Locus presents paper on EPA SEDD format at PITTCON 2004
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 31 March 2004 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, presented a paper on the use of the EPA SEDD format with web-based environmental data systems at the 2004 Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon) in Chicago, IL. Dr. Todd Pierce of Locus authored the paper entitled “A Web-based Solution for Analytical Data Interchange Using EPA XML-Based SEDD Format and Locus’s EIM System.” The paper was presented on March 7 during the “New Developments in Analytical Instrumentation and Software” session.
The Staged Electronic Data Deliverable (SEDD) is an inter-agency effort spearheaded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to create a generic format for electronic delivery of analytical data for environmental programs. A major advantage for analytical laboratories is that SEDD can be implemented in stages. This fact allows laboratories to meet EDD requirements for multiple programs without having to overhaul their EDD-producing systems as agency or program needs change. The SEDD is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), which has quickly become the de facto standard for information exchange over the Internet. XML provides data integration and communication backbone for Locus’s EIM system.
Dr. Pierce’s paper showed how Locus’s award-winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system, a part of their LocusFocusSM environmental web portal, can import EDDs in the SEDD format. EIM accepts SEDD files in Stage 2a format, which contains the basic analytical results (including the sample ID, analyte, result, and qualifier) plus method quality control data. The EIM import module includes data verification and consistency checks outlined in the Document Type Definition (DTD) for Stage 2a, as well as forms for viewing the data in the imported SEDD file. EIM then lets users create reports, build graphs, query selected results, and download selected datasets into Microsoft Excel, ESRI’s ArcView, or other third-party packages.
