Environmental consultants are specialists who have a responsibility to ensure the good health of the environment. It can be concerning any aspect of the environment. And it can be done using any tool. With their reports, they indicate a trouble area which requires attention. They predict contaminant flow, and follow it with up with formulating reports and plans which can be implemented to make the situation better in an already identified trouble are. However, despite being professional experts in their field, they are prone to making mistakes. These grave mistakes could cause regulators to lose trust in the work of consultants, and incur massive cost including time, money and other resources.
When it comes to the environmental business, a lot of data is involved- concerning field instruments, laboratories data, and personal observations data. It is the job of environmental consultants to manage, back-up, organize, analyze, manipulate, and assess this enormous amount of data. It also includes representing it pictorially, by plotting maps. Furthermore, they are required to draw contours and come up with conclusions based on the working they have done. This article discusses top mistakes made by environmental consultants.
1. Data Management Errors
This refers to errors which are made as a result of pure human mistake. Transposed numbers, or entry of data in wrong cell of a table, or any such mistake may affect the data and its interpretation.
Environmental consultants are required to organize data into large tables and make calculations based on it. Data storage in the form of table makes it easier to compare as per regulatory standards. Data mix-ups can happen without any intention or purpose, consultants can make mistakes with data.
2. Mapping Errors
The data collected by various methods regarding a environmental phenomenon is then plotted in the form of map and also contoured. Based on this pictorial representation of the data, conclusions are drawn for devising further action plan. Through no fault of their, it is quite possible that data gets mixed up with data of other locations. This can lead to drawing incorrect results and interpretations.
Other than mapping, the contours can be represented in a completely wrong way. At times the data might not even be contoured in its representation.
3. Wrong Information in Reports
While you might take help from the old reports for composing a new report, it must be kept in mind that it is only for template reference. The information and data from those reports cannot be used in the new reports. Make sure to strip out the data from the old report which is being used as a template. Quite often previous dates, wrong information and obsolete data remain on the new report by mistake. Such mistakes are not only embarrassing but also show careless attitude, and a lack of attention to detail. These mistakes can be spotted very easily.
4. Missed Budgets and Deadlines
In case a report contains data errors or mistakes, all the efforts that have gone into its compilation are wasted. Project managers pick reports to be worked on with varying priorities. If during the data entry stage or implementation stage, any mistake is spotted, it has to be corrected. Tables, maps and texts are changed according to that. In order to make required changes, the allocated resource has to be paid extra because it required quite a lot of time for the correction of mistakes. A small negligence on the behalf of environmental consultants can lead to unnecessary delays in the project.
5. No Data Review
Due to too much pressure of delivering a report in time, there is possibility that report is rolled out as it is worked on, without any review and cross-checking. If the time is ample, and the budget is sufficient, of course the compiled reports are authentic and reliable. The tables, maps, and summaries are all well composed. With limited budget and time, there can be data gaps and reports with misleading information. It is important to comply with the regulatory deadlines, but it is even more important to deliver an error-free report.
Final Word
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