VoLCA

VoLCA is a Life Cycle Assessment engine that turns LCA databases into inspectable, queryable answers — fast.

It loads EcoSpold2, EcoSpold1, SimaPro CSV, ILCD process, and Brightway Excel databases, builds supply chain dependency trees, computes life cycle inventories using sparse matrix algebra, and applies characterization methods for impact assessment. Everything runs in-memory against your own data.

What It Does

• Browse activities and flows across multiple databases
• Explore supply chain trees, force-directed dependency graphs, downstream consumers, shortest-path routing, and supply chain analysis by sector classification
• Compute life cycle inventories (LCI) and impact scores (LCIA) — single method or whole collection — with per-flow and per-activity contribution breakdowns
• What-if substitutions — swap an upstream activity (or a cross-database supplier) and recompute inventory and impacts in a single call
• Normalize and weight LCIA results with Raw / Normalized / Weighted view toggle; compute a single-score in Pt when normalization-weighting data is available
• Map method characterization factors to database flows with a 4-step cascade (UUID → name → synonym → CAS) and coverage statistics
• Link databases across nomenclatures (e.g., a sector database referencing Agribalyse)
• Upload databases and method collections via the API, without touching config files

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Key Features

• Multiple database formats: EcoSpold2 (.spold), EcoSpold1 (.xml), SimaPro CSV, ILCD process datasets, Brightway Excel (.xlsx)
• Archive support: Load databases directly from .zip, .7z, .gz, or .xz archives — no manual extraction
• Cross-database linking: Resolve supplier references across databases, with configurable dependencies and topological load ordering. EcoSpold2 inputs link to a loaded background by exact activityLinkId identity (so a partial import resolves against its matching release), falling back to attribute matching — flagged as approximate — when the background is a different release
• Cross-DB what-if substitutions: Swap an upstream activity at any depth — including suppliers in dependency databases — and recompute inventory and impacts through one endpoint
• LCIA method collections: Load ILCD method packages (ZIP or directory), SimaPro method CSV exports, openLCA JSON-LD impact categories, or tabular CSV from config; export any loaded collection back as SimaPro method CSV, columnar CSV (one column per impact category — the spreadsheet view), an openLCA JSON-LD zip, or an ILCD method package zip
• Normalization and weighting: Batch LCIA computes normalized and weighted scores per category and a single aggregated score (Pt) when NW data is present in the method collection
• Contribution analysis: Per-flow and per-activity contributions to any LCIA score, ranked by share
• Flow mapping engine: 4-step matching cascade (UUID → name → synonym → CAS) with per-strategy coverage statistics
• Activity classifications: ISIC, CPC, and category fields parsed from EcoSpold1/2 and ILCD, with named TOML presets for common filter bundles
• Per-exchange comments: Free-text exchange comments extracted from EcoSpold1/2, SimaPro, and ILCD and surfaced in API responses
• Fuzzy search: Trigram-based typo and stem tolerance on activity and supply-chain name filters
• Auto-extracted synonyms: Synonym pairs extracted automatically from loaded databases and method packages, available for toggling and download
• Reference data management: Flow synonyms, compartment mappings, and unit definitions can be configured in TOML, uploaded via the API, or toggled independently
• Fast cache: Per-database cache co-located with the source path, with automatic schema-based invalidation (figures in the Performance table below)
• Optional access control: Single-code login with cookie-based session

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Performance

All figures measured on Ecoinvent 3