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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Dec 30.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Life Cycle Assess. 2024 Mar 12;29:789–802. doi: 10.1007/s11367-024-02286-x

Table 4.

Match types for sub-compartments, flow name, and elementary flows implemented in the mapping tool

Match type label Match type description Note
NO_FLOW_MATCH_MANUAL The source elementary flow is not mapped in the target list to prevent it from being considered by the tool and potentially leading to incorrect mapping entries Elementary flows are required in case a specific flow should not be matched for specific compartments but can find matches in other proxy compartments
ONE2MANY_FLOW_MANUAL The source elementary flow corresponds to at least two flows in the target list In this project, it was used for IDEA land transformation flows which include “from” and “to” in one single flow, while in other systems, “from” and “to” are listed as two separate flows
ONE2ONE_FLOW_MANUAL The elementary source flow corresponds to one single flow in the target list Groups of flows that do not match with automatic criteria (e.g., by CAS, name or synonyms) or for which the criteria can lead to mismatches (e.g., carbon dioxide having the same CAS irrespective of list-specific differentiations based on the source of the carbon, i.e., biogenic, fossil, etc.)
FLOWNAME_MANUAL Only flow names (flow name) in the source and target flow lists are considered The match of the context is resolved by DEFAULT_CONTEXT_MATCH or by PROXY_CONTEXT_MATCH. The source side shall include each flow only once, while the target list can contain multiple entries for the same flow
FLOWNAME_MANUAL_PROXY Applied when a better proxy is not captured by other iterations, e.g., via automatic CAS match or FLOWNAME_MANUAL (Low-rank matches) It is only applied after the other checks and linking steps in the mapping script. It is meant for matches that have a lower quality rank, e.g., specific substances to a group of substances (for example a specific chemical to “pesticides unspecified” or a specific hydrocarbon to “hydrocarbons unspecified”)
DEFAULT_CONTEXT_MATCH Match of default or primary proxy of compartments/sub-compartments (flow contexts) for a given combination of source and target lists This table establishes the exact match or the best proxy available for each entry from the source to the target list
PROXY_CONTEXT_MATCH Specification of secondary context proxies, where applicable It allows for more than one suitable or relevant context in the target list to be considered by the mapping script. Secondary context proxies are sorted hierarchically according to proximity to the source list
CAS Identical source and target CAS number Match automatically executed
NAME Identical source and target flow name Match automatically executed
SYNONYM_TO_NAME One of the synonyms of the source matches one of the names of the target Match automatically executed
NAME_TO_SYNONYM The name of the source matches one of the synonyms of the target Match automatically executed
SECOND_CAS Either the main CAS or one of the secondary CAS matches with either the primary or one of the secondary CAS in the target (main to main CAS is already resolved in the “CAS” case, thus is excluded from this check) Match automatically executed