What is a Regional Data Center?

There are seven core services a Regional Data Center (RDC) provides. However, depending upon the resources and technical expertise available, not all of these services will be performed by each RDC. The tools described below may not be the same at all of the RDCs, since an RDC may modify a tool to meet internal or stakeholder needs.

1. Upload and check data

The service of uploading and checking data involves providing an online place for data generators to upload data to the RDC, checking that standard formats, codes, and quality assurance and control standards have been used in a dataset, and then loading results into a database or data mart. Tool development includes web-based data checkers and data-loading and QA/QC review queries.

2. Store and manage data

The service of storing and managing data includes the storage of data in a standard format (e.g., SWAMP v.2.5, star schema, project-specific database, Excel files, geodatabase), updating these data as errors are identified and procedures are modified (e.g., revising codes and adding/deleting fields), maintaining metadata, documentation, and promulgating data standards.

3. Exchange data

The service of exchanging data focuses on the back-end aspects required to exchange data with CEDEN and other systems in an automatic or semi-automatic way and the configuration and maintenance of servers, software, and documentation to facilitate this exchange.

4. Access data

The service of accessing data focuses on end-user interaction with the system, including user-defined queries, data download functionality, and visualization tools, such as dynamically generating charts and maps of environmental conditions, stressors, or management responses to undesirable conditions.

5. Coordinate and transfer technology

The service of coordinating and transferring technology involves working with the Monitoring Council, theme-based workgroups, and other RDCs to design, coordinate, and transfer tool development (e.g., providing code for tools, assisting with code modification, documenting code, establishing version control, sharing technical expertise and advise, troubleshooting).

6. Integrate data

The service of data integration is to integrate, analyze, and model data to produce a categorical answer to ecologically relevant management questions. This service explores new ideas for displaying meaningful ecological information in ways that environmental managers and the interested public can understand, and different approaches for answering theme-based questions and determining which datasets are relevant for formulating answers.

7. Audit data

While each project will perform a thorough QA/QC review of their data, an independent audit will also be performed to ensure the quality and accuracy of results being reported. Outcomes from these audits will be incorporated into the RDC database and used to flag and classify the data for different uses.

Data Handling

The information on this page is provided to help viewers to better understand the data download from the SFEI Contaminant Data Download and Display tool, including the type of data available and how data are presented and handled by SFEI. If you have questions or comments, please contact cristina@sfei.org.

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Table of Contents for CD3 Downloads

Matrix Definitions: provides definitions used to identify the test material and matrix

Qualifier Definitions: provides information that should be considered when interpreting test results.

Data can be downloaded with all qualifiers or with a subset of primary qualifiers.

Results-Cross tab: data provided in a cross tabulated Excel worksheet

Results-Flat file: data provided in a flat file Excel worksheet

Viewing results

A CD3 download is provided as an Excel file, within which are separate worksheets containing the results in cross-tabulated and flat file formats. The flat file format is especially suitable for import into other software platforms, such as Access or SAS, for further analyses. A key to matrix and qualifiers is also included.

All qualifiers or only the "primary" qualifiers may be selected for display in the CD3 download. Primary qualifiers are DO, DOXXX, ND, NR, NRS, NRT, R, and SL. The primary qualifier SL is used to identify a significant toxicity test, for more information on the specific statistical comparison(s) conducted use the "Show All Qualifiers" option.

Information for percent solids, percent moisture, and percent lipids are reported only in the flat file Excel worksheet.

Notes Specific to RMP Data

The results provided by CD3 may differ slightly from those previously reported in the RMP Annual Reports and static data tables, due in part to ongoing updates to the dataset, standardization of the qualifiers reported, changes in the handling of replicate samples, and changes in the method used to sum the dissolved and particulate water fractions.

Missing Data: Measurements vary by year and test material, but typically include a suite of contaminants (metals and organics) and ancillary data. Missing data are either not available (e.g., parameters were not measured in every year), or the data are being reanalyzed and will be made available at a later date. Missing data and changes in target RMP parameters are listed in the RMP Annual Monitoring Results reports.

SSC/TSS: Beginning in 2002, the water quality measurement total suspended solids (TSS) was replaced by the parameter suspended sediment concentration (SSC).
Organic Sums: Organic group sums, for example "Sum of PCBs (SFEI)", are calculated by SFEI based on the target analytes for an analyte group; the exact number and the group constituents may vary over the years.

Metal Data: All metals from 1993 to 2008 are reported as near totals. Beginning in 2009, water and tissue trace metals (Ag, Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Ni, and Zn) are reported as total concentrations. Chemical analyses of sediment samples is generally performed on the <2mm fraction.

MDLs: While every effort is made to obtain the method detection limit (MDL) value from the labs, if none is available, other detection limits may be provided (e.g., instrument detection limit, sample detection limit, reporting limit). However, all detection/reporting limits are stored in the MDL field. Although some MDL values may appear truncated in the cross-tabulated output (e.g., 0.00), full results are provided in the flat file Excel worksheet.

Tissue Reference Sites: Two reference station codes (T-0 and T-1) are included in the tissue results for some years. T-0 indicates that the reference bivalve was analyzed before being deployed. T-1 indicates that the reference bivalve was analyzed after being deployed.

RMP Sampling Strategy: From 1993-2001 RMP sampling sites for water, sediment and bivalve tissue were at fixed locations throughout the Estuary. Starting in 2002 the RMP changed to a random sampling design for both water and sediment. The bivalve sampling sites remain at fixed locations. All sites, whether random or fixed, are associated with an Estuary region.

Are results expressed in wet weight or dry weight?

• Sediment: trace elements and trace organics are reported in dry weight
• Bivalve tissue: trace elements and trace organics are reported in dry weight
• Fish tissue and bird eggs: generally reported in wet or fresh weight; some parameters may also be reported in dry weight, e.g. mercury in fish (basis indicated in data download)

Information on PCB Sums

Beginning in 2009, the following three PCB Sums are reported:

• Sum of 40 PCBs
  This sum is calculated using the standard 40 PCBs and is reported for all years when available.
• Sum of 208 PCBs
  This sum provides an index of the PCBs present in Aroclor mixtures. The one PCB excluded is PCB 11, which is abundant in some matrices but is derived from pigments (e.g., Hu and Hornbuckle. 2009. Inadvertent Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Commercial Paint Pigments. Environmental Science & Technology, 44 (8), p.2822-2827, Apr 2010) and not Aroclors. PCB 11 does not have dioxin-like potency and has different sources than Aroclors.
• Sum of 209 PCBs
  This sum is provided solely for comparison to other studies that use this statistic. SFEI does not recommend using this sum for comparison to any Aroclor-based thresholds (the TMDL target, OEHHA thresholds, etc.) - the Sum of 208 PCBs is better for that purpose.

Information on co-eluting PCB congeners

During the analytical process, some PCB congeners (co-eluting PCBs) cannot be distinguished as separate congeners and thus are quantified as a complex of one or more congeners. When a reportable congener is co-eluting with another congener, we flag this result according to the following rules:

1. If a reportable congener co-elutes with another reportable congener, then the dominant congener (established from the literature) contains a qualifier "DO" and the quantitative result. For example PCB 056 often co-elutes with PCB 060. The dominant congener, PCB 060, will have "DO" in the qualifier field and the concentration measured in the result field. PCB 056, the nondominant congener, will have "DO060" in the qualifier field referring the user to look for the quantitative result in congener PCB 060. The qualifier alerts the user that the result is a mixture of more than 1 congener, and identifying the dominant congener that makes up the highest percent of the mixture.
2. If a reportable congener co-elutes with a non-reportable congener, then the reportable congener has the qualifier "DO" and the quantitative result.

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Reports and Presentations

 

Featured Reports

Quality Assurance Project Plan for the Regional Monitoring Program. 1999 RMP Technical Report.

Science Support for the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program. 2008 SFEI Technical Report #546.

 

Featured Presentations

Cool New Tools for Accessing RMP Data. 2008 RMP Annual Meeting.

Environmental Data Upload and Visualization Tools. 2009 SOE Conference Poster.

Environmental Data Upload and Visualization Tools. 2010 NWQMC National Monitoring Conference, Denver, CO.

 

Revised RDC Page [DEV]

Introduction

SFEI is the regional data center for the San Francisco Estuary and its watersheds. The Institute manages water quality, tissue, wetlands, historical, and spatial data, and develops tools for uploading, accessing, and visualizing data. Data are integrated and displayed in meaningful ways to inform different audiences.

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Early Projects