Inheritance (data) is the passing on of data from a Parent dataset to a Child dataset. This data management mechanism allows for efficient organisation and maintenance of Life Cycle Assessment databases by establishing hierarchical relationships between datasets.
In LCA database architecture, inheritance operates through a parent-child relationship structure. A parent dataset serves as a reference dataset containing baseline information that can be reused across multiple related datasets. The child dataset then inherits field values from its parent dataset to the extent defined by a delta dataset, which specifies both the inheritance rules and the specific differences between the parent and child.
This approach offers several practical advantages for database management. Rather than duplicating complete datasets for variations of similar activities or products, inheritance allows practitioners to maintain a single parent dataset with core information whilst child datasets only need to store the specific variations or modifications. This reduces data redundancy, ensures consistency across related datasets, and simplifies database maintenance. When updates are needed to shared information, changes to the parent dataset can automatically propagate to all child datasets, though the delta dataset determines which inherited values are preserved and which are overridden.
The inheritance mechanism is particularly valuable when managing datasets that differ only in specific geographical, temporal, or technological parameters. For example, a global average activity dataset might serve as the parent, with region-specific child datasets inheriting the majority of data whilst specifying only the regionally distinct parameters through their respective delta datasets.
