Undertaking environmental monitoring and assessments


  • Increasing environmental reporting
  • Maintaining environmental information systems
  • Providing environmental reports
  • Improving environmental monitoring

Context

Integrated environmental assessment needs to be firmly based on reliable technical data and information. Environmental progress and policy effectiveness can be assessed only if quality data are routinely collected through monitoring systems. However, environmental monitoring infrastructure is poorly developed in most countries, making regular production of policy-relevant environmental data and indicators impossible. The situation is being exacerbated by the decline of some existing monitoring systems due to shrinking resources.

Implementation

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends:

(a) environmental monitoring and assessment, both through improved participation by the UN system agencies in the Earthwatch programme and expanded relations with private scientific and non-governmental research institutes; and strengthening and making operational its early warning function;

(b) strengthening national, state/provincial and local assessment and ensuring cooperation/networking between existing environmental information and monitoring systems, such as Earthwatch and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory;

(c) supporting and concentrating UNEP capacity in this field.

Claim

  1. Environmental assessments need data that are geo-referenced and information that is broken down by spatial areas other than administrative units. These data are still relatively scarce.

  2. Assessment at regional and global scale requires the aggregation of data relating to smaller areas. Data can be aggregated only if they measure the same thing in the same way and with the same precision. Available data frequently do not measure up to these specifications.

  3. Shortcomings make integrated, cross-sectoral global assessment and trend analysis always difficult and sometimes impossible.

Narrower

  1. Undertaking community monitoring of resources
  2. Reporting sources of environmental information used by international organizations
  3. Reporting on global environmental status
  4. Producing state-of-environment reports
  5. Producing national environmental action plans
  6. Producing environmental resource inventories
  7. Practicing corporate environmental self-assessment
  8. Monitoring progress on integrating environment and development goals
  9. Monitoring pollution hazards of industrial research
  10. Monitoring pollution
  11. Monitoring ozone depletion
  12. Monitoring global environment
  13. Monitoring desertification
  14. Monitoring changes in the marine environment
  15. Monitoring biodiversity
  16. Integrating climate change and environmental monitoring programmes
  17. Improving environmental health monitoring
  18. Establishing local monitoring group
  19. Establishing criteria for monitoring forest resources
  20. Creating environmental monitoring and assessment systems
  21. Conducting natural resources damage assessments
  22. Conducting environmental audits
  23. Collecting environmental data
  24. Assessing environmental impacts


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