What LCA should I do?

Not only are there many “types” of LCA already, bw_timex also adds lots of further options for time-explicit LCA alone. The following decision tree tries to give some guidance on what type of LCA is suitable in your case, and also navigate the options coming with bw_timex:

flowchart TD %% Define node classes classDef decision fill:#3fb1c5,color:black,stroke:none; classDef lcaType fill:#9c5ffd,color:black,stroke:none; classDef codeNode fill:#DBDBDB,text-align:left,color:black,stroke:none; TimingDecision{{"Do temporal aspects matter?"}}:::decision AspectDecision{{"Which aspects matter?"}}:::decision ConventionalLCA("Conventional LCA"):::lcaType WhenDecision{{"When?"}}:::decision ProspectiveLCA("Prospective LCA"):::lcaType RetrospectiveLCA("Retrospective LCA"):::lcaType TimeExplicitLCA("Time-explicit LCA"):::lcaType CodeTimeExplicit("tlca = bw_timex.TimexLCA(...)"):::codeNode DynamicLCA("Dynamic LCA"):::lcaType DynamicLCIADecision{{"Dynamic LCIA?"}}:::decision CodeStaticLCIA("tlca.lci(build_dynamic_biosphere=False)\n tlca.static_lcia()\nprint(tlca.static_score)"):::codeNode CodeDynamicLCI("tlca.lci(build_dynamic_biosphere=True)"):::codeNode BackgroundDecision{{"Interested \n in background system \n contributions?"}}:::decision CodeDynamicLCIA("tlca.dynamic_lcia()\nprint(tlca.dynamic_score)"):::codeNode CodeDisaggregatedLCIA("tlca.dynamic_lcia(use_disaggregated_background=True)\nprint(tlca.dynamic_score)"):::codeNode %% Define connections TimingDecision -- "yes" --> AspectDecision TimingDecision -- "no" --> ConventionalLCA AspectDecision -- "temporal evolution" --> WhenDecision AspectDecision -- "temporal distribution" --> DynamicLCA AspectDecision -- "temporal evolution \n and distribution" --> TimeExplicitLCA WhenDecision -- "in the future" --> ProspectiveLCA WhenDecision -- "in the past" --> RetrospectiveLCA TimeExplicitLCA --> CodeTimeExplicit CodeTimeExplicit --> DynamicLCIADecision DynamicLCIADecision -- "no, static LCIA" --> CodeStaticLCIA DynamicLCIADecision -- "yes" --> CodeDynamicLCI CodeDynamicLCI --> BackgroundDecision BackgroundDecision -- "no" --> CodeDynamicLCIA BackgroundDecision -- "yes" --> CodeDisaggregatedLCIA