QUALITY ASSURANCE OF INFORMATION IN MARINE MONITORING - A HOLISTIC APPROACH

Quality Assurance and Quality Control of the chemical measurement of t he mandatory determinands in the Marine Environmental Monitoring Progr ammes (MEMPs), e.g. the North Sea Task Force (NSTF) and the Joint Moni toring Group of the Oslo and Paris Commissions, are to be developed in an international total quality management project supported by the EC . The project, QUASIMEME, Quality Assurance of Information in Marine E nvironmental Monitoring in Europe, is a holistic approach that will co ver the design of the programme, sampling, chemical analysis, and eval uation of the data. Elements of the programme will include the introdu ction of quality management in a marine laboratory. The project will e stablish and coordinate a network of some 80 laboratories who contribu te chemical data to the Marine Environmental Monitoring Programmes (ME MPs).