Introduction

There was a time when only the economics and health and safety of a new industrial or building development would be considered. Then came a requirement for social effects to be considered. Now it is commonplace for the economic, social and environmental effects to be considered. It is not possible for any project to avoid having some kind of effect on living organisms and the processes and properties of living systems. Ecological monitoring is, therefore, an integral part of any assessment of the effects of a project on the environment.

The term monitoring if used in association with environmental assessments for compliance monitoring and/or auditing is monitoring to determine whether or not agreed procedures have taken place or that the development complies with legal requirements. Compliance monitoring is, therefore, not the same as ecological monitoring. However, to comply there may be a requirement for ecological monitoring to take place over a certain period of time.

Auditing is a term that is sometimes used to refer to compliance review. Auditing can also refer to an important post-development component and that is testing the scientific accuracy of the environmental impact predictions. Some would argue that this is also part of the follow-up monitoring process.

Human impacts on the environment are not just one-off impacts at one time in one place. The effects of the impacts, projects or events can last for a long time and may have long-term effects on the biological and physical environment.