In recent years, environmental monitoring or mOnitoring He has gained great relevance in the scientific field. It has become a useful tool to assess the status of natural resources, evaluate specific situations and support management strategies in decision making. In this way, environmental monitoring programs can have multiple purposes, as many as different situations or issues.
Monitoring is present in our lives, since we monitor or monitor the weather, market values or consumption statistics, among other issues. Despite the criticisms you receive in the scientific field, in this Ecology article you can discover What is environmental monitoring and how important it is for the research and formulation of policies in a context of sustainability. After reading these lines you can answer questions such as: What is the use of environmental monitoring? Why is it important to be monitoring the environment? And how is environmental monitoring done?
What is environmental monitoring and its characteristics
According to Sors (1987), environmental monitoring can be defined as:
“A continuous system for observation of measures and evaluations for defined purposes; an important tool in the process of evaluation of environmental impacts and in any monitoring and control program.”
In other words, it could be said that monitoring It consists of the Measurement of physical, chemical and/or biological variablesfor a certain period of time, in order to expand knowledge about changes or impacts that take place in the environment. Therefore, environmental monitoring is a key instrument for Environmental managementit helps improve planning and decision making. We recommend reading this other post about what environmental management is.
Below are some of the characteristics of environmental monitoring:
- The use of study indicators to obtain data is essential.
- It allows to determine if an event is unusual or extreme.
- It allows the development of experiments that contribute to research and clarification of pressures, impacts and other environmental issues.
- It is mainly retrospective; This is, collects and stores data once the fact or phenomenon subject to study has already taken place.
- It can be used in a predictive, preventive or regulatory manner.
- On a large scale, monitoring implies the combined measurement of multiple space and temporal parameters
- Its approach must be transverse and multidisciplinary.
- An important component is the statistical surveys.
- Its cost is low in relation to the value of resources.
- Teledeteción is a tool to support monitoring, increasingly used.
How environmental monitoring works
First, the Environmental monitoring design presents the following stages:
- Obtaining information.
- Identification of main threats.
- Preparation of a draft or monitoring design proposal.
- Study of the social, economic and environmental viability of said proposal.
- Validation of it through the integration of scientific knowledge, with technical and local knowledge.
Once designed, monitoring consists of Detect the presence and measure the concentration of pollutants in the environment (or state of environmental pollution) and other variables, in order to determine the state of conservation of natural resources.
It is important to point out that he uses three Diagnostic techniquescomplementary to each other. These are:
- Monitoring of biological effects with laboratory studies: ecotoxicological essays.
- Biological field monitoring: biomarkers, indicator species, communities indices, etc.
- Measurement of chemical parameters: Soil pollution analysis (electrical conductivity, pH, arsenic …), water pollution (suspended solids, nitrates, phosphates …), air pollution (or estimation of air quality), contamant content in organisms …
In spite of those who criticize monitoring for not considering it something completely scientific and reliable, because under their argument it is very difficult to know how things can happen in the rather distant future, it is true that it shows greater social and scientific acceptance. In order for environmental monitoring to be successful, clear issues must be addressed and validated and robust methods must be used to obtain quality data. It is significant to integrate the monitoring In research programs to obtain, continuously, more complex and complete knowledge about the evolution of the object of study.
Environmental Monitoring Objectives
Collecting the above, the Environmental Monitoring Systems They allow to study the changes that are slowly given in ecosystems. Among the Environmental Monitoring Objectives are:
- Know more accurately how they work and how they react to certain disturbances.
- Use all this information as a guidance guide in the elaboration of measures and the implementation of effective and sustainable actions.
In short, due to the uncertainty associated with the evolution of natural and anthroponatural systems, added to the climate emergency crisis we face, monitoring programs are established that allow ensuring compliance with plans, programs, projects and regulations, as well as reducing the impact and strengthening environmental commitment.
Finally, an example of monitoring which is currently being crucial, is the Microbiological Environmental Monitoring in Covid-19 studies.
If you want to read more articles similar to What is environmental monitoringwe recommend that you enter our category of other environment.
