Environmental Monitoring Process Research Articles

Possibilities of landuse/landcover classification using ALOS AVNIR-2 in Takayama

Landuse/landcover (LULC) classification map of Daihachiga river basin area in Takayama is an important objective of the satellite ecology team for linking remote sensing, ecology and meteorology for regional ecosystem study of 21st Century COE (center of excellence) program. Our efforts were given on LULC classification map using different mid resolution data and assess the potentiality to get the target classification map in Takayama which belongs to a complex ecosystem in a rigid landf orm. In the process of that we examined the possibility of landcover classification improvement by ALOS AVNIR-2 with compared to the widely used Landsat ETM+, ASTER VNIR and the merged images. We found ALOS AVNIR-2 to give satisfactory numbers of landcover classes in Takayama. It is promising in remote sensing researches as the spectral seperability of ALOS AVNIR-2 with l0m spatial resolution can play a vital role in monitoring regional environment. Improved evaluation of landcover attributes by ALOS data combined with other ground research information can provide helpful input in various environmental monitoring processes.

Recent Development in Optical Chemical Sensors Coupling with Flow Injection Analysis

Optical techniques for chemical analysis are well established and sensors based on thesetechniques are now attracting considerable attention because of their importance in applications suchas environmental monitoring, biomedical sensing, and industrial process control. On the other hand,flow injection analysis (FIA) is advisable for the rapid analysis of microliter volume samples and canbe interfaced directly to the chemical process. The FIA has become a widespread automatic analyticalmethod for more reasons; mainly due to the simplicity and low cost of the setups, their versatility, andease of assembling. In this paper, an overview of flow injection determinations by using opticalchemical sensors is provided, and instrumentation, sensor design, and applications are discussed. Thiswork summarizes the most relevant manuscripts from 1980 to date referred to analysis using opticalchemical sensors in FIA.

Optical biochemical and chemical sensors – Europt(r)ode VIII

Biochemical and chemical sensors have attracted increasing interest in academia and industry in recent years, because of their large number of applications and their importance in research. In 1992, therefore, a European conference on optical sensing was started. This now attracts participants not only from Europe, but also from Asia and America. This conference, which is held every other year, was organized for the first time by Professor Otto Wolfbeis in Graz, followed by Florence, Zurich, Munster, Lyon, Manchester, and Madrid. This year, Europt(r)ode VIII was held in Tubingen, from 2–5 April, and attracted more than 250 scientists from throughout the world. Forty-six oral presentations were given. These provided overviews of, and trends in, optical sensor principles, especially transduction principles and different sensitive layers. These lectures covered high-quality applications in the monitoring of environmental processes, in process control, in food analysis, in medical diagnostics, in bioanalysis, and even in extra-terrestrial research. More than 100 posters were displayed, offering an additional opportunity, especially for young scientists, to develop contacts with people in academia and industry. Approximately 30% of the participants were students working on their PhD thesis. The eighteen invited lectures included scientific progress reports, reviews on detection techniques, evaluation of sensing methods for different applications, rating of sensors in comparison with classical analysis, techniques for miniaturisation and parallelisation, micro-fluidics, and applications of protein–protein interactions. Besides these typical sensor topics, the objective of some invited lectures was to offer those working with sensors summaries of related research fields. Therefore, speakers were invited to report on nuclear receptor signalling, the success story of piezo effects in fuel injectors in automobiles, and sophisticated data treatment using supervised and non-supervised training methods. On the web the conference programme can be viewed at http://barolo.ipc.unituebingen.de/europtrode/main.html. Some of the lectures can be seen as movies on the special server of the University of Tubingen TIMMS, at http://timms.uni-tuebingen.de/Themen/ Themen.aspx#Chemie. When the organizers asked the lecturers to provide review articles and original papers, the typical problems associated with such types of special issue became apparent. Lecturers presenting reviews only rarely find the time required to write a brief critical review, and many presentations which were very interesting to the audience, because they covered the latest research results, were not suitable for publication as an original paper. It is the editorial policy of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry that all submissions to special issues face the same critical peer-review process as regular submissions to the journal. The number of papers accepted in time for publication in this special issue is modest. Nevertheless, the articles Anal Bioanal Chem (2006) 386:1199–1200 DOI 10.1007/s00216-006-0770-1

Different multivariate approaches to material discovery, process development, PAT and environmental process monitoring

The aim with the present paper is to illustrate the use of multivariate strategies (i.e. integration of different multivariate methods) with five examples, four from the pharmaceutical industry and one from environmental research. In the first part, two examples wherein hierarchical models are applied to quality control (QC) and process control are discussed. In the second part a more complex problem and a strategy for material discovery/development are presented wherein a combination of multivariate calibration, multivariate analysis and multivariate design is needed. In the third part, a process analytical/optimization problem is illustrated with a two-step process, demanding that different multivariate tools are combined in a sequential way so that a useful model can be established and the process can be understood. In the final part the usefulness of principal component analysis followed by soft independent modelling of class analogy is illustrated with an example from environmental process monitoring. The five examples from quite different areas show that the chemometric tools are even more powerful if used integrated. However, different strategies and combinations of the tools have to be applied, depending on the problem and the aim.

Micro- and nanoimmunosensors: technology and applications

Since the technique of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [1] was first applied to the biosensing of an antibody-antigen interaction, the research and technological development of immunosensors have experienced an exponential growth. This technique showed the enormous potential for the direct, real-time and label-free detection of an immunoreaction. The success of the biosensor technology can be deduced from the increasing number of commercially available instruments. This reflects the growing acceptance of the methodology and the increased availability of the instrumentation. But there is still a long way to go to replace completely conventional immunoassays by biosensor technology in many fields and, especially, in clinical diagnostics [2]. Besides the excellent results obtained with the existing immunosensor technologies (mainly related to SPR sensors) [2], we still need biosensors able to detect, in a direct way, very low levels (picomolar to femtomolar) of a great number of chemical and biochemical substances in the areas of environmental monitoring, industrial and food processes, health care, biomedical technology, clinical analysis, etc. Ideally, we must achieve the fabrication of immunosensors with the following characteristics: very high sensitivity and selectivity, broad dynamic range, immunity to matrix effects, capable of multianalyte determination at the same time, with short analysis time, reversible, stable, simple to operate, robust, cheap and of small size [3]. In order to achieve all or most of the aforementioned characteristics, the application of the recent progress in microand nanotechnologies promises to revolutionise the applications of immunosensors [4]. Indeed, the application of such technologies is allowing the miniaturisation of the biosensor devices, the development of microfluidic platforms and the increase in the sensitivity of the immunoassays performed. We are assisting in the appearance of a cascade of new immunosensor devices at the microand nanoscale which could be easily integrated in portable “lab-on-a-chip” platforms to perform “point-of-care” analysis and which in the future could even work inside the human body as “nano-sentinels”.

Sub-ppbv nitric oxide concentration measurements using cw thermoelectrically cooled quantum cascade laser-based integrated cavity output spectroscopy

A nitric oxide (NO) gas sensor based on a thermoelectrically cooled, continuous-wave, distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating at 5.45 μm (1835 cm-1) and off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy combined with a wavelength-modulation technique was developed to determine NO concentrations at the sub-ppbv levels that are essential for a number of applications, such as medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and industrial process control. The sensor employs a 50-cm-long high-finesse optical cavity that provides an effective path length of ∼700 m. A noise equivalent (SNR=1) minimum detection limit of 0.7 ppbv with a 1-s observation time was achieved.

The technological and economic management of the environmental variable in the pharmaceutical–chemical industry

Industrial risks increate with technological progress. The study of potential risks is routine in the pharmaceutical–chemical industry. Here, like in other industrial activities, a risk coefficient is introduced that varies within space time limits. A control system of environmental safety and health monitoring processes should be based on the data obtained from Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP). The space variable influences the chemical risk coefficient that applies to the whole the production cycle (including waste recycling). For the sake of prevention, many enterprises have adopted the integrated management system, which is now moving to an additional required feature: environment and health protection and safety assurance inside and outside the industrial area (in compliance with UNI, ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18001standards). Our goal is to examine the technological–scientific–environmental changes in the pharmaceutical–chemical sector in order to asses the new extent of chemical regarding management systems. This will entail a cultural change that will call for the necessary economic strategies for industries to implement the appropriate environmental–technological programs.

New highly sensitive and selective catalytic DNA biosensors for metal ions

While remarkable progress has been made in developing sensors for metal ions such as Ca(II) and Zn(II), designing and synthesizing sensitive and selective metal ion sensors remains a significant challenge. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the design and synthesis of a sensor capable of specific and strong metal binding. Since our knowledge about the construction of metal-binding sites in general is limited, searching for sensors in a combinatorial way is of significant value. Therefore, we have been able to use a combinatorial method called in vitro selection to obtain catalytic DNA that can bind a metal ion of choice strongly and specifically. The metal ion selectivity of the catalytic DNA was further improved using a ‘negative selection’ strategy where catalytic DNA that are selective for competing metal ions are discarded in the in vitro selection processes. By labeling the resulting catalytic DNA with a fluorophore/quencher pair, we have made a new class of metal ion fluorescent sensors that are the first examples of catalytic DNA biosensors for metal ions. The sensors combine the high selectivity of catalytic DNA with the high sensitivity of fluorescent detection, and can be applied to the quantitative detection of metal ions over a wide concentration range and with high selectivity. The use of DNA sensors in detection and quantification of lead ions in environmental samples such as water from Lake Michigan has been demonstrated. DNA is stable, cost-effective, environmentally benign, and easily adaptable to optical fiber and microarray technology for device manufacture. Thus, the DNA sensors explained here hold great promise for on-site and real-time monitoring of metal ions in the fields of environmental monitoring, developmental biology, clinical toxicology, wastewater treatment, and industrial process monitoring.

Automated analysis of ultra high resolution remote sensing data for biotope type mapping: new possibilities and challenges

The advent of very high-resolution satellite programs and digital airborne cameras with ultra high resolution offers new possibilities for very accurate mapping of the environment. With these sensors of improved spatial resolution, however, the user community faces a new problem in the analysis of this type of image data. Standard classification techniques have to be augmented with appropriate analysis procedures because the required homogeneity of landuse/landcover classes can no longer be achieved by the integration effect of large pixel sizes (e.g., 20–80 m). New intelligent techniques will have to be developed that make use of multisensor approaches, geographic information system (GIS) integration and context-based interpretation schemes. The ideal goal should be that GIS ‘intelligence’ (e.g., object and analysis models) should be used to automate the classification process. In return, GIS objects can be extracted from a remote sensing image to update the GIS database. This paper presents the development of an automated procedure for biotope type mapping from ultra high-resolution airborne scanner data (HRSC-A). The hierarchical procedure incorporates a priori GIS information, a digital surface model (DSM) and multispectral image data. The results of this study will serve as a basis for a continuous environmental monitoring process in the tidally influenced region of the Elbe River, Germany.

Application of a fiber-optic NIR-EFA sensor system for in situ monitoring of aromatic hydrocarbons in contaminated groundwater

Interaction of analyte molecules with the evanescent wave of light guided in optical fibers is among the most promising novel sensing schemes that can be applied for environmental monitoring and on-line process analysis. By combining this measuring principle with the solid-phase extraction of analyte molecules into the polymer cladding of a fiber, it is possible to perform direct absorption measurements in the cladding, if the fiber is adapted to a conventional spectrometer/photometer. A big advantage of this arrangement is that the measurement is scarcely disturbed by matrix effects (background absorption of water in IR measurements, stray light due to turbidity in the sample). By using near-infrared (NIR) evanescent field absorption (EFA) measurements in quartz glass fibers coated with a hydrophobic silicone membrane it is possible to design and construct sensors for monitoring apolar hydrocarbons (HCs) in aqueous matrices. The paper presents a fiber-optic sensor system for the determination of aromatic HCs in groundwater or industrial wastewater. Generally, this instrument is suitable for quantitative in situ monitoring of pollutants such as aromatic solvents, fuels, mineral oils or chlorinated HCs with relatively low water saturation solubility (typically between 0.01 and 10 g l −1). The sensor probe is connected via all-silica fibers to a filter photometer developed at the IFIA, thus, allowing even remote analysis in a monitoring well. This portable instrument provides a total concentration signal of the organic compounds extracted into the fiber cladding by measuring the integral absorption at the 1st CH overtone bands in the NIR spectral range. In situ measurements with the sensor system were performed in a groundwater circulation well at the VEGAS research facility of the University of Stuttgart (Germany). The NIR-EFA sensor system was tested within the frame of an experiment that was carried through in a tank containing sandy gravel with a groundwater-saturated aquifer, where soil and groundwater were contaminated with technical grade xylene. The goal of this experiment was to model and optimize the groundwater circulation well used for the remediation of the aquifer and soil surrounding the well. The sensor proved to trace reliably the total hydrocarbon concentration in the process water pumped from the well to a stripper column. Measurements were performed continuously over 4 months with C8 HC sum concentrations in the process water between 80 mg l −1 down to the limit of detection, which is around 200 μg l −1. It could be demonstrated that the fiber-optic sensor system is a valuable tool for near-real-time control of a remedial action technique and verification and documentation of its success.

Field instrumentation in atomic spectroscopy

The techniques of field analytical chemistry (FAC) have the potential to reduce both analysis time and cost by providing analytical data on site while eliminating the need for sample collection and transport. These methods could be of considerable interest in the fields of environmental monitoring and industrial process control. Much of FAC is accomplished through the use of portable analytical instruments. The emphasis of this review was on field-portable atomic spectrometry, with particular focus upon two techniques: laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and tungsten coil atomic absorption spectrometry (W Coil AAS). LIBS and W Coil AAS have been described in detail, with special attention to instrumentation, analytical performance, applications and examples of portable devices. The two techniques were compared and found to be complimentary. Competing technology, not necessarily based upon atomic spectrometry, was also briefly discussed in order to provide a glimpse of the overall picture of FAC techniques used for the determination of metals. These rival techniques include X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), immunoassay, capillary electrophoresis (CE), and electrochemical sensors.

Determination of metallo-cyanides by capillary electrophoresis after concentration on supported liquid membranes

A method for the determination of traces of metallo-cyanide complexes by capillary zone electrophoresis is described. The suitability of preconcentration procedures based on supported liquid membranes in a flow system is investigated. Methyltrioctylammonium chloride in dibutyl ether is used as the active component of the membrane liquid. Due to ion-pairing mechanisms enrichment factors ranging from 50 to 600 can be achieved for cyanide complexes of Fe(II), Fe(III), Ni, Co, Pd, Pt, Cr, Au and Ag. The final capillary electrophoretic separation of the metallo-cyanides is performed off-line with a phosphate-triethanolamine buffer at pH 8.5 as the carrier electrolyte. Its separation selectivity and compatibility with the preconcentration procedure are optimized by addition of hexamethonium bromide, sodium perchlorate and sodium cyanide. Detection limits in the low nmol range can be achieved by direct UV detection at 214 nm. An approach for the analysis of free and labile cyanide is discussed which involves the conversion of these species into the nickel cyanide complex. Applications in the fields of environmental monitoring and industrial process control are possible.

Spectroscopy and hybrid neural network analysis

This paper reviews the current use of spectroscopy and related instrumentation in chemical analysis. Advancements in digital signal processing technology are making it possible to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of analytical instruments without expensive upgrading of instrument hardware. A hybrid neural network (HNN) is described that can perform nonlinear signal analysis. The HNN approach combines the simple data reduction capability of conventional linear signal processing algorithms with the adaptive learning and recognition ability of a multilayer nonlinear neural network architecture. A number of examples show the rise of the HNN for environmental monitoring and real-time process control.

Radioanalytical monitoring of the formation of barium sulfate in aqueous solutions

The formation of barium sulfate in aqueous media causes problems of insoluble scale formation. On the other hand, the coprecipitation of uranium and transuranium elements with barium sulfate has been suggested for the determination of these elements in environmental monitoring processes. Therefore, the study of barium sulfate crystal growth is required. The investigations done so far suffer from the low sensitivity of the analytical methods used. In the present work we have overcome this problem by using131Ba for the preparation of supersaturated solutions. Thus kinetics parameters such as induction time and precipitation rates were measured. The polynuclear mechanism was found to be operative at high and the spiral growth at low supersaturations.

A PRACTICAL MODEL INTEGRATING QUALITY ASSURANCE INTO ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING1

ABSTRACT: A model of comprehensive environmental monitoring process with integral quality assurance is presented. This model views the monitoring process as iterative cycles of a series of elements: design, plan, protocols, preparation, field liaison, sample collection, sample handling, laboratory analysis, data transmission, data validation, data approval, data provision, statistical analysis, and reporting. Quality assurance is linked to each element, not just to laboratory analysis. The program of quality assurance ensures that environmental monitoring data are compatible with the project goals, are comparable between various sampling agencies, and maintain a high degree of scientific credibility. The key characteristics of the overall quality assurance process are detailed documentation, timely resolution of problems, regular reporting, and routine independent audits.

Delegation Technologies: Environmental Scanning with Intelligent Agents

Identification and evaluation of relevant trends and patterns are critical steps in an organization's business environment monitoring. Not surprisingly, the that perform this evaluation are seldom skilled in all the disciplines necessary to accomplish a thorough evaluation of the environmental indicators. While one expert may be skilled at recognizing the potential for political turmoil in a foreign nation, another at Motorola is skilled at recognizing how Japanese government deregulation is meant to complement the development of new products. Moreover, these experts often benefit from each other's skills and knowledge in assessing activity in the organization's environment. Often the interchange among variously skilled analysts becomes a distributed problem-solving activity that creates the high-quality, interdisciplinary analysis essential for an effective environmental monitoring activity. Problems in the environmental monitoring process often occur when a particular expertise, an agent in the problem-solving network, is unavailable, and knowledge from that domain does not play a role in the analysis. The focus of this paper is on the distribution of expertise and the sharing of knowledge in the critical process of environmental monitoring. A technical approach is adapted in this effort--an architecture and a prototype of technologies are described that provide the capability of capturing, organizing, and distributing knowledge that may be used by experts in classifying patterns of qualitative indicators in the business environment. The redistribution of responsibilities through the delegation to, and coordination of, intelligent agents is examined.

National or global?—control vs flexibility

While organizational design has long been viewed as an aspect of strategy implementation, recent writers have asserted that an organization's structure includes environmental monitoring and control processes which help to shape management's view of their environment and to develop the strategy appropriate for that environment. This article examines three strategy-making approaches used in multinational corporations and some of the decision-making structures associated with them. The effect of these approaches on strategic decisions is explored along with how a firm might change from one mode to another. The authors discuss the implications for designing effective organization structures and making arrangements for monitoring the business environment.