The Challenge of Collecting and Using Environmental Monitoring Data

Ecology and Society 18(4) (2013)

14 Pages Posted: 27 Jul 2014

See all articles by Eric Biber

Eric Biber

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

Date Written: December 12, 2013

Abstract

The monitoring of ambient environmental conditions is essential to environmental management and regulation. However, effective monitoring is subject to a range of institutional, political, and legal constraints, constraints that are a product of the need for monitoring to be continuous, long lived, and well matched to the resources being studied. Political pressure or myopia, conflicting agency goals, the need for institutional autonomy, or a reluctance of agency scientists to pursue monitoring all may make it difficult for ambient monitoring to be effectively undertaken. Even if effective monitoring data is gathered, it may not be used in decision making. The inevitable residual uncertainty in monitoring data allows stakeholders to contest the use of monitoring in decision making. Structural solutions, e.g., the creation of agencies to conduct monitoring separate from management or regulation and prompt use of that data in decision making, may be the most promising solutions.

Keywords: environmental law, natural resources, monitoring, adaptive management

Suggested Citation

Biber, Eric, The Challenge of Collecting and Using Environmental Monitoring Data (December 12, 2013). Ecology and Society 18(4) (2013), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2472073

Eric Biber (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law ( email )

215 Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
100
Abstract Views
1,065
Rank
482,506
PlumX Metrics