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Quality
Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC)
Quality Control (QC) is
a system of routine technical activities to measure and control the quality
of the inventory as it is being developed. A basic QC system should provide
routine and consistent checks to ensure data integrity, correctness, and
completeness; identify and address errors and omissions; and document and
archive inventory material and record all QC activities.
Quality Assurance (QA)
comprises the Party’s planned system of review procedures conducted
by personnel not directly involved in the inventory compilation and
development process. Thus, QA includes general procedures such as checking
the accuracy of data and calculations and ensuring standardized practices
are followed in calculating emissions, estimating uncertainties, compiling
and archiving references and other documentation, and reporting.
Tier 2 QA also includes
more detailed technical investigations into individual categories, activity
and emission factor data, and methods.
“Tier 2” in
the case of QC refers to category-specific QC activities, and is different
from the “Tier” designation used by the IPCC Guidelines, which
refers to the level of detail and specificity of the methodology and data
sources used to calculate emissions.
Both QA and QC refer to
actions that inventory agencies can take with regard to their own
inventories, and not to the UNFCCC review process.
The following are the
major elements that are to be included in a Party’s QA/QC system:
- An inventory agency
responsible for coordinating QA/QC activities;
- A QA/QC plan; (Click here
to see an example)
- General QC procedures (Tier
1);
- Category-specific QC
procedures (Tier 2);
- QA review procedures;
- Reporting, documentation,
and archiving procedures.
For purposes of the
QA/QC system, the Tier 2 QC approach includes all procedures in Tier 1 plus
additional category-specific activities.
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