Describe creation of the uniform state system of environmental monitoring. (USSEM)

The Stockholm United Nations Conference on the Environment was invited to organize the Earth Service, which is currently part of the environmental program (UNEP). Within the framework of the Earth Service, a global environmental monitoring system (GEMS) was established, the main objectives of which are: 1)Organization of an extended system of warnings about the threat to human health; 2)Assessment of global atmospheric pollution and its impact on climate; 3)Assessment of the amount and distribution of contaminants in biological systems, especially in food chains; 4)Assessment of critical problems arising from agricultural activities and land use; 5)Assessment of the response of terrestrial ecosystems to the effects of the environment; 6)Assessment of ocean pollution and the impact of pollution on marine ecosystems; 7)The creation of an improved system of warning of natural disasters on an international scale.

To ensure that the organized GEMS system does not duplicate existing systems in its work, the following important principles were adopted at the meeting:

1.Intergovernmental cooperation on monitoring should be based on existing national and international systems.

2.Special UN agencies should be used as the initial basis for coordinating and implementing the monitoring program.

3.Priority should be given to global and international monitoring.

4.The monitoring system should be designed to meet clearly formulated requirements, and data assessment activities should be a common part of the design of such a system.

Separate subsystems in GEMS are allocated pollution monitoring and monitoring of renewable resources, including some additional environmental problems.

The ultimate goals of pollution monitoring are:

1)Determination of concentration levels of critical pollutants in a particular environment, their distribution in a particular environment, their distribution in space, and changes in time;

2)Determination of the magnitude and flow rates of pollutants and harmful products of their transformations;

3)Making comparisons of sampling and analysis methods between countries, including developing countries, in order to obtain comparable results and exchange of experience in the organization of monitoring systems; 4)

Providing global and regional information for decision-making on pollution control.

Over the past years, a significant amount of research has been carried out to monitor changes in the state of the natural environment. Some of them were implemented within the framework of GEMS, some within the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) with the support of UNEP.