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Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

This document discusses the legal framework, process chain, and quality assurance levels in Germany's PRTR system, focusing on data verification methods and QA levels. It explores the role of competent authorities and operators in ensuring data accuracy and compliance with reporting obligations. The concept of Bube tests as part of business logic, selected emission factors, and QA processes in the German PRTR database are also outlined, alongside a test suite for XML transfer format and outlier tests. The aim is to improve data reliability and ensure transparency in environmental reporting.

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Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

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  1. Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany • Ulrike Schüler • German Environment Agency • Unit II 2.2 – Discharges and Inputs to Surface Waters

  2. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany Index 1 Legal background 2 PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels 4 Conclusion Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  3. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 1 Legal backgroundfor QA/ QC E-PRTR regulationand German act on PRTR bothoperatorandcompetentauthoritiesresponsible at different stagesfordataassurance at operatorlevel: completeness, coherence, reliability at authoritylevel: checks via comparisonwithotherdata (datasubmittedtoauthorities on different reportingobligations, licencedata, datafrompreviousyears etc.)  act:not definedhowdatacheckshavetobedone Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  4. Data flow Competent Authority operator UBA Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 2 PRTR process chain in Germany Industrial facility PRTR report Federal States quality assurance confidentiality EPA quality assurance register EU quality assurance register EEA / COM RY + 16 months Rep.Year (RY) RY + 5 months RY + 12 months RY + 15 months Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  5. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 2 PRTR process chain in detail Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  6. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels • formal correctness • syntactic correctness – xml schema • semanticcorrectness – additional tools • ex. NACE vs. activities • ex. release vs. accidentialrelease • scientific/ technicalplausibility – externaltools • outlier problems (comparison, time series) • causal connections Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  7. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels Concept of Bube tests • integrated in business logic of BUBE (Java application) • covers all BUBE modules (PRTR + LCP + emission declaration) • 2 test stages at operator level • direct support via UI where possible (lists, data types) • complete test prior to submission of data to competent authority • flexible configuration (stored in db) • error level configuration error / warning • configurations possible at level of federal state – different levels of strictness – different levels data quality Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  8. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels Selected emission factors (EF) in BUBE since 2014*/ 2015 for UWWTP important: - averagefor all German UWWTP, providebasisforqualitychecks (warning) - threshold Annex I E-PRTR: 100.000 pop. equiv. Work on futureinclusionof: Atrazine, Benzo(b)fluoranthene, Benzo(g,h,i)perylene, Fluoranthene, Nonylphenol, Octylphenols, Pentachlorophenol, Simazine, Tributyltin, Trichloromethane Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  9. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels QA at German PRTR database • 2 qualityassurancestages • directlycheckingxml-files • additional checksandtransformationsduringinputintodatabase • transfertopresentationmodule (www.Thru.de) • conversionto EU-xmlfile Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  10. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels Test suite for xml-transfer format • providing quick responseto Federal States • in-housedevelopment • written in scriptinglanguage (TCL) • based on softwaretesttools (tcltest) • an error – a missingtest • XPathselection on DOM-tree • flexible and quick additionoftests • completetest ~ 25 LOC, ~ 15 nearlyunchanging • possiblecombinationwithotherdatapools (UWWTD, LCP) forplausibilitychecks Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  11. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels - Test suiteforxml-transfer format Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  12. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA levels Test results • pdfdocument • errors • warnings • expectedemissionsmissing • confidentiality • potential outliers Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  13. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 3 QA level Outliertests – Hg + Ni PRTR datais not normallydistributed, not easy to check for potential outliers, missingreleases… data on facilitysize/ gross power not mandatory in E-PRTR + German PRTR LCP power plant >50 MW same as PRTR 1.c (thermal power stations + combust. Installations >50 MW) assumption: someparametersverycloselyrelatedtosizeof a plant (gross power) – CO2 (R=0.92)  relationHg/CO2 nicely linear, esp. forlignite, but toofewfacilities onlyusedforhardcoal indicatorforHgreleases >0.04 kg Hg/1.000 t CO2 – possiblestatisticaloutlier  >400 kt CO2/a  Hgreleaseshouldbereported Ni - similarmethodusedfor UWWTP – sizeof plant and TOC (R=0.82) relationNi/TOC usedasindicator:  >0.001 Ni/TOC  Niis potential outlier  >55 t TOC  Nishouldbereported  bothrelationsestablished in BUBE to check on both potential outliersandmissingreleases at EU level: researchof ETC on crosspollutantrelations: 174 relationsbetweenpollutantsestablished on releasestoair, not yetinstalled at EEA QA validationtool Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  14. Verification of Data Quality within the PRTR Process Chain in Germany 4 Conclusions and recommendations Experiences • fixedcontentsrequired at beginningofreportingperiod • check asearlyaspossible in theprocesschain • earlystrictnessisimportant – bottle neck at thebeginning, not at the end • use flexible and easy-to-expandtoolsalongthechain • use different toolsfor different tasks – bepragmaticand flexible • corrections must beintegrated in thebasedataset (feedbackchannel) Second Global Round Table on PRTRs, Madrid

  15. Thank you! • Ulrike Schüler • ulrike.schueler@uba.de • German Environment Agency - www.uba.de • German PRTR - www.thru.de / Hier steht der Veranstaltungstitel in 12 Punkt

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