Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
it should be remembered that the monitoring process is a cycling or “closed-loop”
process. This cycled process could have different steps, but a commonly used one is
illustrated in Figure 2.1.
Often in developing countries, the authorities involved in the every day running of
monitoring programs are not satisfied by the results, obtained from their programs. In
many cases, such programs have not been implemented at all or are in their initial phase.
Usually, the unsatisfactory results are explained with lack of financial resources, or lack
of well-equipped and maintained laboratories, or lack of trained personnel to use the
equipment. These factors have been officially recognized and in a number of cases, new
water quality laboratories have been established and measures taken to provide the
necessary capacity building of such institutions. It needs to be emphasized, however, that
even the best technical basis could not substitute the need for a thorough analysis of the
local conditions, and an adequate design of the monitoring program, which should be
based on the available resources. Also, special care should be taken to maintain the
technical facilities in good condition, and to upgrade the available resources in terms of
equipment and skills of the supporting personnel.
In numerous cases, considerable efforts and costs have been spent in order to
implement a new monitoring program with no satisfactory results. This is usually due to
the fact that the cycle has not been closed or because mistakes have been made at its
different stages. Some problems often met in developing countries' practices are:
• No clear objectives have been defined
• The parameters, which have been chosen, do not correspond to the formulated
objectives. In many cases, too many parameters are listed, leading to waste of efforts
and resources;
• Methodologies for measurements do not match the standard requirements, leading to
unreliable information output;
Figure 2.1. The closed-loop monitoring
cycle.
