Determining environmental standards using bootstrapping, Bayesian and maximum likelihood techniques: a comparative study

Citation
Fam. Verdonck et al., Determining environmental standards using bootstrapping, Bayesian and maximum likelihood techniques: a comparative study, ANALYT CHIM, 446(1-2), 2001, pp. 429-438
Citations number
11
Categorie Soggetti
Spectroscopy /Instrumentation/Analytical Sciences
Journal title
ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA
ISSN journal
00032670 → ACNP
Volume
446
Issue
1-2
Year of publication
2001
Pages
429 - 438
Database
ISI
SICI code
0003-2670(20011119)446:1-2<429:DESUBB>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
Environmental standards must be set in ways which give full recognition to all sources of uncertainty and variability of the toxicity data used to der ive these standards. Toxicity data such as NOECs form a variability distrib ution describing species sensitivity distribution (SSD). In EU environmenta l regulations the 5th-percentile of SSD is used to set the quality criteria . In this paper, a comparison is made between the application of techniques characterising uncertainty and variability (bootstrap, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and Bayesian approaches) using small toxicity data sets to calculate the 5th-percentile. Estimating lower and upper uncertainty bound s of a specific percentile gives different results when different methods a re used. Bayesian and MLE methods were found to be superior to parametric b ootstrapping because they are easier to use and not so computationally inte nsive. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.