5 Documentation of Elementary Flows
In the ecoinvent project, no predefined list of elementary flows3
is applied. Theoretically, all kinds of elementary flows can be
registered. However, elementary flows contributing to the impact categories of noise, desiccation, depletion of biotic resources
(except wood and biomass energy) and casualties, as
well as of social indicators, are disregarded. This is mainly
due to still unresolved methodological problems (and substantial
data collection work is needed as, for instance, for noise
impacts) or due to reduced relevance within the scope of the
ecoinvent project (e.g. depletion of biotic resources).