school energy&environment

Air monitoring

To shape national development on the principle of environmental sustainability it’s compulsory to refer to a comprehensive environment status report regarding specific geographical areas within each national district in order to define and implement a set of measures (which can be defined as “environmental policies”).
At a later stage, the causes of environmental decay should be identified and a concrete set of measures should be pushed forward to stimulate environmental recovery and limit or abolish pollution sources. Monitoring atmospheric composition in a set area requires a thorough, long-term analysis carried out by an integrated air quality monitoring network formed by a number of measurement stations on this given area producing continuous results on pollutants found in the lower atmosphere. Traditional measurement techniques are based on physical, chemical and microbiological analyses indicating pollutant concentration and type. Air quality controls allow to observe atmospheric pollutant concentration and verify if legally-binding air quality limits are observed. Limit values (or guideline values) set for individual pollutants are measured according to national criteria. In every state these limits are always determined by concerns over environmental safeguard and human health protection. Only a small portion of atmospheric pollutants are monitored as only in these cases high-resolution measurement techiques are sufficiently accurate to allow ongoing monitoring. This type of monitoring allows anyhow an accurate estimate of air pollutant levels.
Biomonitoring is a new air quality evaluation technique, enforced in the past few years, which is carried out alongside traditional measurement. Biomonitoring techniques supply information on the extent of pollution evaluating the morphological or physiological response of living organisms – defined as biological monitors (or biomonitors) – to pollutant concentration.