ABSTRACT
Monitoring can be done in many ways, by members of non-governmental organizations observing and recording changing conditions in their local area, to government-based programmes, to remotely sensed images generated from orbiting satellites (Box 13.1). However monitoring is conducted, it is usually done for one or more of the following reasons: (1) to document general environmental conditions; (2) to establish environmental baselines, trends and cumulative effects; (3) to document environmental loading, sources and sinks; (4) to test environmental models and verify research; (5) to educate the public about environmental conditions; and (6) to provide information for decision making. Monitoring can be done in novel ways: Skywatch surveillance by the Ninety-Nines
Since 1978 in Ontario, Canada, a group of female pilots have donated their time to fly surveillance missions to document violation of environmental court orders by prohibited practices which are continuing. The photographs from the air reveal shapes or patterns that from the ground would be difficult to notice, such as a buried tanker truck which is slowly leaking toxic materials, or illegal dumping pits which have been covered. Air pollution plumes also can be identified.
The women are members of the “Ninety-Nines”, a worldwide organization for women pilots formed in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as the founding president. About twenty members of the Toronto chapter fly in the Skywatch surveillance program.
The provincial government rents a Cessna air plane for the pilots, and a surveillance officer from its Ministry of Environment acts as navigator and photographer on the Ninety-Nine flights. On average, a Skywatch team is in the air somewhere over Ontario during half the working days in summer and a quarter of the working days in winter.
The results of this monitoring have been significant. In a court case, the introduction of photographs taken from the air is usually more effective than a verbal description of alleged polluting activity. The outcome has been more successful prosecutions and higher fines.
Source: Based on a report by Cameron Smith, 1996: D6.