Skip to main content
Book cover

EnvStats pp 63–78Cite as

Looking at Data

  • 2117 Accesses

Abstract

Once you have a collection of observations from your environmental study, you should thoroughly examine the data in as many ways as possible and relevant. When the first widely available commercial statistical software packages came out in the 1960s, the emphasis was on statistical summaries of data, such as means, standard deviations, and measures of skew and kurtosis. It is still true that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and no amount of summary or descriptive statistics can replace a good graph to explain your data. John Tukey coined the acronym EDA, which stands for Exploratory Data Analysis. Helsel and Hirsch (1992), USEPA (2006a), and Millard et al. (2014) give a good overview of statistical and graphical methods for exploring environmental data. Cleveland (1993, 1994) and Chambers et al. (1983) are excellent general references for methods of graphing data. This chapter discusses the functions available in EnvStats for producing summary statistics and graphs to describe and look at environmental data.

Keywords

  • Reference Area
  • Guidance Document
  • Strip Chart
  • Fitted Regression Line
  • Quantile Plot

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-8456-1_3
  • Chapter length: 16 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-4614-8456-1
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions
Fig. 3.1
Fig. 3.2
Fig. 3.3
Fig. 3.4
Fig. 3.5
Fig. 3.6
Fig. 3.7
Fig. 3.8

References

  • Berthouex, P.M., and L.C. Brown. (2002). Statistics for Environmental Engineers. Second Edition. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Box, G.E.P., and D.R. Cox. (1964). An Analysis of Transformations (with Discussion). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 26(2), 211−252.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, J.M., W.S. Cleveland, B. Kleiner, and P.A. Tukey. (1983). Graphical Methods for Data Analysis. Duxbury Press, Boston, MA, 395 pp.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Cleveland, W.S. (1993). Visualizing Data. Hobart Press, Summit, NJ, 360 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleveland, W.S. (1994). The Elements of Graphing Data. Revised Edition. Hobart Press, Summit, NJ, 297 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Draper, N., and H. Smith. (1998). Applied Regression Analysis. Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, R.O. (1987). Statistical Methods for Environmental Pollution Monitoring. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 320 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helsel, D.R., and R.M. Hirsch. (1992). Statistical Methods in Water Resources Research. Elsevier, New York, 522 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoaglin, D.C. (1988). Transformations in Everyday Experience. Chance 1, 40−45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, N.L., S. Kotz, and A.W. Kemp. (1992). Univariate Discrete Distributions. Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 565 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, R.A., and D.W. Wichern. (2007). Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis. Sixth Edition. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, J.R., and W.R. Schucany. (1986). Analysis of Data from Censored Samples. In D’Agostino, R.B., and M.A. Stephens, eds. Goodness-of-Fit Techniques. Marcel Dekker, New York, 560 pp., Chapter 11, 461−496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millard, S.P., P. Dixon, and N.K. Neerchal. (2014). Environmental Statistics with R. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, W. (1982). Applied Life Data Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 634 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shumway, R.H., A.S. Azari, and P. Johnson. (1989). Estimating Mean Concentrations under Transformations for Environmental Data with Detection Limits. Technometrics 31(3), 347−356.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • USEPA. (1992c). Statistical Analysis of Ground-Water Monitoring Data at RCRA Facilities: Addendum to Interim Final Guidance. Office of Solid Waste, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. Currently available as part of: Statistical Training Course for Ground-Water Monitoring Data Analysis, EPA/530-R-93-003, which may be obtained through the RCRA Docket (202/260-9327).

    Google Scholar 

  • USEPA. (1994a). Guidance for the Data Quality Objectives Process, EPA QA/G-4. EPA/600/R-96/005. Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • USEPA. (2006a). Data Quality Assessment: Statistical Methods for Practitioners, EPA QA/G-9S. EPA/240/B-06/003, February 2006. Office of Environmental Information, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • USEPA. (2009). Statistical Analysis of Groundwater Monitoring Data at RCRA Facilities: Unified Guidance. EPA 530-R-09-007, March 2009. Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, Program Implementation and Information Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Belle, G., L.D. Fisher, P.J. Heargerty, and T. Lumley. (2004). Biostatistics: A Methodology for the Health Sciences. Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilk, M.B., and R. Gnanadesikan. (1968). Probability Plotting Methods for the Analysis of Data. Biometrika 55, 1−17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar, J.H. (2010). Biostatistical Analysis. Fifth Edition. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Probability, Statistics and Information, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Steven P. Millard

Authors
  1. Steven P. Millard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Millard, S.P. (2013). Looking at Data. In: EnvStats. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8456-1_3

Download citation