ABSTRACT
Concern for our environment has been on the rise for many years, and rightly so. At many industrial facilities and other locations toxic or potentially toxic materials have been released into the environment in large amounts. While the health impact of these releases has been quite variable and, in some cases, controversial, it clearly is important to understand the impact or potential impact of these releases on the public, as well as on the natural environment. This has led to increased study of the facilities and the areas around them, which has generated a large amount of data. More and more, people are looking to sophisticated database management technology, together with related technologies such as geographic information systems and statistical analysis packages, to make sense of this data. This chapter discusses this increasing concern for the environment, the growth of computer technology to support environmental data management, and then some general thoughts on environmental data management in an organization.
