ABSTRACT
A systematic examination of the literature on pollution has revealed almost no mention of monitoring prior to the Stockholm conference in 1972 (Harvey 1981). Since then, there has been a significant increase in the attention paid to monitoring. In the environmental science literature, however, ‘considerable confusion has resulted from the contradictory way in which terminology relating to the monitoring concept has been used’ (Harvey 1981). For the purposes of this chapter, therefore, monitoring is defined as an activity undertaken to provide specific information on the characteristics and functioning of environmental and social variables in space and time.
