Environmental Monitoring

Monitoring is also carried out to assess the effectiveness of the policies and plans. As for natural resources, regional councils monitor water, air, soil and biodiversity. Some councils also monitor socio-economic status of the region. Of the natural resource monitoring fresh water monitoring is more dominant within the regional councils.

January 30, 2016

Water

Councils monitor state of the environment (SOE) on a regular basis and water monitoring is a dominant part of this activity. Councils have permanent and long-term water monitoring sites where flows, levels and quality are monitored on a regular basis. Most water flow/level monitoring sites are automated and information can be accessed through council websites instantaneously.

January 30, 2016

Air

Polluted airsheds and National Environmental Standards (NES) on air quality have triggered regional councils to invest on air quality monitoring sites. Regional councils are required to monitor any air pollutant if it is likely to breach the NES.

January 30, 2016

Pressure Monitoring

Apart from regular state of the environment monitoring councils also monitor any pressure on the environment. Such monitoring could be triggered either by councils detecting environmental degradation trends from their regular monitoring or by councils proactively try and ascertain the reasons for already polluted environment.