dynamic_characterization

This is a package for the dynamic characterization of Life Cycle Inventories with temporal information. It includes a collection of dynamic characterization functions for various environmental flows. We also provide a simple interface to apply these functions to an existing dynamic LCI (coming from, e.g., bw_temporalis, bw_timex or optimex.

The following dynamic characterization functions are currently included:

Installation

$ pip install dynamic-characterization

The same thing with uv is uv add dynamic-characterization, and with conda conda install -c conda-forge -c diepers dynamic_characterization. See the installation guide for the details.

Quick start

You bring a dynamic inventory - a DataFrame of date, amount, flow, activity, one row per emission at one point in time - and say which metric you want:

from dynamic_characterization import characterize
from dynamic_characterization.ipcc_ar6 import characterize_co2, characterize_ch4

df_characterized = characterize(
    dynamic_inventory_df,
    metric="radiative_forcing",  # or GWP, pGWP, pGTP, prospective_radiative_forcing
    characterization_functions={1: characterize_co2, 3: characterize_ch4},
    time_horizon=100,
)

Each function turns one row of the inventory into the characterized time series it causes, so the result carries a value per point in time rather than a single score.

If you work with Brightway, pass an impact assessment method as base_lcia_method instead of the function dictionary, and the flows it characterizes are matched to our functions automatically, by name or CAS number.

Documentation

The full documentation is at dynamic-characterization.readthedocs.io:

• Usage - the workflow in full, and every metric you can ask for
• Prospective characterization - scenario-based characterization factors: choosing an IAM-SSP-RCP scenario, the IPCC fallback for unsupported GHGs, and scenario-dependent radiative efficiency and CO2 impulse response
• Examples - the demo notebooks, rendered
• API reference - including how to write your own characterization function

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome. To learn more, see the Contributor Guide.

License

Distributed under the terms of the BSD 3-Clause license, dynamic_characterization is free and open source software.

Issues

If you encounter any problems, please file an issue along with a detailed description.

Support

If you have any questions or need help, do not hesitate to contact Timo Diepers (timo.diepers@ltt.rwth-aachen.de)