About Book

Environmental monitoring refers to practices and actives used to monitor the quality of environment. It is also used to prepare environmental impact assessments, which examines the amount of damage human activities cause to the natural environments. At its core, environmental monitoring is designed to help us understand the natural environment and protect it from any negative outcomes of human activity. The process is an integral part of environmental impact assessments and results can directly determine whether or not projects are given the all clear. Environmental monitoring assessments can involve establishing baseline quality, uncovering environmental trends, identifying any variations, determining the success of projects and confirming whether or not environmental goals have been met. As the world continues to develop and expand, environmental monitoring has become an essential part of making sure that the planet stays safe, healthy and dynamic. This book outlines the processes and applications of environmental monitoring in detail. It discusses topics like geochemical application, environmental background, opportunistic protozoa, regional network infrastructures, agro-ecosystems biodiversity and new class of materials, urban environment, environmental effect and environmental radiation. While understanding the long-term perspectives of the topics, the book makes an effort in highlighting their impact as a modern tool for the growth of the discipline. Some of the diverse topics covered in this book address the varied branches that fall under this subject area. The topics discussed are of utmost significance and bound to provide incredible insights to students. The book is appropriate for those seeking detailed information in this area.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 Environmental Radiation: Natural Radioactivity Monitoring.........1

Abstract...................................................................................................1

1. Introduction............................................................................................2

2. Natural radioactivity............................................................................2

3. Conclusion............................................................................................12

Acknowledgements.............................................................................13

Conflict of interest..............................................................................13

Chapter 2 Environmental Effect of Major Project: Object-Oriented Information Extraction and Schedule-Oriented Monitoring.................................16

1. Introduction..........................................................................................16

2. Theory and implementation ............................................................17

3. Summary .............................................................................................42

Chapter 3 Fusion of Optical and Thermal Imagery and LiDAR Data for Application to 3-D Urban Environment and Structure Monitoring..................................................................................................44

1. Introduction..........................................................................................44

2. Materials and methods .....................................................................48

3. 3-D urban environment model .......................................................59

4. 3-D urban environment application................................................62

5. Discussion.............................................................................................64

6. Conclusion ...........................................................................................65

7. Acknowledgment................................................................................65

Chapter 4 Fluorescently Labeled Phospholipids – New Class of Materials for

Chemical Sensors for Environmental Monitoring............................72

1. Introduction..........................................................................................72

2. The Langmuir and Blodgett method - Use of the Langmuir film

method for measuring the quality of water in natural basins..73

3. Previous research of NBD fluorescently labeled lipids...............78

4. Investigations of monolayers at the air-water interface..............82

5. Investigations of deposited on solid support thin films using the

LB method............................................................................................85

6. Molecular modelling of the DP-NBD-PE molecule at simulated

air-water interface...............................................................................97

7. Conclusions .........................................................................................99

8. Acknowledgments ..........................................................................100

Chapter 5 Environmental Evaluation and Monitoring of Agro-Ecosystems

Biodiversity...............................................................................................103

1. Introduction........................................................................................103

2. Vegetation of the agroecosystem...................................................106

3. Evaluation of the quality and functionality of the

agroecosystem .................................................................................131

4. Conclusions .......................................................................................145

Chapter 6 Environmental Monitoring WSN........................................................155

1. Introduction........................................................................................155

2. Application specific WSN................................................................157

3. Resource constraint issues...............................................................162

4. Motivation of PoRAP development..............................................165

5. Design of PoRAP..............................................................................181

6. PoRAP energy conservation evaluation.......................................198

7. Conclusion..........................................................................................199

Chapter 7 Environmental Monitoring Supported by the Regional Network

Infrastructures ........................................................................................203

1. Introduction........................................................................................203

2. Research methods.............................................................................206

3. River basin consortium....................................................................209

4. Drainage consortium of western Romagna.................................217

5. Civil protection..................................................................................222

6. Conclusions........................................................................................229

7. Acknowledgment..............................................................................230

Chapter 8 Environmental Monitoring of Opportunistic Protozoa in Rivers

and Lakes: Relevance to Public Health in the Neotropics .........232

1. Introduction........................................................................................232

2. Materials and methods....................................................................236

3. Results.................................................................................................242

4. Discussion...........................................................................................245

5. Conclusion..........................................................................................248

6. Concluding remarks.........................................................................249

Chapter 9 Environmental Background Radiation Monitoring Utilizing

Passive Solid Sate Dosimeters ...........................................................255

1. Introduction........................................................................................255

2. Passive solid state dosimeters .......................................................256

3. Experimental......................................................................................261

4. Results and discussion.....................................................................264

5. Summary.............................................................................................271

6. Acknowledgements...........................................................................271

Chapter 10 Geochemical Application for Environmental Monitoring and Metal

Mining Management..............................................................................274

1. Introduction........................................................................................274

2. Mining wastes....................................................................................275

3. Acid mine drainage..........................................................................278

4. Heavy metals ....................................................................................283

5. Case study in Thailand....................................................................289

6. Conclusions........................................................................................293

7. Acknowledgements .........................................................................294

Citation......................................................................................................299

Index...........................................................................................................301

About Author

John Lawrence received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Public University, Calgary. He is an Environmental Researcher and Lecturer at University College, Veracruz. His academic interests lie in environmental pollution, environmental monitoring and management. Lawrence has headed various environmental conservation projects; and has authored and edited numerous articles, journal papers and books in the field of environmental science. He holds prominent memberships of renowned environment conservation associations and has been an active participant at international conferences and forums.