Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5 Monitoring, surveillance and
empowerment
Our analysis of actual changes in environmental governance under new
informational conditions starts with processes of environmental mon-
itoring and information collection. This chapter focuses primarily on
environmental monitoring, and the following chapters are dedicated
to the use of such informational resources in governance (although, as
we will see, a very strict separation is not really possible). After intro-
ducing conventional ideas and modes of environmental monitoring,
attention will turn to informational innovations in monitoring and the
new questions that come to the fore: questions on informational power
through enhanced monitoring capacities, questions of surveillance that
come along with informational power and the enhanced possibilities
of countersurveillance by citizen-consumers.
1. Conventional environmental monitoring
Traditionally, nation-states and national environmental authorities
have been given the task and responsibilities for collecting, handling
and disseminating environmental information. This task has always
been connected to the collective good character of the environment.
Initially, states took the initiative to set up nationwide environmental
monitoring programs, consisting of three main parts. First, states were
central in measuring environmental quality of, among others, surface
water, ground water and drinking water; of (especially outdoor) air
quality; of pollution levels of soil (on agricultural land, industrial areas,
waste dumps, and so on); and of the quality of nature reserves and
parks, biodiversity and ecosystems. Second, national and local envi-
ronmental authorities played a central role in collecting information
on various emissions and factors that influenced environmental quality.
Monitoring and measuring - directly or indirectly - of, among others,
industrial and agricultural emissions to air, water and soil, domestic
emissions of waste, waste water and noise and emissions of traffic and
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