Soil Monitoring Network Research Articles

Future trends, detectable by soil monitoring networks?

Recently some networks for monitoring the soil quality have enriched the world of environmental quality assessment. Formerly such networks were considered not worthwhile because the spatial variability of the soil compartment was regarded too large to detect trends in soil quality. However, research suggested that with a statistically sound network design it should be possible to detect relevant trends. As a result, national and provincial authorities in the Netherlands began to set up soil monitoring networks in the early 1990s. These networks cover the rural areas and mainly focus on three environmental aspects of the soil, namely: spread of contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides, PCB, etc.), and eutrophication and acidification. The goals are the assessment of the current soil quality of rural areas and the development of this quality. An evaluation of the first 5 years of monitoring yields much useful information. Naturally, after the evaluation of the first results, optimization of the organization and design of these networks must be considered. Topics discussed in this paper include sampling technique, sampling design and the maintenance of sample archives. Topics of a different category are the concept of homogeneous subregions, the idea of fixed monitoring locations versus a flexible network, seasonal variation and its influence on monitoring, and finally the choice of measured parameters.

Soil monitoring systems and their suitability for predicting delayed effects of diffuse pollutants

The role of monitoring in predicting long-term changes in soil quality is discussed, giving also an overview of soil monitoring networks in Europe. The need for stratifying monitoring locations, and the use of (geo)statistical approaches for the definition of monitoring strategies and the interpretation of results is dealt with also. Some examples geared to the presentation of vulnerability maps and quality maps with the help of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and models are presented.

Radon monitoring related to a subduction zone in Mexico

A radon in soil monitoring network has been set-up along the Mexican Pacific Coast, adjacent to the Mesoamerican trench, in order to observe the radon emission fluctuations associated with the pre, co and post seismic phases of future large earthquakes occurring along the Guerrero seismic gap during the next 10 years.Radon determination has been systematically performed with SSNTD exposed in the field for periods of one month. Results from radon in soil fluctuations, from stations located along the Guerrero seismic gap, have shown a behaviour possibly associated with changes in environmental factors and local seismicity. The use of automatic continuous radon detection devices is proposed as an additional methodology for network surveillance purposes.