DatAssess: Scalable Tools for Independent Electronic Data Review and Assessment

Oral Presentation

Prepared by S. Kolb1, A. Jenkins1, R. Runyon1, T. Smith2
1 - CSC, 15000 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151, United States
2 - U.S. EPA OSWER, Office of Emergency Management (OEM), U.S. EPA, Mail code: 5104A Ariel Rios Building, Room B452, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20460, United States


Contact Information: skolb4@fedcsc.com; 703-818-4232


ABSTRACT

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) environmental projects continue to experience increasing pressures from the three distinct project components: 1) the reduction of available funding for the collection of environmental data forces Environmental Project Managers (EPMs) to answer the same pressing questions with shrinking resource pools, 2) with the rising public demands on the government to answer for a variety of fiscal, environmental and human health decisions the need for transparent, consistent and quality data has never been more paramount, and 3) with rapidly increasing availability of social and mainstream media coverage Environmental Project Managers (EPMs) have observed a reduction in the time expected to provide the public with credible data.

EPA offers independent Electronic Data Review (EDR) and assessment options to reduce cost, data turn-around-time and improve quality. EDR provides optimization for all components of the project life cycle as well as providing an unbiased review of data after the laboratory has completed their analysis. This approach provides users with the ability to define project quality objectives that are electronically assessed data trace-ability and consistency is maintained without introducing human error associated with manual review. Traditional review activities defined as manual review take on a different role. This role is to refocuses the human component of data review to address usability rather than checking for completeness and compliance with quality objectives.