EPA New England Regional Laboratory (Office of Environmental Measurement and Evaluation)

Quality Assurance in Modeling - Design and Implementation of New Tools

This guidance is designed to improve the application of quality assurance project plans (QAPPs) for modeling in the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program. A template, and companion checklist, is provided for writing QAPPs for models used in TMDL decisions. The template may be used for writing one, state-wide generic QAPP or project-specific QAPPs. The checklist helps QAPP writers track the completeness of their work and may assist QAPP reviewers by readily identifying missing information.

The template defines specific information that should be compiled in the plan including:

• Identification of model selection and model fit to problem;
• Notification of changes to model code;
• Use of independent data sets for model calibration;
• Identification of calibration stop criteria;
• Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses; and
• Modeling report requirements

You may save the template and checklist to your computer, and fill them with information at your leisure. You may also fill them with the information on screen and then save to your computer.

• Template document here (MS Word Document)
• Checklist document here (MS Excel Document)