Monitoring of the environment: what it is and how it is carried out

The powerful urbanization of recent years has led to the fact that humanity was on the verge of a real ecological disaster. There is not enough clean water and air, as well as food that is not contaminated by various kinds of harmful substances. Therefore, environmental protection, an important element of which is environmental monitoring , is becoming an increasingly priority area in almost all developed countries.

What is it? In simpler terms, such monitoring is a system of interrelated systemic activities, with the constant implementation of which scientists receive information about the current state of specific ecological systems, and also can in time reveal the signs of violations starting in one or another biocenosis.

And every year more and more important is not so much the classical monitoring of the environment, as its version, which studies the influence of man on the environment. Especially relevant is the control near major cities, which have a purely catastrophic impact on nature.

It should not be considered that all these measures are represented by only two measurements. As already mentioned, environmental monitoring is a system of measurements. The purity of atmospheric air is monitored; Scientists take samples of specific atmospheric precipitation or snow cover; Are also selected for the analysis of samples from reservoirs.

Radiological monitoring of soil, air and water, as well as background monitoring of the general state of the biosphere, is also important. Thus, environmental monitoring of the environment allows for a comprehensive control of the quality of the human environment and timely measures to eliminate the hazards identified.

It should be noted that environmental monitoring of air should be carried out daily where there is a developed industrial production.

It is especially important to determine whether there are such dangerous substances in the air as hydrogen sulphide, formaldehydes, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. They can cause the fallout of so-called acid precipitation, from which the large cities are constantly suffering.

Equally important is the monitoring of the environment, aimed at studying atmospheric precipitation. In sediments near large industrial centers, the content of lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic is necessarily measured. Any excess of their maximum permissible concentrations can lead to serious health problems in the local population.

Accordingly, carrying out soil analyzes near industrial cities is also important.

Such studies are conducted annually, while monitoring also determines the degree of soil contamination with heavy metals.

In the light of comparatively recent events in Japan and in the Primorsky region, monitoring of the environment, connected with the measurement of radiation activity, has become extremely important.

Summarizing, we can say that the prevention of environmentally hazardous situations depends to a large extent on correct and timely measurements that can warn about the danger in time.