Decision (Data) Quality Objectives Sample Clauses

Decision (Data) Quality Objectives. Data, or decision, quality objectives determine when data will be used to select between management alternatives or to determine compliance with a standard. Management decisions for improving lake quality by using monitoring data will require generation of an adequate quantity of data influenced by numbers, locations, and frequency of samples from sites that must be analyzed. A set of data eventually used to make management decisions will meet various standards or comply with minimum requirements of a statistical evaluation and have the ability to distinguish between two environmental conditions (e.g., impaired or not-impaired) with an acceptable level of uncertainty. The quality of an environmental monitoring program can be evaluated in three steps: (1) establishing scientific assessment quality objectives, (2) evaluating program design to evaluate whether the objectives can be met, and (3) establishing assessment and measurement quality objectives that can be used to evaluate the appropriateness of the methods being used in the program. The quality of a particular data set is some measure of the types and amount of error associated with the data. Sources of error or uncertainty in statistical inference are commonly grouped into two categories: