the quality assurance/ quality control (qa/qc) plan inventory/workshops/3... · 2 purpose what will...
TRANSCRIPT
Ms. Kate Bronstein
Research Environmental Engineer
RTI International
In support of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Technical Workshop on GHG Inventory – Agriculture
and Waste Sectors, Malaysia
19 June 2014
The Quality Assurance/
Quality Control (QA/QC) Plan
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Purpose
What will this presentation achieve?
Describe the important aspects of a QA/QC
plan, share lessons from our experience,
review/design a draft QA/QC plan for your
inventory work
Quality Control (QC)
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What is QA/QC? Quality Assurance (QA) Quality Control (QC)
Planned system of routine and technical activities implemented by personnel involved with the inventory development process to measure and control the quality of the inventory as it is being prepared.
Who: internal inventory team
Planned system of review (and sometimes audit) of procedures conducted by personnel not involved in the inventory development process.
Who: peer, expert, and/or public reviewers
Who should apply QA/QA Procedures: U.S. Example
Roles
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Agency Inventory
Lead
QA/QC Coordinator
Emission and Removal
Category Lead
Outside Experts
Consultants (depending on
institutional arrangements)
General QA/QC
Directs overall implementation of QA/QC and
maintaining plan
Implements source specific
QA/QC; Responsible
for taking corrective
actions
QA by university experts, industry groups
Day-to-day QC and additional
QA support
QA/QC effort can be spread across different individuals or agencies
What QA/QC Procedures to Apply
Example QC Procedures
Check that units are properly labeled
Reproduce a representative sample of
emissions calculations
Check that estimates are reported for all source categories and for all
years
Check all activity data
from references used
Check all equations for correctness
Check all emission
trends for outliers
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How many of these checks can be done given the time and budget?
How will they be prioritized?
Where to Focus the QA/QC
Focus On These Areas:
Key Categories Emission and removal categories with recent
data changes
Emission and removal categories with recent
methodological changes
Some processes need more QA/QC than others
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Which procedures will be conducted annually?
– Consider the inventory cycle and how often an inventory is produced
What level of QC is needed annually?
– Data updates
– A sample of data and calculations from each sector should be checked each year.
– QC should definitely be performed prior to expert review
When to Apply the QA/QC
How Often to Perform QC
Biannual? Annual? Biennial? Triennial?
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National Inventory Schedule
When to Apply the QA/QC
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Institutional Arrangements
Source-by-Source Background Document
Description of QA/QC Procedures
Description of Archiving System
Key Category Analysis
National Inventory Improvement Plan
The Six Templates of the U.S. EPA Template Workbook
Sources for QA/QC Guidance
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IPCC 2006 GL IPCC Good Practice
Guidance (2000) and
Revised IPCC Guidelines (1996)
U.S. EPA Quality Assurance/Quality
Control and Uncertainty
Management for the U.S.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory
(2002)
UNDP-GEF Managing the
National Greenhouse Gas
Inventory Process. National
Communications Support Unit
(2005)
GHG Inventory Template
Workbook (2011)
Sources inform workbook and workbook draws on sources
Chapter 3: QA/QC Procedures
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3.2 Develop the QA/QC Plan Step 1 – The user will document and/or develop the various elements of the
country’s QA/QC plan. Once developed, the plan should be applied to
subsequent inventory preparation and modified as necessary to reflect new
processes.
3.3 Document QA/QC Personnel Step 2 – The user will review the responsibilities of the QA/QC coordinator and
document the names and contact information for the appropriate staff member
responsible for each activity.
3.4 Communicate the QA/QC Plan
3.5 Apply and Document General (Tier 1) QC
Procedures for Source/Sink Category Leads Step 3 – The user will ensure basic standards of quality assurance and control
are met by following a suggested set of QC procedures for all categories, and
documenting these procedures that were followed.
Steps Within the Template and How They
Will Help!
Chapter 3: QA/QC Procedures
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3.6 Apply and Document Category-specific (Tier 2)
Procedures Step 4 – The user will apply Tier 2 QA/QC procedures to select Key
Categories
3.7 Identify and Document QA Procedures Step 5 – The user will identify the external personnel who will review the
Inventory. Key categories will be given priority for review, as well as source
categories where significant changes in methodology or data have been
made.
3.8 Identify Proposed QA/QC Plan Improvements Step 6 –The user will enter any suggested improvements to the QA/QC
section for each category.
Steps Within the Template and How They
Will Help!
Example: Forms & Checklists for Source-specific QC
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Data Management tips to support application of QC
procedures
Some tips to facilitate and enhance QC! – Include an ‘introduction’ page to spreadsheets with
names, contact info, important notes, etc.
– Include a ‘references’ page to spreadsheets with citations (author, year, data assumptions)
– Do not hard-code equations (instead link cells)
– Put commonly used factors in their own cells, and link to them (EFs, GWPs, conversion factors).
• If they change, then it’s easy to implement broadly
– Use conditional formatting, name cells in data spreadsheets to identify outliers or pull in data that is used in several calculations
– Plot the emissions to view trends and identify outliers
What to do now . . .
• Assign specific responsibilities for QA/QC
• Define QA/QC procedures for each
responsible person and sector/category
• Develop a QA/QC Plan
• Include in the budgeting!
• Communicate the QA/QC plan with all working on
inventory
• Establish process and schedule for inventory review
(expert and/or public review)
• Implement QA/QC Plan
Action Plan: Apply Template!
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Kate Bronstein [email protected]
U.S. EPA Inventory Preparation Tools
www.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities/internationalpartnerships/capacity-building.html
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Thanks For Your Attention!