The main objective of environmental monitoring is to manage and minimize the impact an organization’s activities have on an environment, either to ensure compliance with laws and regulations or to mitigate risks of harmful effects on the natural environment and protect the health of human beings.
As human population, industrial activities, and energy consumption continues to grow, the continued development of advanced, automated monitoring applications and devices is crucial for enhancing the accuracy of environmental monitoring reports and the cost-effectiveness of the environmental monitoring process.
Monitoring programs are published outlines within an organization that detail precisely which elements are being monitored, overall objectives, specific strategies, proposed sampling methods, projects within each strategy, and time frames.
Environmental monitoring products and environmental monitoring software, such as Environmental Data Management Systems (EDMS), facilitate the implementation and monitoring of environmental monitoring and assessment programs, which includes a central data management hub, automated environmental monitoring alerts, compliance checking, validation, quality control, and generation of reports on dataset comparisons.
The advantages of environmental monitoring lie in its ability to improve the quality of life for society by highlighting the relationship between the environment and health. Transforming environmental monitoring data into information and communicating actionable insights to the community in a timely manner is crucial for keeping citizens informed of the state of their environment.
Practical environmental monitoring applications include protection of public water supplies, management of hazardous and radioactive waste, identification and analyzation of pollution sources that affect urban air quality and its effects on human health, protection and management of natural resources like soil and water supplies, weather forecasting, resource allocation for land planning and economic development with energy analytics and energy business intelligence, identifying population density patterns in relation to natural resources and economic development, mapping of natural resources, protection of endangered species, and global climate change.