Abstract
This paper describes a process to develop data quality validation rules, in a national park context, for traffic counts that are primarily recreational. An initial set of validation rules was used to automatically review 6 years of hourly traffic count data at 113 National Park Service (NPS) monitoring locations in 32 national park units spread across the United States. The initial validation rules were calibrated on the basis of a visual review of all data flagged as invalid by the rules, and statistical analysis of the quality-reviewed data resulted in several more validation rules that were designed to identify traffic counts that fell outside the normal expected variation (on the basis of the previous 6 years). A final recommended set of traffic count validation rules is summarized in the paper. The visual review of extensive traffic count data resulted in a set of guiding principles, which were documented in an operating manual that will be used by NPS data reviewers to ensure consistency in data quality reviews. The resulting validation rules and operating manual will be of interest to those who want to ensure the quality of traffic count data in similar contexts (i.e., recreational, with low to moderate levels of traffic and high variation).