ABSTRACT
Once a permit has been issued to an activity, it is necessary to know whether the activity subsequently complies with the permit. Two processes are required to achieve this – monitoring and inspection. Inspection is, of course, a mechanism to monitor a facility, so the two terms overlap. However, in this chapter ‘monitoring’ is used more to refer to the assessment of physical issues, such as pollutant concentrations. Many (such as the public) would view an ‘inspection’ as meaning some form of site visit. However, not all countries interpret the term this way (possibly reflecting linguistic differences) and use the term to cover all compliance assessment work (including desk-based). In this chapter ‘inspection’ is taken to involve visiting a site.
