Contexts

Source	Its compartment	Consensus context	Why
bafu-2026-v1	economic issues → unspecified	Economic econ	—
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → high. pop.	Environmental → Air → Ground level → Urban (>1000 people/square mile) envi-air-grle-ur10pesq	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Airborne emissions / high. pop.'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → indoor	Environmental → Air → Indoor envi-air-indr-unkn	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Airborne emissions / indoor'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → low. pop.	Environmental → Air → Medium stack, <150 meters → Rural (<1000 people/square mile) envi-air-mest15me-ru10pesq	`non-urban air or from high stacks` names two situations at once -- a release in the countryside, or a release from a tall stack anywhere -- and no context can hold both. It was published as envi-air-hist15me, which says a dairy barn's ammonia left a 150-metre chimney; the other reading, Ground level + Rural, says a power-station plume was released at head height, and nothing in a flow says which it is. EF 3.1's factors settle it, and they pick neither: in all 40 (flow, method) pairs where this compartment and one of EF's narrow non-urban compartments are both characterised, EF gives this one exactly the factor it gives `Emissions to non-urban air high stack` -- particles (PM2.5) 3.01757e-06, against 1.13763e-05 non-urban close to ground and 1.62949e-06 non-urban very high stack. That compartment is envi-air-mest15me-ru10pesq here, so this keeps the rural qualifier the compartment does assert and takes the stack height EF characterises rather than the one the name suggests. What is given up: a release that really did leave a >150-metre stack is published as a sub-150-metre one, which EF's own numbers say is the smaller error. Decided once for the three lists that spell this compartment differently -- EF 3.1, ecoinvent in all five versions, and BAFU's `emissions to air / low. pop.`, SimaPro's spelling of ecoinvent v2's `low population density` -- because moving one alone would split them apart. (#411)
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → low. pop., long-term	Environmental → Air → Long-term envi-air-lote	Long-term is carried as a strata value (cauldron/brightway#3012), so it cannot also express the water body or the population density: this trades BAFU's spatial qualifier for the temporal one, which is where the characterisation difference is. Matches where ecoinvent and EF 3.1 both send their long-term rows, so the three meet (#274).
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → stratosphere + troposphere	Environmental → Air → Aircraft cruise height envi-air-aicrhe	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Airborne emissions / stratosphere + troposphere'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to air → unspecified	Environmental → Air → Unknown envi-air-unkn	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Airborne emissions / (unspecified)'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to soil → agricultural	Environmental → Ground → Agricultural envi-grou-agri	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Emissions to soil / agricultural'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to soil → forestry	Environmental → Ground → Silvicultural envi-grou-silv	Was envi-grou-fore. `forestry` names a management practice, not a land cover, and Forest and Silvicultural are those two different things: Forest is where the trees are, Silvicultural is the working of them. The two rows BAFU files here are `Oils, biogenic` and `Oils, unspecified` -- an oil release from forestry work, which is the practice. ecoinvent spells the same compartment `soil / forestry` and its rule has always said Silvicultural, so until now the two lists did not even agree on the rule, and BAFU's `Oils, unspecified` sat alone in a context nothing else could reach (#407). Note that agreeing on the rule is not the same as meeting: 916 of ecoinvent's 993 forestry rows are pulled out of Silvicultural by the correspondence table, which points them at EF's `Emissions to non-agricultural soil` -- see the permitted coarsening in `correspondence-context-routing.json`. Forest stays in the vocabulary for a source that means the cover.
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to soil → industrial	Environmental → Ground → Industrial envi-grou-indu	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Emissions to soil / industrial'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to soil → unspecified	Environmental → Ground → Unknown envi-grou-unkn	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Emissions to soil / (unspecified)'
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → fossilwater	Environmental → Water → Confined aquifer with fossil groundwater envi-wate-coaqwifo	Fossil groundwater is in a confined aquifer with fossil groundwater
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → groundwater	Environmental → Water → Unconfined aquifer envi-wate-unaq	—
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → groundwater, long-term	Environmental → Water → Long-term envi-wate-lote	Long-term is carried as a strata value (cauldron/brightway#3012), so it cannot also express the water body or the population density: this trades BAFU's spatial qualifier for the temporal one, which is where the characterisation difference is. Matches where ecoinvent and EF 3.1 both send their long-term rows, so the three meet (#274).
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → lake	Environmental → Water → Lake envi-wate-lake	—
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → ocean	Environmental → Water → Ocean envi-wate-ocea	—
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → river	Environmental → Water → River envi-wate-rive	—
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → river, long-term	Environmental → Water → Long-term envi-wate-lote	Long-term is carried as a strata value (cauldron/brightway#3012), so it cannot also express the water body or the population density: this trades BAFU's spatial qualifier for the temporal one, which is where the characterisation difference is. Matches where ecoinvent and EF 3.1 both send their long-term rows, so the three meet (#274).
bafu-2026-v1	emissions to water → unspecified	Environmental → Water → Unknown envi-wate-unkn	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Waterborne emissions / (unspecified)'
bafu-2026-v1	non material emissions → unspecified	Environmental → Other envi-othe	Non-material emissions (e.g. noise, radiation) mapped to Other environmental context; review recommended
bafu-2026-v1	resources → biotic	Resource → Biotic reso-biot	—
bafu-2026-v1	resources → in air	Resource → Air reso-air	—
bafu-2026-v1	resources → in ground	Resource → Ground reso-grou	—
bafu-2026-v1	resources → in water	Resource → Water → Unknown reso-wate	—
bafu-2026-v1	resources → land	Land Use → Occupation laus-occu	Same sub-category as SimaPro 'Raw materials / land'
bafu-2026-v1	resources → unspecified	Resource → Ground reso-grou	No generic resource context exists; defaulting to ground resources as most common resource type in BAFU. Review recommended.
ecoinvent-3.10.1	air → low population density, long-term	Environmental → Air → Long-term envi-air-lote	Moved off envi-air-grle-ru10pesq for the reasons on the identical ecoinvent-3.12 row; the subcompartment is unchanged across every release from 3.01 to 3.12, so it resolves the same way in all of them. The previous comment here read `Uses default 'Ground level' strata. Temporal differentiation is done by LCIA, not LCI`, which is the reading 3.8 and 3.12 moved away from.
ecoinvent-3.10.1	air → lower stratosphere + upper troposphere	Environmental → Air → Aircraft cruise height envi-air-aicrhe	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	air → non-urban air or from high stacks	Environmental → Air → Medium stack, <150 meters → Rural (<1000 people/square mile) envi-air-mest15me-ru10pesq	`non-urban air or from high stacks` names two situations at once -- a release in the countryside, or a release from a tall stack anywhere -- and no context can hold both. It was published as envi-air-hist15me, which says a dairy barn's ammonia left a 150-metre chimney; the other reading, Ground level + Rural, says a power-station plume was released at head height, and nothing in a flow says which it is. EF 3.1's factors settle it, and they pick neither: in all 40 (flow, method) pairs where this compartment and one of EF's narrow non-urban compartments are both characterised, EF gives this one exactly the factor it gives `Emissions to non-urban air high stack` -- particles (PM2.5) 3.01757e-06, against 1.13763e-05 non-urban close to ground and 1.62949e-06 non-urban very high stack. That compartment is envi-air-mest15me-ru10pesq here, so this keeps the rural qualifier the compartment does assert and takes the stack height EF characterises rather than the one the name suggests. What is given up: a release that really did leave a >150-metre stack is published as a sub-150-metre one, which EF's own numbers say is the smaller error. Decided once for the three lists that spell this compartment differently -- EF 3.1, ecoinvent in all five versions, and BAFU's `emissions to air / low. pop.`, SimaPro's spelling of ecoinvent v2's `low population density` -- because moving one alone would split them apart. (#411)
ecoinvent-3.10.1	air → unspecified	Environmental → Air → Unknown envi-air-unkn	Was envi-air-grle-unkn, which asserted a stratum the source does not name. ecoinvent's `unspecified` says only that the release went to air; reading it as ground level split it from EF 3.1's `Emissions to air, unspecified` and BAFU's `emissions to air / unspecified`, which both sit on envi-air-unkn -- one compartment under three spellings landing in two places. It split ecoinvent from itself as well: the rows the correspondence tables match onto EF's unspecified air flow (383 in 3.8 up to 1,175 in 3.12) were already published in envi-air-unkn, with the guard reconciling that by a permitted coarsening in correspondence-context-routing.json, and only the rows that found no EF partner stayed behind. On the 2026-08-13 build those were all 54 flows in envi-air-grle-unkn -- every one an ecoinvent creation, none carrying a characterisation factor, in a context no other list can reach. The coarsening entry is removed with this change. Nothing is given up: the ground-level qualifier was never in the source. (#411)
ecoinvent-3.10.1	air → urban air close to ground	Environmental → Air → Ground level → Urban (>1000 people/square mile) envi-air-grle-ur10pesq	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	economic → primary production factor	Economic econ	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	inventory indicator → output flow	Inventory Indicator inin	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	inventory indicator → resource use	Inventory Indicator inin	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	inventory indicator → waste	Inventory Indicator inin	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → biotic	Resource → Biotic reso-biot	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → fossil well	Resource → Water → Confined aquifer with fossil groundwater reso-wate-coaqwifo	ecoinvent's one water compartment that names its body -- EF 3.1 gives all six of its water bodies one compartment, so the rest need a per-flow rule. The subcompartment holds exactly one flow, `Water, unspecified natural origin` 2caa889e, in every version 3.8 to 3.12. ecoinvent publishes no definition of `fossil well`, and the name reads either as a well into a fossil aquifer or as a fossil-fuel well producing formation water -- but those converge on this body rather than diverging. Produced water from a hydrocarbon well is connate water in a confined formation with negligible modern recharge, which is fossil groundwater; the two readings differ in why somebody drilled, not in what the water is, and this axis is the body. Salinity does not argue against it either: formation water is typically hypersaline, and salinity is a material property carried on the other axis. ecoinvent's own correspondence table sends this flow to EF 3.1's `ground water`, so they read it as groundwater too; `Confined aquifer with fossil groundwater` is the more precise version of what they said. The emission side already maps `water / fossil well` here, and this makes the two sides agree. Repointed in all five registered versions at once: the subcompartment is unchanged between them. See #276.
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → in air	Resource → Air reso-air	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → in ground	Resource → Ground reso-grou	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → in water	Resource → Water → Unknown reso-wate	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	natural resource → land	Land Use → Occupation laus-occu	ecoinvent puts occupation and transformation in this one compartment, so the compartment cannot say which a flow is; the name does, and the rules that read it are in `name_prefix_context_mappings`. They cover every flow ecoinvent ships here in every registered version and refuse a name they do not recognise, so this row is the compartment's declaration rather than the rule that places a land flow (#339).
ecoinvent-3.10.1	soil → agricultural	Environmental → Ground → Agricultural envi-grou-agri	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	soil → forestry	Environmental → Ground → Silvicultural envi-grou-silv	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	soil → industrial	Environmental → Ground → Industrial envi-grou-indu	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	soil → unspecified	Environmental → Ground → Unknown envi-grou-unkn	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	water → fossil well	Environmental → Water → Confined aquifer with fossil groundwater envi-wate-coaqwifo	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	water → ground-	Environmental → Water → Unconfined aquifer envi-wate-unaq	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	water → ground-, long-term	Environmental → Water → Long-term envi-wate-lote	Moved off envi-wate-unaq for the reasons on the identical ecoinvent-3.12 row; the subcompartment is unchanged across every release from 3.01 to 3.12, so it resolves the same way in all of them. The previous comment here read `Temporal differentiation belongs to LCIA, not LCI`, which holds for EF 3.1's uncharacterised long-term water flow but not for ecoinvent's landfill and tailings leachate.
ecoinvent-3.10.1	water → ocean	Environmental → Water → Ocean envi-wate-ocea	—
ecoinvent-3.10.1	water → surface water	Environmental → Water → Surface water envi-wate-suwa	—

Context mappings

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