Ecoinvent geography definitions

Table of Contents

Introduction

The ecoinvent centre provide consistent and comprehensive geodata for the locations used in the ecoinvent database. This document describes how these location geometries are created and processed, and gives details on particular locations that may be confusing.

Purpose of location data in ecoinvent

Location data in ecoinvent is used to locate inventory processes in space, define and construct market and market inputs, and for various forms of regionalized life cycle inventory analysis and impact assessment.

Statement on geographical controversies

Neither the EcoSpold 2 data format, nor its authors, take any position on geographical areas of controversy. The geographical shapes presented in the EcoSpold 2 data files should not be taken as absolute definitions of country or region borders. Rather, they are approximations consistent with common understanding of these countries and regions, for use in a life cycle inventory database. If subjective judgments have to be made, we have made choices based on our understanding of what would be best for clear and understandable life cycle inventories. If you find a error or discrepancy in the base data file, please let us know by filing a bug.

Data formats

The official ecospold2 format for specifying geographies is a single XML file, with location geodata included in the KML format inside the XML file. The official geographies file is here:

• Geographies.xml (bzip2 compressed)

However, this format is not easy to work with for most programming languages or GIS programs. The location data and metadata are also available in a number of GIS formats. Selections of the location data are also provided, as a single file containing all regions can be a bit unwieldy.

Description	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
All locations	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Countries	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
All ecoinvent except for countries	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
UN regions	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
UN subregions	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Electricity networks	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Legacy Electricity networks	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Electricity networks (USA only)	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Aluminium-producing regions	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Europe/Asia	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Russia	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Ecoinvent special	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile
Provinces and states	GeoJSON	Geopackage	KMZ	ESRI Shapefile

Methodology

The primary data source for the ecoinvent geodata is the Natural Earth data, and in particular the 1:10 million cultural vectors, including boundary lakes, both Admin 0 – Countries and Admin 1 – States, Provinces. In addition to Natural Earth, custom geometries were drawn for NERC regions in the United States of America which split individual states.

Processing begins by entering all province regions into a PostGIS topological database. A topology is different from a normal geometry because it tries to store only one copy of each face edge and node, and a state or province would be defined by which common edges it bordered. For example, the boundary between France and Germany would be stored only once, and the topology of both France and Germany would reference that border. Topology is a rather complex subject which is not explained in detail here; interested readers should go through this presentation by Sandro Santilli. The use of topologies give several nice advantages:

• Consistency: Each border is only defined once. Modifications to border edges apply to all affected regions automatically.

• Integrity: All regions are automatically valid.

• Explicit relationships: It is fast and simple to determine spatial relationships among regions by comparing their topological faces. There is no potential for floating-point errors, as no geometry math is needed.

You can download the current set of topological faces used in Ecoinvent here.

After state/province-level data is imported, country data is imported. Country borders are automatically snapped to province borders by the database. A series of data cleaning steps is then applied. Specifically, the following is done:

• Provinces with self-intersecting borders are fixed using ST_MakeValid. We don’t think this is a problem in the 2023 release of Natural Earth, but is kept for safety.

• Countries whose ISO names are longer than normal, or whose names who result in unexpected sort order, are changed (update_names.sql). Republic of Serbia is changed to Serbia

• Svalbard and Jan Mayen and Bouvet Island geometries are removed from Norway; they have separate ISO codes

• Cyprus No Mans Area geometry is removed from Cyprus; Cyprus No Mans Area is a separate location

• Tokelau geometry is removed from New Zealand; Tokelau has a separate ISO code

• Baikonur cosmodrone is reassigned from Russia to Kazakhstan

• Netherlands is redefined to not include its Caribbean islands, which have their own ISO code

• France is redefined to not include territories which have their own ISO codes (See France)

• Kosovo is given the provisional ISO code XK.

• The Mandarin names of the Chinese provinces Heilongjiang and Qinghai are corrected.

• Democratic Republic of the Congo is changed to Congo, Democratic Republic of the

• Republic of Congo is changed to Congo

• Federated States of Micronesia is changed to Micronesia, Federated States of

• United Republic of Tanzania is changed to Tanzania

In addition, the United States of America is split into the regional transmission grids, whose borders do not follow state borders.

The basic topological units in the database are usually state/province-level regions, as in this visualization of Madagascar:

However, in some regions states are broken up, as in this visualization of the combination of NERC regions and state boundaries in the United States of America:

Ecoinvent regions are defined constructively, i.e. they are built up by adding together their smallest constituent units. Intersection or difference functions are not used, as they can lead to floating-point errors and small geometrical artifacts.

After a consistent topology is constructed, the regions used in ecoinvent are extracted. For example, ecoinvent provides Australian states, so these are added individually; however, state-level data in most other countries are not used, so only the country borders are extracted. The final ecoinvent topology of the world looks like this:

The input data and scripts to process, combine, and export all location data, as well as this manual, are open source and freely available for download.

List of locations in ecoinvent

Countries

259 entities listed in ISO 3166-1:

Afghanistan	Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area	Aland	Albania
Algeria	American Samoa	Andorra	Angola
Anguilla	Antarctica	Antigua and Barbuda	Argentina
Armenia	Aruba	Ashmore and Cartier Islands	Australia
Austria	Azerbaijan	Bahrain	Bajo Nuevo Bank (Petrel Is.)
Bangladesh	Barbados	Belarus	Belgium
Belize	Benin	Bermuda	Bhutan
Bolivia	Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Botswana
Bouvet Island	Brazil	British Indian Ocean Territory	British Virgin Islands
Brunei	Bulgaria	Burkina Faso	Burundi
Cambodia	Cameroon	Canada	Cape Verde
Cayman Islands	Central African Republic	Chad	Chile
China	Clipperton Island	Colombia	Comoros
Congo	Congo, Democratic Republic of the	Cook Islands	Costa Rica
Croatia	Cuba	Curaçao	Cyprus
Cyprus No Mans Area	Czechia	Denmark	Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area
Djibouti	Dominica	Dominican Republic	East Timor
Ecuador	Egypt	El Salvador	Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea	Estonia	Ethiopia	Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands	Fiji	Finland	France
French Guiana	French Polynesia	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Gabon
Gambia	Georgia	Germany	Ghana
Gibraltar	Greece	Greenland	Grenada
Guadeloupe	Guam	Guatemala	Guernsey
Guinea	Guinea Bissau	Guyana	Haiti
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Honduras	Hong Kong S.A.R.	Hungary
Iceland	India	Indonesia	Iran
Iraq	Ireland	Isle of Man	Israel
Italy	Ivory Coast	Jamaica	Japan
Jersey	Jordan	Kazakhstan	Kenya
Kiribati	Kuwait	Kyrgyzstan	Laos
Latvia	Lebanon	Lesotho	Liberia
Libya	Liechtenstein	Lithuania	Luxembourg
Macao S.A.R	North Macedonia	Madagascar	Malawi
Malaysia	Maldives	Mali	Malta
Marshall Islands	Martinique	Mauritania	Mauritius
Mayotte	Mexico	Micronesia, Federated States of	Moldova
Monaco	Mongolia	Montenegro	Montserrat
Morocco	Mozambique	Myanmar	Namibia
Nauru	Nepal	Netherlands	New Caledonia
New Zealand	Nicaragua	Niger	Nigeria
Niue	Norfolk Island	North Korea	Northern Cyprus
Northern Mariana Islands	Norway	Oman	Pakistan
Palau	Palestine	Panama	Papua New Guinea
Paraguay	Peru	Philippines	Pitcairn Islands
Poland	Portugal	Puerto Rico	Qatar
Romania	Russia	Rwanda	Réunion
Saint Barthelemy	Saint Helena	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Saint Lucia
Saint Martin	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Samoa
San Marino	Sao Tome and Principe	Saudi Arabia	Scarborough Reef
Senegal	Serbia	Serranilla Bank	Seychelles
Siachen Glacier	Sierra Leone	Singapore	Sint Maarten
Slovakia	Slovenia	Solomon Islands	Somalia
South Africa	South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands	South Korea	South Sudan
Spain	Spratly Islands	Sri Lanka	Sudan
Suriname	Svalbard and Jan Mayen	Eswatini	Sweden
Switzerland	Syria	Taiwan	Tajikistan
Tanzania	Thailand	The Bahamas	Togo
Tokelau	Tonga	Trinidad and Tobago	Tunisia
Türkiye	Turkmenistan	Turks and Caicos Islands	Tuvalu
US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay	Uganda	Ukraine	United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom	United States Minor Outlying Islands	United States Virgin Islands	United States of America
Uruguay	Uzbekistan	Vanuatu	Vatican
Venezuela	Vietnam	Wallis and Futuna	Western Sahara
Yemen	Zambia	Zimbabwe

De facto independent countries

The country of Kosovo is included, although it is not yet completely internationally recognized.

Somaliland (Wikipedia) is included as a separate location. Somalia does not include Somaliland.

Disputed areas and indepedent military bases

• Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area

• Bajo Nuevo Bank (Petrel Is.)

• Cyprus No Mans Area

• Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area

• Scarborough Reef

• Serranilla Bank

• Siachen Glacier

• Spratly Islands

• US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay

International Aluminium Institute regions

The International Aluminium Institute regions are roughly followed, although with some ecoinvent-specific modifications.

Note

See the detailed notes on aluminium-producting regions.

• IAI producing Area 1, Africa

• IAI producing Area 2, North America

• IAI producing Area 2, North America, without Quebec

• IAI producing Area 3, South America

• IAI producing Area 4 and 5, South and East Asia, without China

• Aluminium producing area, EU27 and EFTA countries

• Aluminium producing area, Europe outside EU27 and EFTA

• IAI producing Area 8, Gulf Region

UN regions and subregions

All UN macro geographical regions and subregions are included.

Note

See also graphical descriptions of UN regions and UN subregions.

UN regions

• Africa

• Americas

• Asia, UN Region

• Europe, UN Region

• Oceania

UN subregions

• Australia and New Zealand

• Caribbean

• Central America

• Central Asia

• Eastern Africa

• Eastern Asia

• Eastern Europe

• Latin America and the Caribbean

• Melanesia

• Micronesia

• Middle Africa

• Northern Africa

• Northern America

• Northern Europe

• Polynesia

• South America

• South-Eastern Asia

• Southern Africa

• Southern Asia

• Southern Europe

• Western Africa

• Western Asia

• Western Europe

Electricity networks

North America

Note

See also specific comments on North American networks and USA-only subnetworks.

• Alaska Systems Coordinating Council

• Florida Reliability Coordinating Council

• HICC (Hawaii)

• Midwest Reliability Organization

• Midwest Reliability Organization, US part only

• Northeast Power Coordinating Council

• Northeast Power Coordinating Council, US part only

• ReliabilityFirst Corporation

• SERC Reliability Corporation

• Southwest Power Pool

• Texas Regional Entity

• Western Electricity Coordinating Council

• Western Electricity Coordinating Council, US part only

Europe

Note

See also specific comments on European Legacy networks.

• Baltic System Operator

• Central European Power Association

• European Network of Transmission Systems Operators for Electricity

• Nordic Countries Power Association

• Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity

Ecoinvent special locations

“Cut-out” locations

Due to the way markets are linked, it is sometimes necessary to create regions without specific states or countries. The following are current included:

• Asia without China

• Canada without Alberta

• Canada without Alberta and Quebec

• Canada without Quebec

• China without Inner Mongol

• Europe without Austria

• Europe without Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, and the Vatican

• Europe without Germany and Switzerland

• Europe without Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway

• Europe without Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Russia

• Europe without NORDEL (NCPA)

• Europe without Switzerland

• Europe without Switzerland and Austria

• Europe without Switzerland and France

• Europe, without Russia

• Europe, without Russia and Türkiye

• UCTE without France

• UCTE without Germany

• UCTE without Germany and France

Trading blocks

• Commonwealth of Independent States

• North American Free Trade Agreement

Miscellaneous

• Canary Islands (Spain also includes the Canary Islands)

• France, including overseas territories (See France)

• Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates)

• Québec, Hydro-Québec distribution network

• Serbia and Montenegro (Legacy location; Both Serbia and Montenegro are included as countries)

Australian states and territories

In addition to the country Australia, the Australian states and territories are also provided.

States and internal territories:

• Australian Capital Territory

• New South Wales

• Northern Territory

• Queensland

• South Australia

• Tasmania

• Victoria

• Western Australia

• Jervis Bay Territory

External territories:

• Ashmore and Cartier Islands

• Christmas Island

• Cocos (Keeling) Islands

• Coral Sea Islands

• Heard Island and McDonald Islands

• Norfolk Island

Australia includes all states and internal territories. Australia, including overseas territories includes all external territories as well as states and internal territories.

The geography Australia, Indian Ocean Territories, consisting of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands is provided, but its use is not recommended.

Brazilian states

In addition to the country Brazil, the Brazilian states are also provided.

• Acre

• Alagoas

• Amapá

• Amazonas

• Bahia

• Ceará

• Distrito Federal

• Espírito Santo

• Goiás

• Maranhão

• Mato Grosso

• Mato Grosso do Sul

• Minas Gerais

• Paraná

• Paraíba

• Pará

• Pernambuco

• Piauí

• Rio de Janeiro

• Rio Grande do Norte

• Rio Grande do Sul

• Rondônia

• Roraima

• Santa Catarina

• Sergipe

• São Paulo

• Tocantins

Canadian provinces

In addition to the country Canada, the Canadian provinces are also provided.

• Alberta

• British Columbia

• Manitoba

• New Brunswick

• Newfoundland and Labrador

• Northwest Territories

• Nova Scotia

• Nunavut

• Ontario

• Prince Edward Island

• Québec

• Saskatchewan

• Yukon

Chinese provinces

In addition to the country China, the Chinese provinces are also provided.

• Anhui (安徽)

• Beijing (北京)

• Chongqing (重庆)

• Fujian (福建)

• Gansu (甘肃)

• Guangdong (广东)

• Guangxi (广西壮族自治区)

• Guizhou (贵州)

• Hainan (海南)

• Hebei (河北)

• Heilongjiang (黑龙江省)

• Henan (河南)

• Hubei (湖北)

• Hunan (湖南)

• Inner Mongol (内蒙古自治区)

• Jiangsu (江苏)

• Jiangxi (江西)

• Jilin (吉林)

• Liaoning (辽宁)

• Ningxia (宁夏回族自治区)

• Qinghai (青海)

• Shaanxi (陕西)

• Shandong (山东)

• Shanghai (上海)

• Shanxi (山西)

• Sichuan (四川)

• Tianjin (天津)

• Xinjiang (新疆维吾尔自治区)

• Xizang (西藏自治区)

• Yunnan (云南)

• Zhejiang (浙江)

Indian states and territories

In addition to the country India, the Indian states and union territories are also provided.

• Andaman and Nicobar

• Andhra Pradesh

• Arunachal Pradesh

• Assam

• Bihar

• Chandigarh

• Chhattisgarh

• Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

• Delhi

• Goa

• Gujarat

• Haryana

• Himachal Pradesh

• Jammu and Kashmir

• Jharkhand

• Karnataka

• Kerala

• Lakshadweep

• Madhya Pradesh

• Maharashtra

• Manipur

• Meghalaya

• Mizoram

• Nagaland

• Odisha

• Puducherry

• Punjab

• Rajasthan

• Sikkim

• Tamil Nadu

• Telangana

• Tripura

• Uttar Pradesh

• Uttarakhand

• West Bengal

United States of America states

In addition to the country United States of America, the American states and the District of Columbia are also provided.

• Alabama

• Alaska

• Arizona

• Arkansas

• California

• Colorado

• Connecticut

• Delaware

• District of Columbia

• Florida

• Georgia

• Hawaii

• Idaho

• Illinois

• Indiana

• Iowa

• Kansas

• Kentucky

• Louisiana

• Maine

• Maryland

• Massachusetts

• Michigan

• Minnesota

• Mississippi

• Missouri

• Montana

• Nebraska

• Nevada

• New Hampshire

• New Jersey

• New Mexico

• New York

• North Carolina

• North Dakota

• Ohio

• Oklahoma

• Oregon

• Pennsylvania

• Rhode Island

• South Carolina

• South Dakota

• Tennessee

• Texas

• Utah

• Vermont

• Virginia

• Washington

• West Virginia

• Wisconsin

• Wyoming

Changelog

Version 2.5 (Ecoinvent 3.10)

Updated to Natural Earth data version 5.1.1.

Completely rewritten pipeline and scripts using only the province-level Natural Earth data. By not needing to reconcile province and country borders, processing time is reduced from hours to minutes.

• Indian states of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were merged in 2020 to Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

• Indian state of Orissa was renamed to Odisha in 2011 - we include this change already in 2023.

• Changed Turkey to Türkiye, and Europe, without Russia and Turkey to Europe, without Russia and Türkiye.

• Adapted NERC regions as US-SPP and US-FRCC were both dissolved. See the source repo for more information. The regions Southwest Power Pool and Florida Reliability Coordinating Council were removed.

• Add regional Chinese electricity grids.

• Restored Brazil, South-eastern and Mid-western grid.

• The modelling and names for Australia were revamped. See Australian states and territories.

Version 2.4 (ecoinvent 3.7)

Added Europe without Switzerland and Austria, Europe without Austria, China without Inner Mongol.

Added 50 states of the United States of America, as well as the District of Columbia.

The name of Al producing Area 6A&B, West, East, and Central Europe (which was in any case an outdated location, and not used in ecoinvent) was changed to IAI Area, West Europe, for consistency with the ecoinvent master data.

Version 2.3 (ecoinvent 3.6)

Split Brazil, South-eastern and Mid-western grid into Brazil, South-eastern grid and Brazil, Mid-western grid.

Fixed the short names of the IAI regions to make them consistent with ecoinvent master data:

• IAI Area, Europe outside EU & EFTA is now IAI Area, Russia & RER w/o EU27 & EFTA

• IAI Area 1, Africa is now IAI Area, Africa

• IAI Area 2, North America is now IAI Area, North America

• IAI Area 2, without Quebec is now IAI Area, North America, without Quebec

• IAI Area 3, South America is now IAI Area, South America

• IAI Area 4&5, without China is now IAI Area, Asia, without China and GCC

• IAI Area 6, Europe is now IAI Area, West Europe

• IAI Area 8, Gulf is now IAI Area, Gulf Cooperation Council

Added Europe without Russia and North America without Quebec.

Updated country name of Eswatini and North Macedonia.

Version 2.2 (ecoinvent 3.4)

The country formerly known as the Czech Republic is now Czechia.

Added Europe without Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia and Europe without Switzerland and France.

Changed the code of Canada without Quebec from ROC to Canada without Quebec.

Improved consistency in codes and names of provinces to include their countries:

• Ashmore and Cartier Islands is now Australia, Ashmore and Cartier Islands (code AUS-AC)

• Indian Ocean Territories is now Australia, Indian Ocean Territories (code AUS-IOT)

• China Southern Power Grid code is now CN-CSG

• State Grid Corporation of China code is now CN-SGCC

• Alaska Systems Coordinating Council code is now US-ASCC

• Florida Reliability Coordinating Council code is now US-FRCC

• HICC code is now US-HICC

• Midwest Reliability Organization, US part only code is now US-MRO

• Northeast Power Coordinating Council, US part only code is now US-NPCC

• ReliabilityFirst Corporation code is now US-RFC

• SERC Reliability Corporation code is now US-SERC

• Southwest Power Pool code is now US-SPP

• Texas Regional Entity code is now US-TRE

• Western Electricity Coordinating Council, US part only code is now US-WECC

Changed several country names for consistency with ecoinvent:

• Brunei Darussalam is now Brunei

• Democratic Republic of the Congo is now Congo, Democratic Republic of the

• Falkland Islands (Malvinas) is now Falkland Islands

• Hong Kong is now Hong Kong S.A.R.

• Macau is now Macao S.A.R

• Micronesia (Federated States of) is now Micronesia, Federated States of

• Pitcairn is now Pitcairn Islands

• Republic of Congo is now Congo

• United Republic of Tanzania is now Tanzania

• Åland Islands is now Aland

Fixed several bugs:

• The new names of some regions in version 2.0 were not properly updated

• All areas of Cyprus are now included in Asia

• Saskatchewan is now included in Canada

Version 2.1 (ecoinvent 3.3)

The following electricity grids were added:

• Brazil, North-eastern grid

• Brazil, Northern grid

• Brazil, South-eastern and Mid-western grid

• Brazil, Southern grid

• India, Islands

• India, North-eastern grid

• India, Northern grid

• India, Southern grid

• India, Western grid

Additionally, all states and union territories in both India and Brazil were added.

The composite geometries Europe without Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Russia and Europe without Switzerland and France were also added.

Version 2.0 (ecoinvent 3.2)

No locations used in ecoinvent 3.01 or 3.1 have been removed, and no location shortnames or UUIDs have been changed. Ecoinvent geography definitions version 2.0 should therefore be backwards-compatible with version 1.0.

The following locations were added:

• Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area

• Aluminium producing area, EU27 and EFTA countries

• Aluminium producing area, Europe outside EU27 and EFTA

• Ashmore and Cartier Islands

• Bajo Nuevo Bank (Petrel Is.)

• Caribbean (UN subregion)

• China Southern Power Grid

• Clipperton Island

• Coral Sea Islands (administrative unit of Australia)

• Cyprus No Mans Area

• Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area

• Indian Ocean Territories (administrative unit of Australia)

• Kosovo

• Northern Cyprus

• Russia (Asia)

• Russia (Europe)

• Scarborough Reef

• Serranilla Bank

• Siachen Glacier

• Somaliland

• State Grid Corporation of China

• US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay

The location Al producing Area 6A&B, West, East, and Central Europe, which was not used in ecoinvent 3.01 or 3.1, has been split into Aluminium producing area, EU27 and EFTA countries and Aluminium producing area, Europe outside EU27 and EFTA.

Note

Sovereign military bases are necessary in version 2 for a consistent world topology.

The following names were changed, mostly due to changes in the source data, or to choose the common instead of formal names:

New name	Old name
IAI producing Area 8, Gulf Region	IAI producing Area 8, Gulf-Aluminium Council/Gulf Region
Aland	Åland Islands
Bolivia	Bolivia, Plurinational State of
Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba	Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
British Virgin Islands	Virgin Islands, British
Brunei	Brunei Darussalam
East Timor	Timor-Leste
Falkland Islands	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	French Southern Territories
Guinea Bissau	Guinea-Bissau
Hong Kong S.A.R.	Hong Kong
Iran	Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Ivory Coast	Cote d’Ivoire
Laos	Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Macao S.A.R	Macau
North Macedonia	Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Moldova	Moldova, Republic of
North Korea	Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of
Palestine	Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Pitcairn Islands	Pitcairn
Réunion	Reunion
Russia	Russian Federation
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Korea	Korea, Republic of
Southern Asia	South Asia
Syria	Syrian Arab Republic
Taiwan	Taiwan, Province of China
Tanzania	Tanzania, United Republic Of
The Bahamas	Bahamas
United States of America	United States
United States Virgin Islands	Virgin Islands, U.S.
Vatican	Holy See (Vatican City State)
Vietnam	Viet Nam
Yukon	Yukon Territory

The following unused locations have been removed:

Location	Comment
Central and Eastern Europe
Christmas Island	Now included in Indian Ocean Territories
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Now included in Indian Ocean Territories
Spain, including overseas territories

Version 1.0 (ecoinvent 3.01 & 3.1)

Initial development. Removal of locations no longer used in the ecoinvent database.

Notes on specific geometries

Some images are large, and can be opened in a separate tab to be seen in full detail.

Global and Rest of the World

The Global dataset does not have a KML description.

The Rest of the world dataset is a dynamic concept that exists in the situation when both a global dataset and one or more non-global datasets are available for the same activity, time period, and macro-economic scenario. The definitions is specific to each activity and depends on what defined geographies are available for the specific activity name. It is defined as the difference between the global reference dataset and the datasets with defined geographies. The “rest of world” dataset does not have a set KML description.

UN Regions and subregions

UN regions and subregions follow the UN macro geographical regions definitions.

UN regions

Note

Taiwan is included in the UN region Asia and the UN subregion Eastern Asia, even though it is not officially listed in the UN definitions.

UN subregions

The UN subregion Latin America and the Caribbean, not shown, includes the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Europe and Asia

The following locations are given:

• Europe (short name RER)

• Asia (short name RAS)

• Europe, UN Region (short name UN-EUROPE)

• Asia, UN Region (short name UN-ASIA)

We differentiate between the UN definitions of Europe and Asia (which are constrained to including or excluding entire countries), and the common understanding of the border between Europe and Asia. There is no clear line dividing Europe and Asia. The UN regions are defined following the UN macro geographical regions. Russia is split by federal subjects, with the following federal subjects in Europe:

Adygey	Arkhangel’sk	Astrakhan’	Bashkortostan
Belgorod	Bryansk	Chechnya	Chuvash
City of St. Petersburg	Dagestan	Ingush	Ivanovo
Kabardin-Balkar	Kaliningrad	Kalmyk	Kaluga
Karachay-Cherkess	Karelia	Kirov	Komi
Kostroma	Krasnodar	Kursk	Leningrad
Lipetsk	Mariy-El	Mordovia	Moskovsskaya
Moskva	Murmansk	Nenets	Nizhegorod
North Ossetia	Novgorod	Orel	Orenburg
Penza	Perm’	Pskov	Rostov
Ryazan’	Samara	Saratov	Smolensk
Stavropol’	Tambov	Tatarstan	Tula
Tver’	Udmurt	Ul’yanovsk	Vladimir
Volgograd	Vologda	Voronezh	Yaroslavl’

The following Russian federal subjects are in Asia:

Altay	Amur	Buryat	Chelyabinsk
Chita	Chukchi Autonomous Okrug	Gorno-Altay	Irkutsk
Kamchatka	Kemerovo	Khabarovsk	Khakass
Khanty-Mansiy	Krasnoyarsk	Kurgan	Maga Buryatdan
Novosibirsk	Omsk	Primor’ye	Sakha (Yakutia)
Sakhalin	Sverdlovsk	Tomsk	Tuva
Tyumen’	Yamal-Nenets	Yevrey

Note

The definition of Europe and Asia have changed in version 2.0, to match Russian federal subject borders. In version 1.0, Europe also included parts of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye - these countries are now completely inside Asia.

Note

Both Europe and Europe, UN Region include all of Spain, including the Canary Islands and a few small exclaves in Africa.

In addition to the country Russia, the regions Russia (Asia) and Russia (Europe) are given, following the federal subject boundaries given above.

Aluminium-producing regions

Aluminium is not produced in every country in the world, and the following producing regions are given:

• IAI producing Area 1, Africa

• IAI producing Area 2, North America

• IAI producing Area 2, North America, without Quebec

• IAI producing Area 3, South America

• IAI producing Area 4 and 5, South and East Asia, without China

• Aluminium producing area, EU27 and EFTA countries

• Aluminium producing area, Europe outside EU27 and EFTA

• IAI producing Area 8, Gulf Region

Note that there is an overlap between IAI producing Area 2, North America and IAI producing Area 2, North America, without Quebec.

Electricity networks

Sub-national electricity grids are provided for China, Brazil, North America, and India.

North American networks

In the United States and Canada, the boundaries between NERC regions is made up of state/province boundaries and hand-drawn boundaries traced from NERC maps.

USA-only subnetworks

NERC regions which cross the Canadian border have also been split into USA-only networks for market reasons.

India

India has been split into five electricity grids. The location India, Islands contains both Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep.

Brazil

Brazil has been split into four electricity grids.

China

China has been split into six electricity grids.

Legacy networks

In addition to these current networks, the following legacy European networks are provided:

• Nordic Countries Power Association

• Union for the Co-ordination of Electricity

• Baltic System Operator

• Central European Power Association

Norway

Bouvet Island and Svalbard and Jan Mayen are distinct locations with ISO 3166-1 codes and are not included in Norway.

France

France is what is commonly called metropolitan France. It does not include the following locations which all have ISO 3166-1 codes:

• French Guiana

• French Polynesia

• French Southern and Antarctic Lands

• Guadeloupe

• Martinique

• Mayotte

• New Caledonia

• Réunion

• Saint Barthélemy

• Saint Martin

• Saint Pierre and Miquelon

• Wallis and Futuna

In addition, France does not include the uninhabited Clipperton Island, which is given as a separate location.

The location France, including overseas territories includes metropolitan France, as well as French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion.

Spain

Spain includes the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and the Plazas de soberanía.

Micronesia

The country is called Micronesia, Federated States of. The UN subregion is called Micronesia.

Cyprus

Due to ongoing territorial disputes, the island of Cyprus is split into the following:

• Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area

• Cyprus

• Cyprus No Mans Area

• Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area

• Northern Cyprus

United States of America

The location United States of America includes the 50 states and Washington D.C. The following are given as separate locations:

• American Samoa

• Guam

• Northern Mariana Islands

• Puerto Rico

• United States Minor Outlying Islands

• United States Virgin Islands