Environmental Monitoring

Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment.

Environmental Monitoring is a vital role in determining health and safety issues for the purpose of public health or environmental health. Their main job is sampling - soil, atmospheric and water but they will also take air samples inside buildings to ensure workplace regulations are met. People who work in Environmental Monitoring can be looking for many things. The most obvious is pollutants or radioactivity, especially when looking to build a case of negligence against an individual or business, or for evidence of the effects of climate change.

This will not be the only role in which they may be involved. Experts in chemistry will look for specific chemicals or chemical changes - and these can be natural as often as they are artificial. From a biological perspective, they may look for microorganisms and bacteria (e. coli, listeria) to determine the source of an outbreak of illness in a human or animal population, or environmental damage. They may also be looking for population monitoring, examining the instances - rise or decline - of species in an area.