National Emissions Inventory Input Format (NIF)

The NEI Input Format (NIF) is the format most widely used by state and local agencies to transfer data to the EPA's National Emission Inventory (NEI). The current versions of the NIF and all user documentation is posted here for users to download. In addition, there is a software program included here for download to help NIF users perform quality control (QC) checks on their files to ensure correct format specification. The NIF may be used to transfer both criteria and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions data to the EPA's National Emission Inventory (NEI). Use NIF 3.0 for 2002 NEI data submittals.

The 2002 NEI draft is in NEI output format (NOF). The NOF is a version of the NEI Input Format (NIF) modified to add fields to meet Information Quality Guidelines (IQG)s and ease in the generation of county level summary reports. The general structure of the NOF is the same as the structure of the NIF (i.e. the record types and format are the same with some additional fields added). NOF is a format designed for data EPA releases to outside parties.

Use of extensible mark-up language (XML) is also an acceptable format for submitting data to the NEI. An XML format is currently available for NEI data transfer and reflects the same data content as that in the NIF. Use of XML requires that the data be formatted according to the schema. For assistance with XML please contact CDX at: http://cdx.epa.gov/contactus.asp or 1-888-890-1995.

A copy of the current NEI XML schemas are available from the XML Registry for the Environmental Information Exchange Network.

The steps for submitting the NIFdata files electronically are summarized on the EPA's Central Data Exchange (CDX) web site.