Expert report on the usability of data from the POP database in the field of ‘technosphere’ : final report / by Heidelore Fiedler (Örebro University, School of Science and Technology, MTM Research Centre, Örebro, Sweden) ; on behalf of the German Environment Agency ; edited by: Section IV2.1 Information Systems Chemical Safety, Dr. Thomas Gräff (statistics and R programming), Dr. Gerlinde Knetsch (specialist support), Dr. Ralph Stephanowitz (specialist support)

Abstract

The report provides a quality-assured database for the technosphere compartment as part of the further development of the POP/dioxin database into a knowledge-based system that can be used as a flexible evaluation instrument. To this end, the existing database inventory of technosphere samples was classified according to primary and secondary sources with further subclassification in a tree structure. New data were added and existing data amended, in order to raise the overall data quality in the database. To facilitate recognition of typical patterns in the data and comparison of samples according to their contamination profile, R programs for cluster analysis were developed and applied.