Hello-
I received a copy of a database that I am harmonizing to a new elementary flow list and am mapping some technosphere flows to new background data sources. I noticed that during flow mapping, units are being converted to the reference unit that is specified for the target flow. This is true even when the target flow has flow properties corresponding to the unit specified in the source flow (but they aren't selected as the reference). As another example, if an exchange value is specified in grams, but the target flow has a reference unit of kg, the exchange value and units will be converted to kg. Is this the intended functionality? Such conversions do not seem necessary unless the target flow does not have a unit flow property that matches the source flow.
This behavior would not be my preference in some situations. For example, when it would be useful for transparency to have exchange values in specific units so that they clearly match what is present in a source document. I also often find myself working in databases that I did not create, and in some cases, the flow property tab of elementary flows contains incorrect conversions. In such instances, the conversion following flow mapping will lead to incorrect values. If I need to flow map extensively, this puts me into a situation where I feel that I need to check all the potentially affected flow property conversions, which could be quite laborious.
I feel that these examples demonstrate that unnecessary unit conversions during flow mapping have the potential to cause issues that are difficult to identify. Perhaps there are reasons that this is necessary that I am not thinking of. I would be interested in others thoughts.
Thank you!
