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Basic Principles of Environmental monitoring



Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterise and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment. All monitoring strategies and programmes have reasons and justifications which are often designed to establish the current status of an environment or to establish trends in environmental parameters. In all cases the results of monitoring will be reviewed, analysed statistically and published. The design of a monitoring programme must therefore have regard to the final use of the data before monitoring starts.

The course will highlight principles and techniques of effective environmental monitoring programs, how to develop and design a scientific monitoring program using a variety of approaches and how to use bioindicators to monitor ecosystem health. We will discuss how these methods may be used to monitor amphibian populations and their habitats. The field component will focus on the use of amphibians as bio-indicators of the integrity of freshwater habitats in the Pilis Hills, and near Lake Balaton. On-site habitat assessments will be complemented by quantitative field work using Visual Encounter Surveys (VESs) and the amphibian Road Call Count (RCC) method. Group reports will be based on data derived from selected sites.

1) Most monitoring programs fail to meet their stated goals because of insufficient work being done before the monitoring program is implemented. We will begin the course by discussing key issues that must be addressed for a successful study.  

2) Building on the first lecture, we will discuss appropriate study design to ensure that the data derived from a monitoring program is capable of answering the questions of concern. This sounds obvious, but is where many monitoring programs fail. 

3) Techniques in contaminant monitoring will be the focus of the third lecture and will draw on case studies including lead enrichment in ice cores in the arctic to contamination of freshwaters by pharmaceuticals. 

4) The effects of contamination and a changing environment are often most readily understood by their impact on sensitive bioindicators. We will examine a suite of bioindicators to measures of ecosystem change and environmental contamination, with special emphasis on amphibians. 

5) Measuring environmental changes is often more practical and cost effective using remote sensing. We will look at some remote sensing techniques with an emphasis on current satellite platforms and their capabilities for detecting environmental change. 

6) Monitoring is expensive, and often too resource challenging for any one person or agency. Partnerships using a volunteer- or community-based approach have been successful at overcoming these problems for some monitoring programs. We will discuss the pros and cons of a volunteer-based monitoring program and will use the Marsh Monitoring Program in Canada as a case study which will provide some background to the field component of the course. 

7) How various monitoring techniques fit together to provide a comprehensive ecosystem-based monitoring program will be the subject of the last lecture, using Sirmilik National Park of Canada as a case study.

8) The field component of the course will involve 'hands-on' approaches to assessing habitats and estimating abundance of various anuran species along a series of ponds leading into Lake Balaton. It will also provide students with an opportunity to improve their ethics in conducting field ecology research.

 


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