Data Platform Overview

Use this page to understand the scope, permissions, and typical usage of each data module before diving into creation or review work.

New to the platform? Complete First Login and review the Demonstrations first.

Key terminology

• Model: A network of processes describing a product system; can be referenced like a process.
• Process: A unit-process record containing inputs, outputs, modelling, and management information.
• Flow: Material, energy, or economic flow linked to unit groups and flow properties.
• Unit group: A set of related units with defined conversion factors.
• Sources / Contacts: Reference documents and responsible people attached to datasets.

These elements appear in every module, but permissions differ.

Module overview

Module	Primary audience	Main purpose	Permissions	Typical actions
Open Data	All platform users	Browse and reference audited datasets	Read-only	Search, filter, copy, export
Commercial Data	Users needing third-party datasets	Discover metadata and contact providers	Read metadata	Browse, copy contact info
My Data	Authors and maintainers	Create, edit, import, and version datasets	Full CRUD	Create, import, edit, contribute, submit for review
Team Data	Team members	Share and reuse collaborative assets	Read-only	Discover, reference, copy to My Data

Open Data and Commercial Data cannot be edited directly. Copy them to My Data before making changes.

Data lists and search results show the latest visible version for each dataset ID by default. Use View versions on a row when you need to inspect history.

If you have copied a dataset ID, enable Reference Lookup on Contacts, Sources, Unit groups, Flow properties, Flows, Processes, or Models lists, then search with the complete dataset UUID. This shows records in the current data space that reference that ID, subject to the same source, team, and permission limits, with up to the first 50 reference lookup results shown.

Module details

Open Data

• Audited, standardised lifecycle datasets curated by the TianGong team.
• Ideal for research, referencing, and comparison.
• Supports search, filtering, copy, and export; list results show the latest published version for each dataset.

Commercial Data

• Presents descriptive metadata for commercial datasets.
• Use the listed contacts to obtain full datasets from providers.
• Suits organisations needing licensed or premium content.

My Data

• Your main authoring workspace for models, processes, flows, sources, contacts, and related records. Unit groups and flow properties are foundational configuration; adding or supplementing them is normally handled by system administrators. Contact an administrator when you need those records added.
• Supports drafts, imports/exports, versioning, and team contributions; ordinary lists prefer the latest visible version. When you create a new version from All Versions, the platform keeps the same dataset ID and generates the next version number automatically.
• See Create My Data and Data Use for detailed workflows.
• ⚠️ Prefer the platform’s standard unit groups and flow properties to avoid LCIA compatibility issues.

Team Data

• Shows datasets shared within your teams.
• Copy items into “My Data” if you need to edit them, then share updates back to the team.
• Works hand-in-hand with role management described in Team Functions.

Permission matrix

Module	View full data	View metadata	Create	Edit	Delete	Copy
Open Data	✅					✅
Commercial Data		✅				✅
My Data	✅	✅	✅*	✅	✅	✅*
Team Data	✅					✅

* Unit group and flow property creation, import, copy, and similar maintenance entry points are available only to system administrators. If the page says “Need to add or supplement unit groups? Contact an administrator.” or “Need to add or supplement flow properties? Contact an administrator.”, ask an administrator to maintain the foundational configuration first.

Next steps: proceed to Create My Data to build content, or jump to Team Functions for collaboration guidance.

For a consolidated view of data spaces, team roles, review roles, and system roles, continue with Permissions & Data Spaces.