete implementation of ISO 14048
What ISO 14048 is about
zinc
steel rebar
reference flow
what
0.0027 kg
how
much
input flow 1
what
output flow 1
source
how
much
destination
input
output
resources
technosphere
make 1kg of
steel rebar
water
input
what
3.8 kg
1 kg
how
much
chromium
output
input flow 2
output flow 2
input
source
what
output
how
much
9.5E-7 kg
destination
rivers
atmosphere
input flow 3
output flow 3
What ISO 14048 is about
•
ISO 14048 is about processes
•
For a “unit magnitude process” the flows are specified:
–
–
–
–
–
•
to the process from
to the process from
from the process to
from the process to
the environment (e.g. use of fresh water)
resources (e.g. use of minerals)
disposal (e.g. solid waste)
the environment (e.g. emissions to water systems or the atmosphere)
The “unit magnitude” is defined by a reference flow:
–
–
–
•
perhaps the process of making a product
output of 1 discrete manufactured item
output of 1 kg of material
output of 1 kWh of electricity
There is lots of meta-data
–
–
–
Where the information came from
Time period of validity
Geographic region of validity
Mode of publication
• HTML documents
– derived from XML representation by XSLT
– XML documents also have HTTP URIs, but they are not linked
• The LCA data base as a huge ZIP file
– Unzip to get a directory of XML files for each technical domain
– XSLT transforms to HTML are also provided
• Support for both:
– Computer processing of XML
– Display of XML to people as HTML
Life cycle phases
Mode of publication
URI of data set about the process - Steel rebar manufacture:
http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/processes/
Steel_rebar_Eurofer_268a11fb-baf2-4b9e-8867-38bea0e76ef6_01.00.001.xml
URI of data set about the flow - CO2 to air:
http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flows/
Carbon_dioxide_Emissions_to_air_8864ce84-9967-11da-a72b-0800200c9a66_01.00.001.xml
URI of data set about the flow - Steel rebar to technosphere:
http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flows/
Steel_Rebar_Materials_e0e06e45-28a5-4c5e-af18-616253bd4ac5_01.00.001.xml
URI of data set about the property - mass:
http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flowproperties/
Mass_93a60a56-a3c8-11da-a746-0800200b9a66_01.00.001.xml
Mode of publication
Some comments
• URIs are of data sets not things
– This is Web 1.0 practice
– For Web 2.0, the objects are identified
• Dereference the object to get information in different formats
• The product classes (or data sets about them) do not have URIs
– “Steel rebar” is just text
– CO2 is identified by CAS number
• URIs are unmemorable – HTTP domain + UUID + version
A future scenario
•
Good environmental practice means that companies provide LCA
data for products
•
Two choices for a company:
1.
provide audited LCA data
2.
relate product to one of the classes of product for which LCA is
available
–
•
Classes defined on the Web and identified by URIs
It is much easier for a company to implement choice 1, if its
suppliers either provide LCA data or classify their products
A future scenario
supply x
LCA data from
analysis of supply
supply 1
product
LCA data from
analysis of supply
supply y
supply 2
supply z
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
class A
class B
class C
class D
classes of supply with LCA data – LCA catalogues linked to industrial catalogues
class D