Reviews

  1. Review Monitor 2014.2
  2. Suitability study Calculator and Monitor
  3. International scientific reviews
  4. User Acceptance Tests
  5. Technical reviews
  6. Gateway Reviews

1. Review Monitor 2014.2

Research centre ECN has conducted a two-part review of AERIUS Monitor 2014.2:

  1. An assessment of how the basic principles in AERIUS Monitor have been interpreted and implemented
  2. An assessment of the quality of AERIUS Monitor

During the first part of the review, the reviewers assessed how the policy principles were included in the available fact sheets and how they subsequently found their way into the AERIUS database. The second part mainly focused on plausibility; on the degree to which the basic principles and methods used would lead to plausible and credible results. In this context, specific attention was paid to the following parts of AERIUS Monitor:

  • Agricultural scenario
  • Detailing of the large-scale emissions (GCN)
  • Rijnmond Area
  • Detailing source and receptor at short distances
  • Stoppers scenario agriculture
  • Determining the contribution of ammonia emissions from the sea to deposition
  • Determining additional deposition

Conclusions about the elaboration of the policy principles

ECN generally concluded that, based on the available information, the basic principles have been elaborated and implemented correctly in Monitor 2014.2. There are, however, a number of issues that warrant particular attention:

  • There are descriptive issues that feature in the list of principles, but not in its implementation
  • Certain terms, although included in the list of principles, have not been elaborated in the fact sheets
  • Certain basic principles are more detailed than their elaborations
  • Certain basic principles are in fact elaborations and refer to earlier principles

This means that, with regard to documentation (both for the basic principles and the implementation/fact sheets), Monitor requires a number of adjustments, so that the various texts will be more in line with each other.

Conclusions about quality

ECN concluded that AERIUS Monitor clearly does what it is basically designed to do. A number of things do warrant attention and have been described in the review report.

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2. Suitability study Calculator and Monitor

TNO periodically investigates the quality of AERIUS Calculator en Monitor. In 2015, AERIUS Calculator beta 8 and AERIUS Monitor 2014 were examined. This involved the assesment of:

  1. the suitability of AERIUS Calculator: from the perspective of functionality, to which degree is Calculator suitable for calculating the impact of projects and plans on depositions with respect to the issuing of permits under the Dutch Nature Conservation Act 1998?
  2. the functionality of AERIUS Monitor: to which degree is Monitor suitable for calculating the impact of the emission sources in Monitor on deposition levels?
  3. the topical aspects of AERIUS Calculator and Monitor (scientific aspects, documentation, software technology, user-friendliness)

The report builds on earlier TNO assessments of AERIUS 1.3 in 2011 (forerunner of AERIUS Monitor) and AERIUS Calculator beta 1 in 2013.

Conclusions

TNO judged AERIUS Calculator to be suitable for calculating the impact of projects and plans on deposition levels with respect to the issuing of permits under the Nature Conservation Act, and for making calculations within the framework of AERIUS Monitor.

  • The quality of the calculation centre (OPS and SRM2) is sufficient for its application within Calculator.
  • OPS and SRM2 have been implemented correctly in AERIUS Calculator.
  • The data management is fully in order.
  • The software architecture has matured further, compared to AERIUS 1.3 and AERIUS Calculator beta 1.
  • The Calculator is very user-friendly.

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3. International scientific reviews

In recent years, international reviews have been conducted into the scientific basis for the Dutch ammonia policy. These reviews also included AERIUS and the OPS dispersion model, which forms the calculation centre of AERIUS.

Completed reviews

 

4. User Acceptance Tests

User Acceptance Tests can be conducted before AERIUS products become available.

Completed and planned tests

A User Acceptance Test will be conducted for AERIUS Register 2015 in December 2015.

5. Technical reviews

The AERIUS source code and the information model IMAER are subjected to periodical quality reviews by external experts.

Completed reviews

6. Gateway Reviews

AERIUS will be subjected to a series of ‘Gateway Reviews’: peer reviews at high government level into the project management of a particular ICT project. The reviews will result in recommendations aimed at increasing the success rate of these projects. Such reviews are therefore specifically intended to aid learning. In practice, such recommendations are also politically valued. For high risk ICT projects of the national government – of which AERIUS is one – Gateway Reviews are mandatory.

A Gateway Review, often, is preceded by a preparatory study. On this website, the results of such preparatory research are presented, whereas the Gateway Review results themselves are intended for the participants in those studies.

Completed and planned reviews

There are different types of Gateway Reviews for the various project phases. To date, AERIUS has been subjected to the following reviews:

Gateway Reviews
There are different types of Gateway Reviews for the various project phases. Source: Dutch Gateway Office

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