Monitoring Programme

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Monitoring Programme
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What is monitoring?

• Environmental monitoring is the systematic
  observation, measurement and calculation of the
  condition of the environment, emission of
  pollutants, or population and species over time.

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Why monitoring philosophy?

• assessment of the conditions of the environment
  provides reliable information on the status and
  trends of flora, fauna, soil etc. sets
  priorities and, identify populations, species
  and ecosystems at risk before they become
  threatened or endangered.
• determine the factors causing the observed trends
  
• development of environment policies, the planning
  of environmental protection measures as well as
  the control of the effectiveness
• forecasting future trends (for example, based on
  alternative policy and management decisions)

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Why monitoring - policy context

• EU Directives e.g., on Conservation of Wild Birds
  79/409/EEC on Conservation of Natural Habitats
  and of Wild Fauna and Flora 92/43/EEC and forest
  related directives, etc.
• International Conventions e.g., Global -
  Convention of Wetlands of International
  Importance (Ramsar 1971), Convention of
  Biodiversity etc. and regional
• National legislation e.g, Environmental
  Protection Law Chapter VI Environmental
  Monitoring and Information The Ministry,
  through KEPA, shall monitor the state of the
  Environment and provide continual observation of
  the Environment, the state of valuable feature
  and the Degradation and use of Natural Resources
  and their impact on human health.

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Benefits of monitoring program

• to avoid overlapping of environmental monitoring,
  when different institutions with restricted
  financial means of the state budget carry out
  analogous observation
• to ensure monitoring in nationally or
  internationally important fields, where
  monitoring until now is not carried out or does
  not meet the requirements
• plan monitoring activities in the states budget

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What to monitor?

• habitats terrestrial or aquatic areas
  distinguished by geographic, abiotic and biotic
  features, whether entirely natural or
  semi-natural (examples grasslands, alpine zones,
  forest monitoring etc.)
• species endangered plant species, invasive
  plant species, endangered bird species, migratory
  bird species, and invasive animal species (more)
  
• geological processes erosion, seismic
  processes, karst processes, etc.
• soil agriculture land soil and vegetation,
  heavy metals in mosses, soil radiation, soil
  contamination, etc.

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What to include in a monitoring program?

• A Assessment of existing situation - what is
  available (former and on-going observations,
  coverage, etc.)?
• B Proposed measurements what has to be
  measured?
• C Methods how shall it be measured?
• D Proposed monitoring network- where should the
  measurements be done?
• E Structure of monitoring information system
  who are the data holders?
• F Time - how often it should be measured?
• G Funding needed what is the investment
  needed?
• H Other proposals?

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Example - monitoring program on bats in Latvia

• all bat species, found in Latvia, internationally
  protected
• bats quickly react to changes in environment in
  such way as being indicators to determine the
  conditions of eco-system
• aim to evaluate the status of the bat population
• monitring based on national legislation -
  regulation on the List of Particularly Conserved
  Species and Particularly Conserved Species og
  Limited Use
• assessment of the existing situation - monitoring
  is going on since 1992, data collected in data
  base Bats in Latvia
• observation methods -
• time - once a year different periods
• measurements - visual count, ultrasound detectors
  
• investment and maintenance costs 12 000 USD

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Monitoring stations of wintering bats
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Soil monitoring

• Priority areas set by EEA
• Soil sealing
• Soil erosion
• Local contamination (contaminated sites) and
  diffuse contamination