Monitoring Programme

What is monitoring? Environmental monitoring is the systematic observation, measurement and calculation of the condition of the environment, emission of pollutants, or population and species over time.

Why monitoring – philosophy? assessment of the conditions of the environment: provides reliable information on the status and trends of flora, fauna, soil etc.; sets priorities; and, identify populations, species and ecosystems at risk before they become threatened or endangered. determine the factors causing the observed trends development of environment policies, the planning of environmental protection measures as well as the control of the effectiveness forecasting future trends (for example, based on alternative policy and management decisions)

Why monitoring - policy context EU Directives e.g., on Conservation of Wild Birds 79/409/EEC; on Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora 92/43/EEC and forest related directives, etc. International Conventions e.g., Global - Convention of Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar 1971), Convention of Biodiversity etc. and regional National legislation e.g, Environmental Protection Law Chapter VI: Environmental Monitoring and Information “The Ministry, through KEPA, shall monitor the state of the Environment and provide continual observation of the Environment, the state of valuable feature and the Degradation and use of Natural Resources and their impact on human health”.

Benefits of monitoring program to avoid overlapping of environmental monitoring, when different institutions with restricted financial means of the state budget carry out analogous observation to ensure monitoring in nationally or internationally important fields, where monitoring until now is not carried out or does not meet the requirements plan monitoring activities in the state´s budget

What to monitor? habitats – terrestrial or aquatic areas distinguished by geographic, abiotic and biotic features, whether entirely natural or semi-natural (examples grasslands, alpine zones, forest monitoring etc.); species – endangered plant species, invasive plant species, endangered bird species, migratory bird species, and invasive animal species (more…) geological processes – erosion, seismic processes, karst processes, etc. soil – agriculture land soil and vegetation, heavy metals in mosses, soil radiation, soil contamination, etc.

What to include in a monitoring program? A: Assessment of existing situation - what is available (former and on-going observations, coverage, etc.)? B: Proposed measurements – what has to be measured? C: Methods – how shall it be measured? D: Proposed monitoring network- where should the measurements be done? E: Structure of monitoring information system – who are the data holders? F: Time - how often it should be measured? G: Funding needed – what is the investment needed? H: Other proposals?

Example - monitoring program on bats in Latvia -all bat species, found in Latvia, internationally protected -bats quickly react to changes in environment in such way as being indicators to determine the conditions of eco-system - aim to evaluate the status of the bat population -monitring based on national legislation - regulation on the List of Particularly Conserved Species and Particularly Conserved Species og Limited Use -assessment of the existing situation - monitoring is going on since 1992, data collected in data base ´Bats in Latvia´ -observation methods - -time - once a year different periods -measurements - visual count, ultrasound detectors -investment and maintenance costs = USD

Monitoring stations of wintering bats

Soil monitoring Priority areas set by EEA –Soil sealing –Soil erosion –Local contamination (contaminated sites) and diffuse contamination