Requirements for developing a regional monitoring capacity for aerosols in Europe within EMEP

The European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) has been established to provide information to Parties to the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution on deposition and concentration of air pollutants, as well as on the quantity and significance of long-range transmission of pollutants and transboundary fluxes. To achieve its objectives with the required scientific credibility and technical underpinning, a close integration of the programme's main elements is performed. These elements are emission inventories, chemical transport modelling, and the monitoring of atmospheric chemistry and deposition fluxes, which further are integrated towards abatement policy development. A critical element is the air pollution monitoring that is performed across Europe with a focus not only on health effect aspects and compliance monitoring, but also on process studies and source receptor relationships. Without a strong observational basis a predictive modelling capacity cannot be developed and validated. Thus the modelling success strongly depends on the quality and quantity of available observations. Particulate matter (PM) is a relatively recent addition to the EMEP monitoring programme, and the network for PM mass observations is still evolving. This article presents the current status of EMEP aerosol observations, followed by a critical evaluation in view of EMEP's main objectives and its model development requirements. Specific recommendations are given for improving the PM monitoring programme within EMEP.     

Integrated background monitoring in the USSR

The whole biosphere of the Earth is faced with an increasing anthropogenic pressure. Mankind uses natural resources for its physical and spiritual demands so widely that undesirable effects appear not only in separate regions but embrace the whole biosphere as well. As a rule, such processes develop slowly. They have an irreversible character and to avoid them, preventive decisions are needed. For that purpose, comprehensive and systematic information on the state of the biosphere is needed.The integrated background monitoring system has been implemented and is in operation in the USSR. Structurally, the integrated background monitoring system is divided into three groups: background stations on land; background stations on fresh water; and background stations on inland and periphery seas.All of the data received from these stations are analyzed and correlated at the Natural Environment and Climate Monitoring Laboratory of the USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Control of the Natural Environment, the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in other scientific institutes of the State Committee. The information serves for the assessment of the state of the environment, prediction of anthropogenic effects, and for evaluation of the measures taken to prevent pollution of the biosphere at national and international levels.The information is shared in a wide international exchange within the framework of several international organizations (UNEP, WMO, UNESCO, ECE, CMEA, and others) and of the bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of environmental protection (USA, France, Sweden, FRG, CMEA Member Countries).     

Urgent problems of improving background air pollution monitoring systems

For more than 12 years, systematic observations of background air pollution have been carried out in accordance with the WMO Programme using the network of USSR stations located in sparsely populated settlements and in a number of neighbouring cities. The parameters involved include spectral radiation measurements, determination of chemical composition of precipitation and the concentrations of a number of atmospheric pollutants. Analysis of the data obtained allows conclusions to be drawn on the capabilities of the current system and to evaluate methods of improving it.In order to further improve the monitoring system, it is recommended that the system should perform the same observations on air pollution and precipitation as carried out by other international and national programs, and also to create centralized laboratories to deal with the analysis of samples from these monitoring stations. Additionally, solid sorbents are emerging as an effective means of sampling certain air pollutants. They may be sent by post, they increase the accuracy of measurements and allow air sampling intervals of up to 7–10 days, thus synchronizing this period with the interval of precipitation sampling.     

Design of an integrated monitoring programme in Sweden

A National Swedish Environmental Monitoring Programme, the PMK, has been designed for regular and permanent recording of environmental conditions and long-term changes in background regions, and for keeping track of the flux of pollutants in and between various media. Many of the projects involved deal with integrated monitoring of terrestrial and limnic ecosystems. This work is carried out in or near some 20 small watersheds, usually selected in national parks or nature reserves. The environmental factors monitored in these areas include concentrations of chemical substances in precipitation, soil, groundwater, surface water, and organisms, as well as biological parameters—such as the population size and reproductive capacity of certain species—that may indicate effects of environmental disturbances. The data from this programme can be used as a reference to environmental data acquired near pollution sources, and as a basis for measures against e.g. acid rain, heavy-metal pollution, and use of pesticides. The biological parameters may also reveal effects of yet unknown pollutants or other disturbances.     

Integrated monitoring — Principles and practice

The concept of integrated monitoring is examined and defined. The different types and applications of monitoring in the United Kingdom are considered against the information they can provide. Two examples of integrated monitoring of health hazards in the UK are described. The relevance of the principles and the practice to the assessment of regional and global environmental problems is discussed and suggestions made for their review.The authors are with the Central Directorate on Environmental Pollution, Department of the Environment     

Objectives,components and experiences in the development of The IOC Marine Pollution Monitoring System (MARPOLMON)

The Marine Pollution Monitoring System (MARPOLMON) constitutes a marine chemical component of the Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS). The Programme covers all matters related to marine pollution research and associated monitoring activities required for the assessment of marine pollution. MARPOLMON constitutes the data-gathering activity, being directed to accurately determine levels of selected contaminants in several phases of the marine environment in various regions of the World Ocean. It is envisaged to utlize MARPOLMON generated data for the purposes of construction of mass-balances and making contamination and pollution assessments in regional and global contexts.Data gathering, reporting and exchange requires stringent control of the quality of the information retrieved, which in turn dictates the development and testing of standard methodology, its widespread adoption and intercomparison of methods and feedback-refinement of orogonal methods or hypotheses.     

The estimation and interpretation of air quality trends,including some implications for network design

A review is given of methods being used to identify and interpret trends in air quality data from single stations and from networks of stations. Some comments are also included concerning the problem of designing networks which will identify trends as quickly as possible, thus providing early warnings of significant changes in air quality.Reprinted from the Preprint Volume, WMO Technical Conference on Regional and Global Observation of Atmospheric Pollution Relative to Climate, Boulder, Col., Aug. 1979, WMO Geneva, No. 549.     

国家地下水环境质量考核监测体系构建与应用

为支撑国家地下水环境管理与污染防治,在系统梳理我国地下水环境监测发展历程的基础上,分析了当前地下水环境监测的技术特点,从支撑国家地下水环境质量考核的角度出发,研究构建了涵盖点位布设、监测指标选取、样品采集与保存、样品分析测试、质量保证与质量控制、质量评价等全流程的监测技术体系和质量管理体系,建立了"十四五"国家地下水环境质量考核监测网络建设及业务运行模式。基于覆盖全国所有地级及以上城市、主要水文地质单元、典型规模以上地下水型饮用水水源地与重点污染源的考核监测网络,建立了完善的地下水环境监测技术与质量管理体系,有效支撑了国家地下水环境质量考核,有助于各级管理部门掌握地下水环境质量状况,有针对性地开展地下水污染防治,为逐步改善地下水环境质量提供基础保障。     

Reference Point Approach for Multi-objective Assessment and Reduction of Ground-Level O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Air Quality Monitoring Network in Vojvodina Province,Serbia

A monitoring network of ground-level ozone (O₃) concentration levels in Vojvodina Province, Serbia, has been established in several phases, resulting in nine sampling sites (monitoring stations). Because maintenance of a monitoring network is financially very demanding, identifying potentially redundant ozone sites and reducing the network to a cost-effective and functional one are challenging and complex tasks. To provide an easily applicable but reliable analytical framework that will allow decision-makers and other stakeholders to identify redundant ground O₃ monitors, the reference point approach, presented by Cetinkaya and Harmancioglu (Journal of Hydrology, 2014), is adopted for a multi-objective assessment of the O₃ monitoring network. The evaluation process of the stations’ performance and their ranking is implemented in several phases. Firstly, a comprehensive set of 13 performance attributes is defined and associated with location and environmental criteria, followed by defining the set of alternatives. Next, all required attribute data are collected and stations are evaluated using the reference point approach. Finally, verification of the results is performed by aggregation of ranks obtained using the ideal point multi-criteria methods compromise programing and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. The aggregation process is performed using the Borda count and Kemeny social choice theory methods. Results indicate that the number of stations can be significantly reduced by 67%. Also, selection of the three best performing stations enabled identification of a core network that is expected to be functionally and financially sustainable under growing environmental and economic pressure.     

Problems of correlation of global and local monitoring of air pollution

1. The Air Polluttion Monitoring System has got a significant development of late, which is in direct relation with a considerable extention and improvement of the observation network in cities and industrial areas, with creation of a new network for assessing regional and global background of the atmosphere pollution, as well as with the wide involvement of meteorologists to monitoring organization.
2. While developing a new global monitoring system, it is necessary to take into account its relationship with the local monitoring within the region of air pollution sources, i.e. at the \lsimpact\rs level. The need in such an account is dictated first of all by the physics of pollutant spreading that states: changes in air pollution over large territories must be in a certain agreement with greater changes in the vicinity of emission sources. Methods applied in the global and local monitoring have also a number of common peculiarities. White organizing regional network for observations of the background pollution of the atmosphere twin stations (one of the pair of stations located outside the city boundaries in a small community, and the other, in the nearest city with the population of 200–400 thousand inhabitants) were established in the U.S.S.R. and in a number of socialist countries in Europe.
3. Implementation of the twin-station principles in the U.S.S.R. has contributed to data interpretation and representativity assessment as well as to correction of the station location. Observation results from the Soviet background stations and those abroad have been compared by now according to a number of indices.
4. The correlation of monitoring systems of various scales tells positively both on mutual improvement and completion of observational methods. The methods of obtaining integral characteristics of air pollution were used for the global monitoring, in particular spectral actinometric observations and chemical analysis of the precipitation composition. Now they find still wider employment. Thus methods of spectral actinometric measurements and data processing were used to estimate the degree of aerosol pollution of a number of industrial centres. The theory of solar radiation spreading and aerosol contents determination in urban atmosphere has also been developed. It is a generalization of an earlier developed theory, used to estimate global atmosphere pollution basing on actinometric data. The organization of precipitation collection and analysis on a network of stations around Leningrad and in Donbass area enables us to compare the admixture content in precipitations falling in industrial and agricultural areas.
5. A considerable increase of possibilities to measure microconcentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and of a number of other pollutants is connected with the use of solid solvents for sampling. Their use will allow to avoid establishment of special laboratories at background stations and only send samples by post for their analysis in centralized laboratories.

They will also allow to considerably increase precision and accuracy of measurements. The international comparisons of methods of air pollution measurements on the background level allow to judge about the effiency of these methods.     

Siting analyses for water quality sampling in a catchment

Pollution loads discharged from upstream development or human activities significantly degrade the water quality of a reservoir. The design of an appropriate water quality sampling network is therefore important for detecting potential pollution events and monitoring pollution trends. However, under a limited budgetary constraint, how to site an appropriate number of sampling stations is a challenging task. A previous study proposed a method applying the simulated annealing algorithm to design the sampling network based on three cost factors including the number of reaches, bank length, and subcatchment area. However, these factors are not directly related to the distribution of possible pollution. Thus, this study modified the method by considering three additional factors, i.e. total phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment loads. The larger the possible load, the higher the probability of a pollution event may occur. The study area was the Derchi reservoir catchment in Taiwan. Pollution loads were derived from the AGNPS model with rainfall intensity estimated using the Thiessen method. Analyses for a network with various numbers of sampling sites were implemented. The results obtained based on varied cost factors were compared and discussed. With the three additional factors, the chosen sampling network is expected to properly detect pollution events and monitor pollution distribution and temporal trends.     

构建覆盖国家环境监测网的质量控制体系

"十二五"期间,中国将全面完成国家环境监测网的布局与建设,环境管理将开始由以环境污染控制为目标导向,向以环境质量改善为目标导向转变,以全面考核空气、水环境和土壤等环境质量的新环境管理时代即将来临。从现有环境监测质控体系所发挥的作用、存在的问题以及环境管理的需求出发,提出构建覆盖国家环境监测网的质量控制体系,论述各级环境监测站的质控职责,尤其是省级监测站作为地区质量控制中心,应该和国家站一起加大自身质控能力建设,为提高环境监测数据的可信度做好质控工作。     

Trends in background levels of persistent organic pollutants at Kosetice observatory, Czech Republic.1) Part I. Ambient air and wet deposition 1996-2005

Kosetice observatory is a facility of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, which is a part of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) network. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs: PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, PAHs) have been monitored in all environmental matrices using the integrated monitoring approach. Generally, the atmospheric levels of POPs in this Central European background station (mean values: 0.115 ng m(-3) for SigmaPCBs, 0.040 ng m(-3) for SigmaDDTs, 0.077 ng m(-3) for SigmaHCHs, and 17 ng m(-3) for SigmaPAHs) are significantly higher than those in other EMEP stations localized mostly in Northern and Western Europe. Long-term trends of POP concentrations in the ambient air and wet deposition are presented in this article and they show a slow decline in the last decade for most of the investigated compounds. Temporally increased levels of certain chemicals were associated with some local climatic (floods) or socio-economic (fuel prices) factors.     

Assessment of water quality monitoring for the optimal sensor placement in lake Yahuarcocha using pattern recognition techniques and geographical information systems

Pollution and the eutrophication process are increasing in lake Yahuarcocha and constant water quality monitoring is essential for a better understanding of the patterns occurring in this ecosystem. In this study, key sensor locations were determined using spatial and temporal analyses combined with geographical information systems (GIS) to assess the influence of weather features, anthropogenic activities, and other non-point pollution sources. A water quality monitoring network was established to obtain data on 14 physicochemical and microbiological parameters at each of seven sample sites over a period of 13 months. A spatial and temporal statistical approach using pattern recognition techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA) and discriminant analysis (DA), was employed to classify and identify the most important water quality parameters in the lake. The original monitoring network was reduced to four optimal sensor locations based on a fuzzy overlay of the interpolations of concentration variations of the most important parameters.     

江苏省设区市生态环境监测监控规划关键问题研究

生态环境监测是生态文明建设的重要支撑。在设区市级环境监测监控能力普遍较弱、生态环境保护压力巨大的双重背景下,编制设区市生态环境监测监控规划具有重要意义。在调查了江苏省部分设区市环境监测监控规划的基础上,总结了规划编制在监测监控网络建设、监测监控能力建设、质量管理、大数据应用建设、人才队伍建设等方面的主要内容,针对规划中普遍存在的组织架构不清晰、特色发展定位不明确、环境监测监控融合发展谋划不足、项目建设可行性论证不够等关键问题,提出应理顺组织架构、明确特色发展定位、加强环境监测监控一体化发展谋划、加强项目建设可行性论证等对策建议,以期为今后的规划编制工作提供相关借鉴。     

浅谈基层监测站"十二五"能力建设方向

依据环境监测能力建设标准,提出了"十二五"期间基层监测站能力建设的目标和要求,指出实现"三个说得清",应以科研工作为先导,以污染防治为核心,以信息化建设为载体,强化对环境质量综合分析和环境风险源筛分排查,充分发挥基层监测站的作用,更好地为环境管理提供准确有效技术支持的建设思路.     

Some international activities in environmental health monitoring and surveillance

Environmental health monitoring and surveillance include activities such as collection of information on the production and use of chemicals; preparation of inventories of waste discharges; measurement of physical, chemical and biological agents in air, water and food, at work place and at home; epidemiological investigations, and collection and analysis of environmental, and health statistical data. There are two main objectives of these activities: estimation of human exposure to potentially harmful environmental factors and timely detection of adverse health effects; and the assessment of environmental conditions in relation to established guidelines and standards. Environmental health monitoring and surveillance projects initiated, organized and implemented by the Specialized Agencies and other bodies of the United Nations system include monitoring of air and water quality and of food and animal feed contamination; pilot projects on air pollution exposure assessment and biological monitoring; and ionizing radiation surveillance. Principles of environmental and health monitoring in occupational environment, and of monitoring and surveillance of environmental health effects are outlined. Two examples are provided of national environmental health surveillance systems.Revised and up-dated text of a paper presented at the World congress on Environmental Health in Development Planning, Mexico City, November 1979.Formerly Manager, Environmental Health Criteria and Standards, and Chief Central Unit, International Programme on Chemical Safety, Division of Environmental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.     

新疆环境监测网络的建设及发展对策

新疆环境监测网络建立三十多年来,已经初步形成了水环境、环境空气、声环境、生态环境和污染源等监测网络,较好地承担了各环境要素例行监测、突发性环境污染事故应急监测和环境科研等监测任务,为各级环保决策提供了有效的技术支持。然而,随着环境管理工作的不断深入,新疆环境监测网络所呈现的一些新老问题已成为不适应环境管理需求的制约因素,本文通过分析新疆环境监测网络中存在的问题,提出了发展对策。     

地级市环境监测站信息系统建设构想

分析国内环境监测业务和环境监测信息化建设的现状和发展趋势,提出地级市环境监测站信息系统的监测业务、数据中心、综合应用3层构架思路,对信息系统各层次的主要功能作出描述,着重对环境监测业务系统的集成和分工进行阐述。进行环境监测信息系统建设,在先进性、安全性、稳定性和可扩充性等方面满足地级市环境监测部门今后相当长一段时期内的信息化建设需求。     

化工园区安全与环境一体化智慧监测管理

中国化工园区入驻企业日趋复杂,已有园区面临转型升级,新建园区不断涌现,园区之间竞争激烈,安全与环境隐患较大。为进一步提升化工园区的安全与环境管理水平,笔者研究工业园区安全与环境监测的技术需求、主要监测内容与信息化实现手段,提出了智慧管理的一体化解决方案。主要包括安全与环境监测、一园一档、安全生产及园区封闭化管理4个模块,概括为感知层、网络层、应用层3个层次。智慧管理方案充分利用物联网、云计算、大数据、三维倾斜GIS、数据孪生等先进信息化手段,建立智慧化的环境监督和安全生产监督体系及平台系统,可提高园区安全、环境监测预警及应对突发事件的能力。在园区新型工业化发展过程中,环安一体化、信息化建设有助于园区争夺高端产业,加快科技自主创新,促进产业转型升级,完善民生保障体系,推动园区产业高质量发展。