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:

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:

_images/Madagascar.png

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:

_images/NERC.png

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:

_images/ecoinvent-world.png

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

International Aluminium Institute regions

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

  • 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

_images/australia.png

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:

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.

_images/UN-regions.png

UN subregions

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

_images/UN-subregions.png

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.

_images/Asia-Europe.png

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

_images/Russia.png

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.

_images/Aluminium.png

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.

_images/NA.png

USA-only subnetworks

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

_images/USA.png

India

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

_images/India.png

Brazil

Brazil has been split into four electricity grids.

_images/Brazil.png

China

China has been split into six electricity grids.

_images/China.png

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

_images/UCTE.png
  • Central European Power Association

_images/Central-European.png

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

_images/Cyprus.png

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

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