Digging into the data

Oy vey, what a week it has been!

Like my eyebrows, EXACT and SECTOR are sisters not twins and will never give me identical results… But they get pretty close.

(Edit: As it turns out the tools are not sisters but in fact EX-ACT is essentially the mother to SECTOR; as it is to many GHGE calculators out there!)

This week I got my hands on a dataset, provided by my supervisor, to begin with the task of estimating the GHG emissions from two rice growing areas of Vietnam using the two calculators.

The first step is to test out both calculators to ensure the units all fit and the results I get are close to the same! At this point in the week my brain is a bit fried from trying to match the units, which is clear from my little GWP for dummies diagram here.

This week also included a bit of sensitivity analysis to identify the parameters that affect the output of the calculators, along with the one’s that have no effect. Crunching numbers isn’t the part of science everyone is jumping to hear about but, alas, it needs to be done.

But if all this data-talk is getting a little dry, here’s a handsome lizard that joined us for lunch on Monday!

This week also saw the completion of the first full draft of my literature review! With that weight off my shoulders for now I can’t wait to do what I’ve been dying to do since arriving…

Adventure time in Hanoi! So this weekend I get to take a break from the screen and go out to explore what this gorgeous city has to offer!