Which is the unit of social flows in Soca database processes?

Question

Hi,

I suppose that the unit of social flows in the Soca (Ecoinvent) database processes is always working hours. It appears that way in some processes ("h"), but the unit is missing in some others.

See image below:

Is it always assumed that the unit is "h"?

Thanks,

Gorka

Answer 1

I did some tries with different explicit units, and it seems that the assumed unit is "a", annum, year.

I rectify. I noticed something very strange. In the documentation, it is said that the active variable for all social flows is working hours. In that case, the unit should be hours.

This is coherent with the results, but only to some extent. When an analysis is performed, in the results I obtain, for example, the following:

A rate of fatal accidents, very high risk, is converted to med FA risk hours multiplying by 100 (I agree with that), but there is an "a" next to the working hours (very high risk) which totally misleads me. It cannot be "annum". Actually, if I change the flow unit to explicitly "h", then the total hours are divided by 8760 (a year), and the result is not correct.

So it seems that "a" for every activity variable in social flows should be taken as "h", but if I explicitly mark the unit as "h", then the result is divided by 8760.

Please give me some light, because it seems that the software should be corrected.

(I tried with both 1.6 and 1.7 versions, in linux, and both seem to have the same problem)

Comments

@gbm
I am facing a similar issue with the calculation.
Did you happen to convert successfully into hours, eventually?

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@pansumesh
I'm working now in another project with socaV2 on openLCA2.1 and that problem with the units seems to have been corrected.
Now units appear in the Inputs/Outputs section of the Process, and when impact results are calculated in the Product system, everything seems correct. If the unit in the process is changed from h to a, impact results (given in h) are correctly multiplied by 8765 (hours in a year).
I detected some interesting point, I would be grateful if someone could verify this:
The calculation of social impacts of a process is completely determined by the "amount" written in the corresponding output flow in the Inputs/Outputs section, and independent of the "Activity variable" amount that appears in the Social aspects section. This value seems not to have any influence in the calculation. This fact is helpful, as this value does not accept formulas. Maybe it should be removed?