randonneur 0.1

Library to apply flexible changes to datasets

randonneur

Keep moving forward.

Randonneur is a library to make changes to life cycle inventory databases. You can use it to re-link your data to the latest version of a background database, to update existing databases with new data, or to perform other data transformations. Randonneur uses JSON files to describe these changes; contrast this with wurst, which can do these manipulations and more, but documents its manipulations in code.

Although designed to work with Brightway, this library is not Brightway-specific.

Usage

Generic usage pattern

• Load a randonneur data migration file, normally from randonneur_data using randonneur_data.Registry().get_file()
• Load an inventory database, normally in the common Brightway inventory format
• Apply the data transformation using either migrate_edges or migrate_nodes, optionally specifying the fields used for matching the transformation data, any mappings necessary to make the transformation data schema fit into your data schema, what filters should be applied to the input data (if any), and which verbs (create, replace, update, delete, or disaggregate) you want to apply
• Save the modified data

Data format

Migration data is specified in a JSON file as a single dictionary. This file must include the following keys:

• name: Follows the data package specification.
• licenses: Follows the data package specification. Must be a list.
• version: Follows the data package specification. Must be a string.
• contributors: Follows the data package specification. Must be a list.
• mapping: A dictionary mapping the labels used in the transformation
• graph_context: A list with either the string 'nodes', 'edges', or both. The context in which these transformations should be used.

In addition, the following properties should follow the data package specification if provided:

• description
• sources
• homepage
• created

You can specify the following optional attributes:

• source_id: An identifier for the source dataset following the common identifier standard. Useful if the source data is specific.
• target_id: An identifier for the target dataset following the common identifier standard. Useful if the target data is specific.

Finally, at least one change type should be included. The change types are:

• create
• replace
• update
• delete
• disaggregate

Here are some examples:

{
  "name": "ecoinvent-3.9.1-biosphere-ecoinvent-3.10-biosphere",
  "description": "Data migration file from ecoinvent-3.9.1-biosphere to ecoinvent-3.10-biosphere generated with `ecoinvent_migrate` version 0.2.0",
  "contributors": [
    {
      "title": "ecoinvent association",
      "path": "https://ecoinvent.org/",
      "role": "author"
    },
    {
      "title": "Chris Mutel",
      "path": "https://chris.mutel.org/",
      "role": "wrangler"
    }
  ],
  "created": "2024-07-24T11:38:11.144509+00:00",
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "licenses": [
    {
      "name": "CC BY 4.0",
      "path": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
      "title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International"
    }
  ],
  "graph_context": [
    "edges"
  ],
  "mapping": {
    "source": {
      "expression language": "XPath",
      "labels": {
        "name": "//*:elementaryExchange/*:name/text()",
        "unit": "//*:elementaryExchange/*:unitName/text()",
        "uuid": "//*:elementaryExchange/@elementaryExchangeId"
      }
    },
    "target": {
      "expression language": "XPath",
      "labels": {
        "name": "//*:elementaryExchange/*:name/text()",
        "unit": "//*:elementaryExchange/*:unitName/text()",
        "uuid": "//*:elementaryExchange/@elementaryExchangeId"
      }
    }
  },
  "source_id": "ecoinvent-3.9.1-biosphere",
  "target_id": "ecoinvent-3.10-biosphere",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/brightway-lca/ecoinvent_migrate",
  "replace": [
    {
      "source": {
        "uuid": "90a94ea5-bca4-483d-a591-2e886c0ff47f",
        "name": "TiO2, 54% in ilmenite, 18% in crude ore"
      },
      "target": {
        "uuid": "2f033407-6060-4e1e-868c-9f362d10fdb2",
        "name": "Titanium"
      },
      "allocation": 0.599,
      "comment": "To be modelled as pure elements, the titanium content of titanium dioxide is 0.599."
    }
  ]
}

{
  "name": "simapro-ecoinvent-3.10-cutoff",
  "description": "Data migration file from SimaPro 9 to ecoinvent-3.10-cutoff generated by PRé and provided via request at https://support.simapro.com/s/contactsupport",
  "contributors": [
    {
      "title": "PRé",
      "path": "https://pre-sustainability.com/",
      "role": "author"
    },
    {
      "title": "Chris Mutel",
      "path": "https://chris.mutel.org/",
      "role": "wrangler"
    }
  ],
  "created": "2024-07-24T10:37:28.350572+00:00",
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "licenses": [
    {
      "name": "CC BY 4.0",
      "path": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
      "title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International"
    }
  ],
  "graph_context": [
    "edges"
  ],
  "mapping": {
    "source": {
      "expression language": "like JSONPath",
      "labels": {
        "identifier": "Process[*].\"Process identifier\".text",
        "name": "Process[*].Products[*].text[0]",
        "platform_id": "Process[*].\"Platform Identifier\""
      }
    },
    "target": {
      "expression language": "XPath",
      "labels": {
        "filename": "concat(//*:activity/@id, '_', //*:intermediateExchange[*:outputGroup = '0' and @amount > 0]/@intermediateExchangeId, '.spold')",
        "name": "//*:activityName/text()",
        "location": "//*:geography/*:shortname/text()",
        "reference product": "//*:intermediateExchange[*:outputGroup = '0' and @amount > 0]/*:name/text()",
        "unit": "//*:intermediateExchange[*:outputGroup = '0' and @amount > 0]/*:unitName/text()"
      }
    }
  },
  "source_id": "SimaPro-9",
  "target_id": "ecoinvent-3.10-cutoff",
  "replace": [
    {
      "source": {
        "identifier": "EI3ARUNI000011519620702",
        "name": "Sawnwood, azobe, dried (u=15%), planed {RER}| market for sawnwood, azobe, dried (u=15%), planed | Cut-off, U",
        "platform_id": "FE069A7D-BB64-4A2E-8B1B-12960BE28887"
      },
      "target": {
        "filename": "151e46e9-70f3-58de-80b3-eb79a90036b0_148b552a-c50b-465e-84f7-367bda16f04a.spold",
        "name": "market for sawnwood, azobe, dried (u=15%), planed",
        "location": "RER",
        "reference product": "sawnwood, azobe, dried (u=15%), planed",
        "unit": "m3"
      }
    }
  ]
}

{
    "name": "generic-brightway-units-normalization",
    "description": "Standard units normalization used in most Brightway projects",
    "contributors": [
        {"title": "Chris Mutel", "path": "https://chris.mutel.org/", "role": "author"}
    ],
    "created": "2024-07-25T06:47:10.575370+00:00",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "licenses": [
        {
            "name": "CC BY 4.0",
            "path": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
            "title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International",
        }
    ],
    "graph_context": ["nodes", "edges"],
    "mapping": {
        "source": {"expression language": "JSONPath", "labels": {"unit": "Node.unit"}},
        "target": {"expression language": "JSONPath", "labels": {"unit": "Node.unit"}},
    },
    "source_id": "bw_interfaces_schemas-1",
    "target_id": "bw_interfaces_schemas-1",
    "homepage": "https://github.com/brightway-lca/bw_interface_schemas",
    "replace": [
        {"source": {"unit": "a"}, "target": {"unit": "year"}},
        {"source": {"unit": "h"}, "target": {"unit": "hour"}},
        {"source": {"unit": "ha"}, "target": {"unit": "hectare"}},
        {"source": {"unit": "hr"}, "target": {"unit": "hour"}},
        {"source": {"unit": "kg"}, "target": {"unit": "kilogram"}},
    ],
}

You can use randonneur.Datapackage to ensure correct formatting and serialization.

See the randonneur_data repo for more real-world implementations.

Common database release identifier standard

At Brightcon 2022 we developed the following simple format for common database release identifiers:

<database name>-<version>-<optional modifier>

Here are some examples:

• agribalyse-3.1.1
• forwast-1
• ecoinvent-3.10-cutoff
• SimaPro-9-biosphere

Theory

In normal life cycle assessment practice, we work with a large variety of software and database applications, and often need to harmonize data across these heterogeneous systems. Because many of these systems do not use simple unique identifiers, we often need to link across systems based on attibutes. For example, if the name, location, and unit of an input are the same in system A and B, then we can infer that these refer to the same underlying concept.

In the real world nothing is so simple. Each player in the LCA data world is trying to give their users a positive experience, but over time this has led to many different terms for the same concept. Some legacy systems restrictions also prevent complete imports, and cause data transformations that are difficult to reverse engineer.

This library defines both a specification for transformation data files which allow different systems to be linked together by harmonizing the matching attributes, and a software-agnostic implementation of functions needed to use that format.

Foot-guns

Transformations

Replace

Replacement substitutes an exchange one-to-one; as such, the new exchange must be completely defined. However, the amount should not be specified; rather, an allocation factor should be given, and the amount of the original exchange will be multiplied by allocation.

If allocation is not given, a default value of 1.0 is used.

Aside from the quantitative values, no other data from the original exchange is taken over to the new exchange. If you only want to change a few fields, use an update instead. If you don't want the exchange amount re-scaled, use a combination of delete and create.

The data format for replace type is:

{
    "replace": [{
        "source": {
            # All fields needed to identify the exchange to be replaced
        },
        "target": {
            # All fields needed to define the new exchange
        },
        # `dataset` is optional
        "dataset": {
            # All fields needed to identify the dataset to change
        }
    }]
}

Update

update changes attributes the same way that replace does - the only difference is that replace shows the intent to refer to a new object instead of an existing object with different attributes. Given the messiness of real-world data, there is no real bright line between these concepts, and their code implementation is identical.

Create

Creates a new edge or node.

Because we are specifying a new exchange, we need to list all information needed to define an exchange, including the exchange amount. This is different than the other modification types, where relative amounts are given with the key allocation. We can't give relative amounts here because we have no exchange to refer to, and we don't have a surefire way to identify the reference production exchange (and there might not be one in any case).

If you want to add an exchange to all datasets:

{
    "create": [{
        "targets": [{
            # All fields needed to define an exchange
        }]
    }]
}

If you only want to create an exchange in one dataset:

{
    "create": [{
        "targets": [{
            # All fields needed to define an exchange
        }],
        "dataset": {
            # All fields needed to identify the dataset
        }
    }]
}

dataset must be a dict, not a list; it can only identify one dataset.

Note that in the wurst format, dataset use the key reference product while exchanges use the key product; these are two different concepts, so have different keys.

Delete

Delete exchanges. Follows the same patterns as replace and update:

{
    "delete": [{
        "source": {
            # All fields needed to identify the exchange to be deleted
        },
        # `dataset` is optional
        "dataset": {
            # All fields needed to identify the dataset to change
        }
    }]
}

Disaggregate

Disaggregation is splitting one exchange into many. The allocation field is used to determine how much of the exchange passes to each new exchange.

The new exchanges start as copies of the original exchange, and are updating using the additional data provided. In other words, this functions more like an update than a replace. This is because the most common use case for disaggregation is to split one input or output among several regions, where almost all metadata for the child exchanges would be identical.

allocation fields do not have to sum to one.

The data format includes a list of new exchanges for each matched source:

{
    "disaggregate": [{
        "source": {
            # All fields needed to identify the exchange to be disaggregated
        },
        "targets": [{
            # Some fields which you want to change
        }],
        # `dataset` is optional
        "dataset": {
            # All fields needed to identify the dataset to change
        }
    }]
}

Contributing

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

License

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

Issues

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