ABSTRACT
The landscape is an essential element to consider when determining the impacts of pollution on human health and welfare. The effects of pollutants have generally been considered in relation to individual facets of the landscape, for instance soil, water or wildlife. For pollutants for which pathways through the environment have been identified, as in the case of radioactive pollutants, a more thorough consideration of landscape ecology is essential. However, current monitoring programmes for radioactive pollutants still concentrate on the measuring of individual isotopes in isolation from other landscape elements. Geographical information systems (GIS) offer one method for combining such monitoring data with other environmental and socio-economic data to give a better picture of the role of the landscape in determining the consequences of pollution.
