Abstract:
This thesis explored the application of data quality assessment methods on regulatory standards
concerned with environmental monitoring, and how these methods can contribute to assessing the
extent to which a regulation requires compliance datasets to be interoperable and reusable.
As the volume of environmental monitoring data being collected is growing, increasing importance is
placed on the quality of that data. While drinking water, wastewater and environmental waters are often
regulated separately, they are intrinsically linked, and compliance data from one area may provide
insight to another. By defining the data quality of these datasets, their interoperability is increased,
allowing utility to extend beyond compliance assessments. The inclusion of greenhouse gas emission
monitoring shows that this interoperability can exist between more than one industry type, and that is
not limited to regulators, but also conveys benefits to other data users such as suppliers and
researchers.
The method used was a qualitative assessment of regulatory standards, presented as a quantitative
summary for analysis and trend identification. Data quality indicators applicable to environmental
monitoring standards were identified, defined, and grouped. These indicators were assembled in a
framework with a simple scoring system. Regulatory standards from the drinking water, wastewater,
environmental water, and greenhouse gas emission industries were selected from New Zealand,
Australia, and the European Union. These standards were assessed with this framework, allowing a
summary to be compiled showing which data quality indicators were present in each standard.
A comparison of the distribution of data quality indicators across the assessed standards showed that
the framework was effective in predicting the level of data quality required of compliance datasets for
these standards. It allowed the assessor to understand how datasets from different standards could be
interoperable, and how they could not. It also showed that the framework would be a useful tool in the
creation of a new regulatory standard, as it provided a way of benchmarking existing standards at a
national and international level.
The changing regulatory environment of the Three Waters industry in New Zealand provided a case
study to show how an existing standard can be compared with a proposed draft, and what data quality
indicators would be required in subsequent standards in order to allow the interoperability and
reusability of compliance datasets.