Some Basic Consideration in the Design of an Air Pollution Monitoring System

Quantified air quality and meteorological information provided by an air pollution monitoring system must be geared to the legally prescribed functions of the control agency. The network must be treated as a vital component of the total integrated data system that supports agency activities in air resources management and control. It should be closely interphased with data systems for emission inventory, registration and permits, violations and complaints, fuel use, emission reduction plans, land use, demographic projections, and urban planning. Compatibility with neighboring and statewide or regionwide data systems is essential for coordination of effort, especially under episode conditions.

The network should be planned on three levels, static, semi-automatic, and fully automatic, to provide monthly, daily, and up-to-the-minute measurements, respectively. Optimization of network specifications requires a three-way balance of hardware, control objectives, and agency resources (capital facilities, manpower, funding, etc.), of which the first two are realistically governed by the third.

A monitoring network could serve a wide range of functions, and there are pressures and temptations to cater to all possible users. A number of functions are listed; an order of priority should be determined. Experience shows that far more data tend to be generated than can be analyzed, assimilated, and utilized. Rapid data acquisition and on-line processing capabilities of present-day automatic networks could, without effective planning, result in mountainous backlogs of unassimilated information.

A systems engineering approach to planning will ascertain that preliminary requirements are critically scrutinized, and only genuine requirements that meet the test of constraints (natural environment, economic, legal, social, political constraints, and manpower resources) will be translated into performance specifications. By means of this approach, design characteristics that are extraneous or peripheral to the principal network functions can be identified as low priority luxuries, whereas seemingly expensive items may be justified on the basis of data reliability or long-range savings in operation and maintenance requirements.     

Utilization of growth parameters of eelgrass,Zostera marina,for productivity estimation under laboratory and in situ conditions

Allometry was used for monitoring aboveground growth of the marine angiosperm Zostera marina L. Dry weight was regressed with leaf length and width, allowing estimation of aboveground net productivity and biomass of individual plants. At the termination of the experiment, rhizome productivity of the same plants was determined by harvesting. Plants in shaded and unshaded seawater tanks were monitored from June until September, 1976; in situ plants were also monitored at Point Judith Pond, Rhode Island, USA. Unshaded plants had shorter leaves, a lower net productivity, lower biomass, and a lower aboveground-torhizome productivity ratio than shaded plants. Unshaded plants had a higher rate of rhizome branching and the resulting new shoot formation than in situ plants.     

Estimating the Carbon Content of Russian Forests; A Comparison of Phytomass/Volume and Allometric Projections

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - As increased attention is being paid to the role Russian forests play in the global carbon budget, the desirability of being able to...     

A Comparative Analysis of the Vegetation and Topsoil Cover Nutrient Status between Two Similarly Rehabilitated Ash Disposal Sites

The aim of this paper is to compare the rehabilitation result between two ash disposal sites with regard to its vegetation establishment and soil nutrient status. The study areas were situated in close proximity, in the Mpumalanga coalfield, South Africa. Although both areas received a similar amelioration treatment and were seeded with similar seed mixture the vegetation composition were significantly different. Both areas were poor in essential nutrients, this probably being one of the most limiting factors for vegetation establishment. No serious phytotoxic conditions, as is frequently experience with coal ash, could be identified. A regular monitoring and low level maintenance program is therefore proposed to improve the sustainability of the vegetation. The study proposed that results form such evaluations be used to identify performance standards for rehabilitated derelict land.     

Simple rules for measuring changes in ecosystem carbon in forestry-offset projects

There is growing interest in the useof forestry-offset projects to mitigate increasingconcentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If forestry-offset projects are to be employed broadlyand successfully there need to be accounting rulesthat are easy to operationalize and effective inpreventing cheating. Since carbon is both tangibleand predictable in where it occurs it is feasible todevelop simple accounting rules. Such rules must beconservative with respect to the amount of carboncredited.If accounting practices based on the following simplerules are employed, costs will be kept low andprojects will credit only carbon that is physicallypresent:Changes in living aboveground biomass must always be measured in forestry –offset projects.Belowground living biomass can be estimated from aboveground living biomass in forestry-offset projects. Generalized root/shoot ratios can be used as long as conservative ratios are applied.Not all changes in soil carbon stocks need to be measured, only those for which there is a possibility the stock is declining.The necromass pool need not be measured except when there has been a recent disturbance (interval varies with ecosystem). To insure that inaccurate techniques do not lead to overestimating of carbon stock changes, imprecise estimates of the carbon content of an ecosystem compartment should be discounted.There should be no required level of accuracy associated with estimates of carbon stock changes in forestry-offset projects, but the creditable carbon should be discounted proportional to the uncertainty.