Any way to edit ISIC classification?

[TimWenz]

I've created a pLCI database using ecoinvent and the ScenarioLink plugin / premise. Now there are many more activities that are not classified. Does anyone now a way to assign / change the ISIC classification of activities? AFAIK AB does not support this. I also tried using the DB Browser for SQLite (https://sqlitebrowser.org/about/) but that didn't even show ISIC classification.

[marc-vdm]

Hi,

The short answer is:
You can edit classifications in Brightway, The reason they are missing for Premise data is because Premise does not assign any classifications to new activities it creates.

More context:
We are looking at adding classifications to Premise, here is a PR that adds CPC classifications to all premise processes. I also have a private version of AB that shows the tree based on the CPC classifications instead of ISIC. The reason for the switch to CPC instead of ISIC is because ecoinvent has full coverage of CPC and not of ISIC.

We are working in the background on Activity Browser 3, which will use a completely different system to show activity data, making the old tree based on ISIC deprecated. Instead you will be able to dynamically create trees based on any data for the activities. But it will be a while before this version is ready for the public.

Does anyone now a way to assign / change the ISIC classification of activities

This is currently not possible in AB, but you can do it in Brightway, e.g.:

import bw2data as bd

activity = bd.get_activity(activity_key)
# read classifications:
classifications = activity["classifications"] 
# edit classifications:
activity["classifications"] = new_classification
activity.save()

I also tried using the DB Browser for SQLite but that didn't even show ISIC classification.

That's correct. Brightway stores this kind of metadata in a binary file (the blob in the SQL db), so not all activity data can be accessed directly in SQL.

Hope this helps!

[TimWenz]

Thank you, this helps a lot!

For anyone else interested, I've created the following script to assign classifications to multiple activities under certain criteria.
To see the changes you need to load a different project in Activity Browser and then reload the project you want to change.

import bw2data as bd
from brightway2 import projects

# 1. Set project
projects.set_current("ProjectNameHere")

# 2. Load database instance (name as registered in Brightway)
db_name = "DatabaseNameHere"
db = bd.Database(db_name)

# 3. Define mapping rules:
#    - prefix:      String to check at the beginning of the activity name (lowercase)
#    - schema_name: e.g. "ISIC rev.4 ecoinvent"
#    - isic_code:   e.g. "4910:Land transport"
mapping_rules = [
    ("transport", "ISIC rev.4 ecoinvent", "5229: Other"),
]

# 4. Iterate over all activities
for activity_key in db:
    activity = bd.get_activity(activity_key)
    name = activity["name"].strip().lower()

    # 4a) First check if the name matches any mapping rule:
    matching_rule = None
    for prefix, schema_name, isic_code in mapping_rules:
        if name.startswith(prefix) or name.startswith(f"market for {prefix}"): #also automatically includes market data sets
            matching_rule = (schema_name, isic_code)
            break

    # If no rule matches the name, skip
    if not matching_rule:
        continue

    # 4b) Name matches: now check classification
    schema_name, isic_code = matching_rule
    current_classifications = activity.get("classifications", []) or []

    has_isic = False
    for entry in current_classifications:
        if isinstance(entry, (list, tuple)) and len(entry) >= 2:
            scheme = entry[0]
            if isinstance(scheme, str) and scheme.lower().startswith("isic"):
                has_isic = True
                break

    if has_isic:
        print(f"Skipped (already has ISIC) → '{activity['name']}'")
        continue

    # 4c) No existing ISIC: now assign
    #     First convert existing classifications into a dict:
    class_dict = {}
    for entry in current_classifications:
        if isinstance(entry, (list, tuple)) and len(entry) >= 2:
            scheme, code = entry[0], entry[1]
            if isinstance(scheme, str) and isinstance(code, str):
                class_dict[scheme] = code

    #     Add new entry:
    class_dict[schema_name] = isic_code

    #     Convert back to list of tuples:
    new_classifications = [(scheme, code) for scheme, code in class_dict.items()]

    #     Save:
    activity["classifications"] = new_classifications
    activity.save()
    print(f"Newly assigned: '{activity['name']}' → {schema_name} = {isic_code}")

print("Done: All eligible activities have been checked and ISIC assigned.")