The Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) of UNEP

The Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) is a collective effort of the world community to acquire, through monitoring, the data needed for rational management of the environment, and arose from recommendations of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment which was held in Stockholm in 1972.

The GEMS Programme Activity Centre (PAC) at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, coordinates all that it can of the various environmental monitoring activities which are carried on throughout the world − particularly those within the United Nations System.

Great care is taken to ensure that data gathered by GEMS are of the highest attainable quality, and that data collected from different parts of a particular monitoring network are both comparable and compatible. The GEMS Programme Activity Centre (PAC), in the manner of UNEP itself, is not operational but works mainly through the intermediary of the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations System − most notably FAO, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, and WMO − together with appropriate intergovernmental organizations such as IUCN.

(FAO − Food and Agriculture Organization; ILO − International Labor Organization; UNESCO − United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; IUCN − International Union for the Conservation of Nature)

The GEMS monitoring system consists of five closely interrelated programmes which have built-in provision for training and for rendering technical assistance to ensure the participation of countries that are inadequately provided with personnel and equipment. The five are:

1. Climate-related monitoring;

2. Monitoring of long-range transport of pollutants;

3. Health-related monitoring (concerned with pollutional effects);

4. Ocean monitoring;

5. Terrestrial renewable-resource monitoring.

Each of these broad areas contains at least five distinct world-wide monitoring networks. Examples of these latter are the World Glacier Inventory, Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network, Urban Air Pollution Monitoring Network, Global Water Quality Monitoring Network, Tropical Forest Monitoring Network, Species Conservation Monitoring Network, etc.

Monitored data are gathered at suitable coordinating centres for each network at which appropriate data-bases have been, or are being, established. Data are analyzed to produce periodic regional and global assessments which are reported at intervals that are appropriate to the variable which is being considered.

GEMS/Air

The Global Environmental Monitoring System for Air Pollution (GEMS/AIR) is an urban air pollution monitoring and assessment program. Since its beginnings in 1973, GEMS/AIR has served to strengthen the capacity of participating countries in urban air quality management by providing training, monitoring equipment, quality assurance, and technical information exchange.

Since 1973, the GEMS/AIR network has included some 270 cities in 86 cities in 45 countries. Monitoring stations are run by the national or city authorities who voluntarily contribute their data to the GEMS/AIR global database.

The cities represent a wide range of climatic and socioeconomic conditions, as well as different levels of development and air pollution control capabilities. GEMS/AIR is the only global program which provides long-term air pollution monitoring for cities in industrialized and developing countries, thus providing assessments on the levels and trends of urban air pollutants worldwide and their effect on human and ecosystem health.

GEMS/Water

Global Environmental Monitoring System/Water Programme (GEMS/Water) is dedicated to providing environmental water quality data and information of the highest integrity, accessibility and interoperability. These data are used in water assessments and capacity building initiatives around the world.

The twin goals of the programme are to improve water quality monitoring and assessment capacity in participating countries, and to determine the state and trends of regional and global water quality.

These goals are implemented through the GEMS/Water data bank, called GEMStat. GEMStat is designed to share surface and ground water quality data sets collected from the GEMS/Water Global Network, including more than 3,800 stations, close to 4.3 million records, and over 100 parameters.

Figure 3 Countries Participating in Global Data Activities

GEMS/Water supports three UN water assessment priorities:

1. Determination of natural inland water qualities in the absence of significant direct human impact;

2. Determination of long-term trends in the levels of critical water quality indicators in inland water resources;

3. Determination of the fluxes of toxic chemicals, nutrients, suspended solids and other pollutants from major river basins to the continent/ocean interfaces.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30