Guidebook - QDB (Quantity Database)

Guidebook - QDB (Quantity Database)

The Quantity Database (QDB) is Antelope’s system for managing LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) characterization factors, flowables, and environmental contexts. It provides a unified interface for querying and analyzing impact assessment data from multiple sources.

Overview

The QDB aggregates LCIA methods, flowables, and contexts from various databases into a single queryable system. This allows you to:

  • Search for characterization factors across multiple LCIA methods
  • Explore flowable synonyms and alternative names
  • Navigate context hierarchies (environmental compartments)
  • Compare impact assessment methods
  • Build custom LCIA analyses

Key Concepts

Flowables

Flowables represent flows of materials or energy in life cycle inventories. Examples include:

  • Carbon dioxide (CO2)
  • Electricity
  • Water
  • Nitrogen oxides (NOx)

The QDB tracks synonyms and alternative names for flowables across different databases.

Contexts

Contexts represent environmental compartments or locations where flows occur. Examples include:

  • emission/air
  • emission/water/ground water
  • resource/in ground

Contexts are hierarchical, with parent-child relationships (e.g., “air” contains “urban air” and “rural air”).

Quantities

Quantities in the QDB represent LCIA methods and impact categories. Examples include:

  • TRACI 2.1: Global Warming
  • ReCiPe 2016: Acidification
  • IPCC 2013: Climate Change (GWP 100)

Each quantity has associated characterization factors that link flowables and contexts to impact values.

Using QDB

Web Interface

The QDB Dash application provides a user-friendly web interface for exploring and analyzing the QDB. It allows you to:

  • Search for flowables, contexts, and quantities
  • View detailed information about each entity
  • Build selections and run analyses
  • Export results in multiple formats

See the QDB Dash documentation for complete usage instructions.

Python API

(Documentation coming soon - programmatic access to QDB through the Antelope catalog system)

Data Sources

The QDB can integrate data from various sources:

  • LCIA method packages: openLCA methods, TRACI, etc.
  • Flow lists: Federal Commons flow list, ecoinvent flows
  • Custom databases: Local or organization-specific LCIA data

Configuration of data sources is handled through the Antelope catalog system.

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