ABSTRACT
Monitoring is the systematic collection and organization of information, which is to be used in improving the decision-making process; either indirectly by informing the public, or directly as a feedback tool designed for purposes of project management, program evaluation or policy development. Monitoring assists an organization in keeping its policies and decisions responsive to new opportunities and unforeseen changes in the decision environment. Monitoring can be viewed as an important component of the cyclical planning, program design, implementation, evaluation and replanning process. There are at least eight types of monitoring, which exist as kind of continuum of activity: inspection, regulatory permit monitoring, monitoring of ambient environmental quality, experimental environmental monitoring, program evaluation monitoring, project evaluation monitoring, monitoring of socio-economic agreements or contractual arrangements, monitoring for project impact management and cumulative impact monitoring. Many monitoring efforts involve the target-tracking approach, which establishes a target or forecast for a particular variable of interest, usually related to time.
