Nur Cahyo Setiawan (1106139626)

Environmental Monitoring
A comprehensive (or targetted) post-EIS environmental monitoring program should be
required of major projects, plans, or programs as part of their life cycle, and the
resultant information should be use in environmentally responsible management and
decision making. Pertinent elements should be selected based on the project type,
baseline environmental sesitivity, expected impacts, and monitoring objectives.
Background Information
Two basic types of monitoring are defined as follows (U.S. Department of the Army,
1988, p.46355):
1. Enforcement monitoring. Enforcement monitoring ensures that mitigation is
being performed as described in the environmental document.
2. Effectiveness monitoring. Effectiveness monitoring measures the success of the
mitigation effort and/or the environmental effect.
Sadler and Davies (1988) have delineated three types of environmental monitoring.
Baseline monitoring refers to measurement of environmental variables during a
representative preproject period to determine existing conditions, ranges of variation,
and process of change. Effect monitoring or impact monitoring involves the
measurement of environmental variables during project construction and operation to
determine changes which may have occurred as a result of the project. Finally,
compliance monitoring takes the form of periodic sampling and/or continuous
measurement of levels of waste discharge, noise, or similar emissions, to ensure that
conditions are observed and standards are met. Some reason environmental monitoring,
and , in particular post-EIS monitoring, have been given minimal attention in the United
States because there is the presumption that numerous federal, state and even local
monitoring networks could be used if necessary, there is resistance to planning and
implementing a monitoring program and even if monitoring is considered a necessity,
agency staffing and funding may be limited.
Some reasons other countries are interested in post-EIS monitoring are:

1. Extant environmental monitoring programs may be minimal in scope

2. In the EIA process, the emphasis is on life cycle environmental management.
3. In many countries there is no structured, legalistic, environmental management
system which focuses attention on regulatory compliance, legislative violations,
fines, and possibly lawsuits
4. These countries recognize that monitoring provides the opportunity to gather
environmental data.
Purposes of Environmental Monitoring
The purposes of information gleaned from the conduction of post EIS monitoring:
1. Environmental monitoring provides information that can be used for
documentation of the impacts that result from a proposed federal action.
2. The monitoring system could warn agencies of unanticipated adverse impacts or
sudden changes in impact trends
3. The monitoring system could provide an immediate warning whenever a
preselected impact indicator approaches a predetermined critical level.
4. Environmental monitoring provides information which could be used by
agencies to control timing, location, and level of impacts of a project.
5. Environmental monitoring provides information which could be used for
evaluating the effectiveness of implemented mitigation measures
6. Environmental monitoring provides information which could be used to verify
predicted impacts and thus validate impact prediction techniques.
Spellberg (1991) has delineated six reasons biological and ecological monitoring:
1. As a basis for managing biological resources for sustainable development and
resource assessment
2. As aids in the management and conservation of ecosystems anf populations
3. As tools to focus on land use and landscape as a basis for better use of the land
that is combining conservation with other use
4. As a source of data to aid in the use of organisms to monitor pollution and to
indicate the quality of the environment
5. Usage to advance knowledge about the dynamics of ecosystems
6. As a means of targeting insects pests of agriculture and forestry for study so as
to establish effective means of control of those pets.
Case Studies of Monitoring
Summary of Environmental Monitoring in Eight Case Studies

Case Studies

Project,

(reference)
Fine ant control progam

program type
Post control

(Anirnal

and

Health

Plant

Monitoring
Pesticide effectiveness
Pesticide

Inspection

Uses of purposes of monitoring

To

residues

in

describe

project

effectiveness

and

environmental consequences

environmental compartments

Service, 1961)
Wastewater treatment

Wastewater

Septic tank discharges

To describe need for project and to determine

around

Crystal

treatment

Groundwater flow

effectiveness

(U.S.

Environmental

facility

Lake

Protection
1960)
Surface

Lake

Agency,

lignite

(U.S.

mine

Environmental

Protection

Agency,

1963)
Airport

runway

extension

(Federal

water

quality

and

of

project

for

water

quality

improvements

equatic ecology
Lignite

Water

quality

in

extraction

streams and lakes

surface

To describe existing water quality and to establish

basis for controlling potential impacts

Discharge permit monitoring

Airport

Noise

from

aircraft

and

To describe baseline noise and to use as input to

modification

existing ambient noise levels

noise prediction

Waste disposal

Soil and groundwater quality

To establish need for project and to serve as basis

Aviation
Administration, 1988)
Nuclear facility waste
management
(U.S.

program

Department

Energy, 1987)
Surface lignite
(U.S.

of

mine

Environmental

Protection

for waste disposal planning

Lignite

Soil

extraction

Agency,

1990b)
Reservoir

composition,

wheat

To describe baseline environmental conditions and

production

hydrogeological

to serve as look alike information for project

parameters,

groundwater

design ang impact prediction

quality, baseline flows in

system

on

of

streams, and noise

River flow, water quality

To determine influence of reservoir operational

reservoirs

(dissolved oxygen and other

patterns on water quality (particularly dissolved

Operation

Tennessee

River

16

(Tennessee

Valye

and dams in

constituents),

and

oxygen) and to improve water quality and aquatic

Tennessee

effectiveness of seration of

habitat by increasing minimum flow rates and

River system

water releases from dams

aerating releases from the TVA dams to raise

Auhority, 1991)

dissolved oxygen levels and to extend the

recreation season on TVA lakes by delaying
drawdown for other reservoir operating puposes,
Multipurpose

Water temperature, turbidity,

primarity hydropower generation

To validate extant water quality models, and to

operation of Elk Creek

reservoir

the

and suspended sediment;river

serve as basis for predicting both single project and

Lake (U.S. Army Corps

third of three

flow rates; game fish; and

cumulative impacts on fihseries, water quality, and

of Engineers, 1991)

reservoirs

terrestrial habitats for eight

terrestrial wildlife habitat

Contruction

and

in

the river basin

evaluation

species;

monitoring at two existing

reservoirs and at proposed site
of Elk Creek Lake

While essentially no information on the costs of the environmental monitoring efforts

was included in the eight case studies, it can be concluded that these efforts can be
expensive. Monitoring costs for a specific study are a function of numerous factors,
including availanility of extant data, the number and types of parameters to be
monitored, the length of the monitoring program, and data management and
interpretation needs.
Planning considerations for a monitoring program
Three premises relative to monitoring programs in the United States are:
1. There is an abundance of environmental monitoring data routinely collected by
various governmental agencies and the private sector. This data typically needs
to be identified, aggregated and intreperted.
2. Environmental monitoring program are expensive to plan and implement;
therefore every effort should be made to utilize or to modify extant monitoring
programs, as appropriate.
3. Because of overlapping

environmental

management

and

monitoring

responsibilities of many local, state and federal government agencies, it may be

necessary to carefully coordinate environmental monitoring planning among
several agencies.
A generic conceptual framework for developing an environmental monitoring plan for
biological and ecological monitorings has been described by Spellerberg (1991).
The first step in developing such a plan is to define the monitoring objectives. In many
monitoring schemes, the objectives are either not stated or are so complex that they
become meaningless (Spellerberg, 1991). The second step is to determine the places
where the monitoring will take place. The third step is to make sure the data collected is
documented for future use. The fourth step is the arrangements for data collection and
storage. The fifth step involves the process of selecting the variables. Methods for
collection of data from the field or assemblage of data from other sources should
therefore be considered, along with the choice of parameters. Indicators and composite

indicies can be useful in monitoring studies (Spellerberg,1991). The sixth step involves
preliminary data gathering and conduction of baseline surveys. The seventh step
involves the analysis and presentation of the data.
Guidelines and policies
The basic premies is that targeted or comprehensive) post-EIS monitoring programs
should be planned and implemented for selected projects with potentially significant
negative impacts. To facilitate and institutionalize such programs, certain guidelines and
policies will be needed. Some guidelines and policies for environmental monitoring anf
auditing in relation to the EIA process have been proposed by Sadler anf Davies (1988).
1. Baseline monitoring. Baseline monitoring should be planned and initiated during
the scoping phase of EIA.
2. Formulation of impact predictions. Predictions statements must be expressed as
verifiable impact hypotheses, so that statistical tests can be applied.
3. Effects monitoring. Effects monitoring must be designed to establish cause effect
relation ships which provide the basis for impact management through the
implementation of corrective action.
Ten selected principles and recommendations associated with post-projects analysis
(PPA) as developed by the task force mentioned earlie.
1. Post project analysis should be used to complete the EIA process by providing
the necessary feedback in the project implementation phase both for proper and
cost effective management and for EIA process development.
2. A preliminary plan for the PPA should be prepared during the environmental
review of a project.
3. The PPA should focus on important impacts about which there is insufficient
information; identification of these impacts and their priorities is undertaken
during the environmental review process.
4. The authority to undertake a PPA should be linked to the EIA process so that the
concerns identified for inclusion in the PPA during the environmental review can
be properly addressed.
5. PPAs should be done for all major projects with potentially significant impacts.
In addition for other projects, focused PPAs may be suitable either to facilitate

environmental management of the project or the acquisition of knowledge from

the project.
6. The development of hypotheses to test should be a part of PPAs.
7. In order to undertake PPAs effectively, baseline data relevant to the hypotheses
should be collected and should be as complete as possible.
8. Monitoring and evaluation of the data collected in the monitoring process should
be an essential part of PPA.
9. As a tool for managing PPAs, advisory boards consisting of representatives of
industry, government, contractors, independent experts, and the public should be
used.
10. Public participation in the PPA should be encouraged and PPA reports should be
made public.
Implementation includes the development of response strategies (management actions)
and periodic reporting. Post project analysis (PPA) is a term being used in some
countries to denote the role of the environmental monitoring in life cycle project
management. Incorporation of environmental monitoring requirements in the EIA
process in the United States would be a logical outgrowth of the EIS focused nature of
the EIA process.