What happens if I import the database twice?

Question

I am importing all ecoinvent 3.5 (apos, consequential, etc.) databases into one ecoinvent 3.5 database. I am not sure if I imported one of the databases. So what happens if I import them twice?

I also noticed that some process in both lci and apos databases are identical, although the UUID are different. I am concerned if the importing feature identifies these process as a unique process and avoid duplication.

Answer 1

The result depends on how you import, from which starting format. In JSON-LD, you can select whether new elements should overwrite old elements, be added as copy, or not imported.

That aside, it is not a good idea to have all ecoinvent system models in one database, as they contain the same process datasets (with only some few different processes) but with a different modeling idea; mixing them in one of your models will make the model inconsistent. We have configured the databases so that the processes are not mixed in the linking algorithm, but when you yourself create the foreground model then you will really need to pay attention.

Hth, best wishes

Comments

Thank you for your answer. I will pay more attention while mixing different models into one, now that I know that it may cause inconsistency. However, I can see by the process name which model it is built on (APOS, Cutt-Off and Consequential). It is also easy to see the difference between unit process and system process. My concern is when I am importing zolca files. I may have imported one file twice, so I am not sure if it is duplicating the processes because there is no differentiation between the regionalised and non-regionalised process. Although the differences are only for the flows, right?