Cost year in openLCA?

Question

Hi,

This might be the wrong section to post this question, so feel free to move it. I didn`t know where to put it.
I am trying to use the ecoinvent v3.3 database for an LCA and added value assessment and also couple the foreground system to the relevant sectors in SHDB. This is very difficult when there is no information on which year the cost information refers to?

In SHDB it is clear that the monetary values are in USD 2002.
How are the values in openLCA-ecoinvent v3.3 dealt with internally?
Are they automatically converted to reflect the year of the reference currency (which would be very practical since USD 2002 is among them), or do I have to know which year the cost is specified for and use a currency converter and GDP deflator to convert it to USD 2002 myself?

i can not find any information about this in any document, so please add that to the ecoinvent in openLCA document at least.

Thank you

Comments

Oh, I just saw the description in the currency itself. It does say 2015 there.
I don`t know how I missed it. Sorry.
It would still be good if it was specified somewhere in the documentation though.
Furthermore information on which year the actual cost was collected would be highly valuable in order to judge the relevance of it.
Another improvement suggestion is that you add value year information to both the name and the code of the currency. As in: US dollar 2015 and USD 2015.
That would make it clear which the value year is, both in the editor panes and in the currency list.

Answer 1

Thank you Niclas, I think these are good suggestions.
We do currently not convert the currencies across years beyond what you see in the tab for each currency, for reasons of simplicity, also because we thought there is not too much interest in a broader currency conversion. But of course the names can be adjusted to make the year more clear.
Thanks again!
Andreas