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Monitoring Programme
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.
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)
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”.
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 state´s budget
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.
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?
Example - monitoring program on bats in Latvia
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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
Monitoring stations of wintering bats
Soil monitoring
Priority areas set by EEA
– Soil sealing
– Soil erosion
– Local contamination (contaminated sites) and
diffuse contamination