QUALITY ASSURANCE OF INFORMATION IN MARINE MONITORING - A HOLISTIC APPROACH

Quality Assurance and Quality Control of the chemical measurement of the mandatory determinands in the Marine Environmental Monitoring Programmes (MEMPs), e.g. the North Sea Task Force (NSTF) and the Joint Monitoring Group of the Oslo and Paris Commissions, are to be developed in an international total quality management project supported by the EC. The project, QUASIMEME, Quality Assurance of Information in Marine Environmental Monitoring in Europe, is a holistic approach that will cover the design of the programme, sampling, chemical analysis, and evaluation of the data. Elements of the programme will include the introduction of quality management in a marine laboratory. The project will establish and coordinate a network of some 80 laboratories who contribute chemical data to the Marine Environmental Monitoring Programmes (MEMPs).