Environmental monitoring
Environmental observation (also environmental monitoring ) is the observation of scientifically relevant areas of the environment and the documentation of ecological parameters. The scientific subject areas include biology , soil science , chemistry , geography , geology , hydrology , meteorology and physics . The findings from this can be important for forestry , landscape planning and other environmentally relevant planning tasks and problems, and can also serve as a scientific support for environmental projects.
The spectrum ranges from individual observations (e.g. bird watching , weather observation ) to automated long-term measurements. In the course of time, this creates a large amount of data that can mostly only be managed and analyzed in an environmental information system with the help of computer science . For a better overview, the results are entered in maps and partly also shown in a geographic information system .
The aim is the long-term recording of changes in the air , soil and water that are relevant to the environment and nature conservation . Landscape and biodiversity can thus be systematically recorded. In health-related environmental monitoring, the exposure of the population to pollutants is analyzed, as in the environmental surveys of the Federal Environment Agency.
Environmental monitoring is increasingly understood as an international task. At the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) to participate in addition to the national focal points in each country (ger .: National Focal Point about 1,000 experts and more than 350 other organizations to monitor the cross-border pollution).
Examples
In noise abatement, noise maps serve as a basis for urban planning and for visualizing the noise values when building new traffic structures.
As part of a biodiversity monitoring , the distribution of plant and animal species is systematically examined. This allows statements to be made about the state and changes in species diversity in a specific area.
Studies over longer periods of time are available for some waters. In particular, certain organisms such as fish were observed.
The Internet of Things can also be used for environmental observations, such as B. to measure the air quality can be used. In Switzerland , carbon dioxide concentrations are measured at 300 measuring stations. The data from the sensor network are held via the Low Power Wide Area Network of Swisscom in a cloud transmitted.
See also
- Water monitoring
- Plant- sociological vegetation survey
- Biomonitoring in occupational and environmental medicine and ecology, as well as human biomonitoring
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ German environmental health study, GerES. Federal Environment Agency, accessed on May 16, 2017 .
- ↑ countries and Eionet. European environmental information and observation network. European Environment Agency , accessed May 16, 2017 .
- ↑ I. grave man, A. Müller: The Weser estuary - a literature study on the changes over the last 100 years in hydraulic engineering, hydrographic and ecological terms . Ed .: GKSS Institute for Physics. 1989.
- ↑ Carbosense 4D: Nationwide CO2 data analysis. In: empa.ch . December 7, 2017, accessed January 12, 2019 .