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 kbronstein@rti.org

U.S. EPA Inventory Preparation Tools

www.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities/internationalpartnerships/capacity-building.html

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Thanks For Your Attention!