A Survey Of Environmental Monitoring Information Management Programmes Of International Organizations

First published in 1992. In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment initiated the process of world environmental cooperation. This study is about GEMS (the Global Environment Monitoring System) which the Conference recommended be set up to generate data and information necessary for worldwide environmental assessment. This book examines the genesis and evolution of GEMS, and the complex task involved in establishing GEMS and making it perform its functions. It relates GEMS to the factors which have shaped the international environmental agenda and cooperation since 1972. In particular, it highlights North-South differences and the problems inherent in the international organizations belonging to the UN system, vis-á-vis the novel and multifaceted challenges involved in dealing with systemic, cross-sectoral nature of global environmental problems. The lessons of GEMS and other issues presented in this book are highly relevant to the continuing efforts to set up effective programmes for ‘earthwatching’ and to promote international environmental cooperation. They also relate more broadly to the challenges of managing global interdependence and to the need to devise supporting organizational structures through reform and strengthening of the UN system. The comprehensive nature of the political and institutional analyses presented in this book make it an academic reference work of lasting value. Its frank tone and willingness to derive prescriptive conclusions will appeal in particular to the many actors engaged in the processes and structures of global multilateral cooperation. The book will be of special use to those interested in environmental issues and international organization

The focus of this book is on the management of the geoenvironment. It seeks to explain how, through an understanding of the environmental processes that take place in rocks, soils, waters, sediments, air and so on, the resources contained in them could be managed sustainably. Topics covered in the book include: Ecologically-sustainable industrial development; dynamics of the geoenvironment; the impact of mining on rocks, soils, water and biota; the natural radiation environment; the use of geotechnology to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters and the disposal of various kinds of waste, particulary hazardous waste. The models proposed by the World Bank on how to make environemntal amelioration economcially viable are also looked at.

An integrated approach to environmental data management is necessitated by the complexity of the environmental problems that need to be addresses, coupled with the interdisciplinary approach that needs to be adopted to solve them. Agenda 21 of the Rio Environmental Conference mandated international programmes and organizations to take steps to develop common data and information management plans, and steps have been taken in this direction. The key word that defines the framework of the present book is `integration'. The book establishes the basics of integrated approaches and covers environmental data management systems within that framework, covering all aspects of data management, from objectives and constraints, design of data collection networks, statistical and physical sampling, remote sensing and GIS, databases, reliability of data, data analysis, and the transformation of data into information.

Environmental informatics is a field of applied computer science that develops and uses the techniques of information processing for environmental protection, research and engineering. The multidisciplinary nature of environmental problems needs environmental informatics as a bridge and mediator between many disciplines and institutions. The present book presents a wide range of topics currently being pursued in the area, including basic methodological issues and typical applications. A significant number of recognised experts have contributed to the volume, discussing the methodology and application of environmental monitoring, environmental databases and information systems, GIS, modeling software, environmental management systems, knowledge-based systems, and the visualisation of complex environmental data. For scholarly and professional practitioners of environmental management who wish to acquire well-founded knowledge of environmental information processing and specialists in applied computer science who wish to learn more about the contribution of their field to the solution of our urgent environmental problems.