Integrating environmental monitoring with cumulative effects management and decision making

Long-term regional environmental monitoring, coupled with shorter-term and more localized monitoring carried out under regulatory permitting processes, is foundational to identifying, understanding, and effectively managing cumulative environmental effects. However, monitoring programs that emerge to support cumulative effects science are often short-lived initiatives or disconnected from land use planning and regulatory decision making. This paper examines the history and evolution of environmental monitoring in the Lower Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada, and the enabling and constraining influences of institutional arrangements. Methods involved a review of regional-scale monitoring programs based on an analysis of monitoring agency mandates, performance reports, and external program reviews, supplemented by discussions with monitoring program or agency key informants to triangulate results. Results show that monitoring to support cumulative effects understanding in the Lower Athabasca has advanced considerably, especially since the mid-1990s, but its relevance to, and impact on, cumulative effects management and decision making has been stifled by institutional arrangements. Monitoring has been episodic, reflecting shifting priorities and competing mandates; criticized by stakeholders based on concerns about transparency, credibility, influence over decision making; and characterized by short-lived commitments by the agencies involved. This has generated significant uncertainty about the stability of institutional arrangements to support long-term environmental monitoring, and tensions between the need for scientific autonomy for credible science whilst ensuring the pursuit of monitoring questions that are relevant to the day-to-day needs of regulatory decision makers. Regional monitoring programs require, at a minimum, clear vision and agreed-upon monitoring questions that are of scientific and management value, meaningful and balanced stakeholder engagement, and a clear governance process to ensure credibility and influence of monitoring results on decision making.

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Formation of requirements for the information system of environmental monitoring

10.36381/iamsti.4.2020.31-34 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 31-34

Author(s):

CHUNMEI JI

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Information System ◽

Decision Support ◽

Environmental Monitoring ◽

Environmental Uncertainty ◽

Agricultural Enterprises ◽

Ecological Uncertainty

The study considers the problem of decision-making in the actvites of agricultural enterprises in conditons of environmental uncertainty. The problem is formalized as a multcriteria conditonal optmizaton problem. The novelty of the work is that the factors are considered as dynamic fuzzy quanttes. The choice of the best alternatve is made between the elements of a predetermined fnite set of alternatves. Based on this formalizaton of the decision-making task, six requirements to the informaton system of decision support in the conditons of ecological uncertainty are formulated.

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A Novel Paradigm for Underwater Monitoring Using Mobile Sensor Networks

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20164615 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (16) ◽

pp. 4615 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anja Babić ◽

Ivan Lončar ◽

Barbara Arbanas ◽

Goran Vasiljević ◽

Tamara Petrović ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Fault Detection ◽

Environmental Monitoring ◽

Mobile Sensor Networks ◽

Experimental Setup ◽

Collective Decision Making ◽

Sensor Faults ◽

Mobile Sensor ◽

Lagoon Of Venice ◽

Environmental Anomalies

This paper presents a novel autonomous environmental monitoring methodology based on collaboration and collective decision-making among robotic agents in a heterogeneous swarm developed within the project subCULTron, tested in a realistic marine environment. The swarm serves as an underwater mobile sensor network for exploration and monitoring of large areas. Different robotic units enable outlier and fault detection, verification of measurements and recognition of environmental anomalies, and relocation of the swarm throughout the environment. The motion capabilities of the robots and the reconfigurability of the swarm are exploited to collect data and verify suspected anomalies, or detect potential sensor faults among the swarm agents. The proposed methodology was tested in an experimental setup in the field in two marine testbeds: the Lagoon of Venice, Italy, and Biograd an Moru, Croatia. Achieved experimental results described in this paper validate and show the potential of the proposed approach.

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Climate and environmental monitoring for decision making

Earth Perspectives ◽

10.1186/2194-6434-1-16 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 16 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Pietro Ceccato ◽

Katia Fernandes ◽

Daniel Ruiz ◽

Erica Allis

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Environmental Monitoring

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Reduction of uncertainties in exposure assessment based on environmental monitoring data

Radioprotection ◽

10.1051/radiopro/2020016 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 55 ◽

pp. S81-S88

Author(s):

M. Bleher ◽

F. Gering ◽

U. Stöhlker ◽

T. Karhunen ◽

A. Nalbandyan-Schwarz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Environmental Monitoring ◽

Emergency Preparedness ◽

Early Response ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Dose Assessment ◽

Monitoring Data ◽

Special Focus ◽

Mobile Monitoring ◽

Emergency Situations

Emergency preparedness and response systems for nuclear and radiological emergencies have to deal with decision-making in situations with relevant uncertainties. Consistent and appropriate protective measures must be decided before, during and after emergency situations. CONFIDENCE WP2 research helps to improve this decision-making process in the urgent response and the early response phase of emergency situations with potential major releases to atmosphere. This paper describes methods to reduce uncertainties in dose assessment for the population using data from stationary and mobile environmental monitoring programs. A special focus is given to identification of the measurement uncertainties of stationary and mobile monitoring systems. Methods to reduce these uncertainties and procedures to optimise mobile monitoring strategies are discussed. A first contribution towards assessing the quality of dose-rate measurements performed by the general population is made. In addition, the paper introduces approaches for advanced dose assessment tools using monitoring data and concepts for identifying critically exposed groups.

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Management of energy distribution and development of Arctic energy resources

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/201911002050 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 110 ◽

pp. 02050

Author(s):

Sergey Аgarkov ◽

Sergey Kozmenko ◽

Аnton Saveliev ◽

Аnna Тeslya

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Environmental Monitoring ◽

Industrial Development ◽

Environmental Planning ◽

Energy Resource ◽

Energy Resources ◽

Planning System ◽

Russian Arctic ◽

Managerial Decision ◽

Managerial Decision Making

The study is aimed at the issued of environmental planning and management of energy resource extraction in the Russian Arctic Zone. The paper presents a systematic overview of the factors currently hindering comprehensive analysis of the consequences of intensified industrial development of energy resources, and consequently, effective managerial decision-making counteracting negative environmental impacts in the Russian Arctic. The environmental safety of oil and gas facilities on the shelf greatly depends on a system for continuous environmental monitoring, which allows developing measures to reduce environmental risks. There were formulated the main provisions of environmental monitoring as an element of the environmental planning system for facilitating effective managerial decision-making in industrial development of Arctic energy resources.

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Participatory water resources monitoring as a science-policy tool: a decade of experience from the Andes

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-17960 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Boris Ochoa-Tocachi ◽

Wouter Buytaert ◽

Bert De Bièvre

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Water Resources ◽

Environmental Monitoring ◽

Science Policy ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Catchment Management ◽

Tropical Andes ◽

Policy Tool ◽

Governmental Institutions ◽

Hydrological Monitoring

Evidence-based decision making is seen as the key to sustainable water resource and catchment management. However, a major obstacle for evidence generation is the limited amount of data available from in-situ hydrometeorological monitoring. Monitoring is in decline globally, and this problem is particularly acute in high-elevation environments and in the tropics. Nevertheless, this situation also puts these environments in a promising position to study the potential of multi-source, polycentric generated information to tackle data scarcity.Established in 2009, a bottom-up partnership of academic and non-governmental institutions pioneered participatory hydrological monitoring in the tropical Andes. Participatory approaches to environmental monitoring are becoming increasingly popular and are being promoted as a potential pathway to address long-standing data gaps. The partnership, known as the Regional Initiative for Hydrological Monitoring of Andean Ecosystems (iMHEA from its Spanish abbreviation) has instrumented a network of more than 30 headwater research catchments (< 20 km2) covering four major biomes (p&#225;ramo, jalca, puna, and forest) in nine locations of the tropical Andes. Precipitation and streamflow are monitored at high frequency with the involvement of local communities, governments, and research institutions. The network is designed to characterize the impacts of changes in land use and watershed interventions on catchment hydrological response and has started delivering fundamental information to guide processes of decision making more effectively and influencing policy-making on water resources at local and national scales.Participatory water resources monitoring can be seen a science-policy tool. Here we present the drivers and context of the process that led to the creation of iMHEA, currently one of the largest initiatives of grassroots and participatory environmental monitoring in the world, and the main challenges that lie ahead. Observational data from experimental catchments have an essential value for hydrology and water resources management that increases with time. The long-term sustainability in the monitoring will allow a deeper understanding of current uncertainties, including seasonality, natural variability, environmental changes, and extreme events such as drought and flooding.

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