Investigative monitoring rivers

Electrodes are capable of measurement at around the 1 ppm level. They are simple, robust and portable. As such there is considerable potential for their employment in ecological studies and they can provide constant monitoring of dissolved oxygen, e g. in river waters. The potential for their employment in monitoring industrial liquors is clear, as is their applications in biological investigations of oxygen transport. 

The pollution level of the Arctic Basin is formed mainly by river flows. Because of this, block MRF plays a very important role in the SSMAE. Regular monitoring of water flows and pollutant inputs by rivers to the SSMAE is impossible. Consequently, the study and measurement of these flows during scientific expeditions and the modeling of the results are necessary steps in the investigation of Arctic Basin pollution. 

At the same time the issues related to the unintentionally produced dioxins and furans, i.e., polychlorinated dibenzo- -dioxins (PCDDs) and PCDFs, attracted public attention in 1983 when investigations revealed that dioxins were detected in the fly ashes from municipal waste incinerators. Therefore, measures to monitor dioxins in the bottom sediment and aquatic animals and plants in the rivers, lakes, marshes and seawaters as well as the atmosphere were initiated in 1986. Investigations were implemented on the actual status of waste incinerators in 1984 and pulp and paper factories in 1990. On the basis of these findings, guidelines and administrative guidance on controlling emissions of dioxin-related chemicals were derived and established. 

The earliest SSD-based approach for monitoring and trends analyses yielded the so-called combi-PAF (Hamers et al. 1996) and, by aggregating over a package of substances used in The Netherlands, the indicator known as I-tox. The latter parameter has been used to investigate the changes over space and time in overall toxic pressure in The Netherlands for soil and water data in various State of the Environment reports of RIVM. Such analyses have suggested, for example, that I-tox values have declined in the larger rivers over the last few decades. 

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