Section 8 and 9

Environmental monitoring and

Auditing (Types and methods)
 Role of Environmental Monitoring
Monitoring is a regular or continuous surveillance
activity undertaken to provide specific
information on the characteristics and functions
of environmental and social variables at a given
time.

• It ensures administrative performance of a

project and compliance to the regulatory
measures
• Improves sense of credibility and public
assurance and makes the project
environmentally sustainable and socially
acceptable.
• monitoring results are use extensively for
environmental auditing.
 How does monitoring differ from evaluation?

 Monitoring is concerned with implementation

where as evaluation is about impact.
 Monitoring is concerned with progress
assessment while evaluation is about impact
assessment
 Monitoring makes use of work plan and progress
report while evaluation makes use of surveys
and sometimes reports.
 Monitoring is regular while evaluation is periodic
 Approaches to Monitoring

Adopt 5W approach to monitoring,

• What should be monitored?
• When should monitoring begin?
• Where should it occur?
• Which method of monitoring should be
employed?
• Who should take the responsibility for
monitoring?
 Types of Environmental Monitoring
National EIA Guidelines 1993 proposes following
types of monitoring
• Baseline monitoring: carried out before the
construction of the project in order to know the
pre-project baseline conditions of the
environmental parameters so that they can be
compared with the post-project conditions.

• The parameters that should be considered are

Physical (TSP, PM10, SO2, NOX Noise level, etc),
Biological (endemic species, threatened species,
habitat condition etc), Socio-economic (population,
skilled laborers, settlement pattern, economic
activities etc) and cultural (historical and
archeological sites, local customs)
 Types of Environmental Monitoring
• Compliance monitoring: carried out to know the
implementation status of environmental
requirements as documented in EIA report that
should be complied with during pre-construction,
construction and operational stages. It should
ensure that the EPMs are incorporated, budget
allocated, compensations are made etc. It only
ensures compliance of EPMs but not much
concerned with their effectiveness.

• Impact monitoring: undertaken to find out the

effectiveness of the EPMs. For instance, if
landslide occurs in the area where bioengineering
technique was employed for landslide-control,
then the technique is considered ineffective.
 Monitoring methods and scheduling
Following are the monitoring methods that are in
practice;
• On site observation and inspection: the
supervisors or institutions inspect the
compliance of EPMs by the proponent such as
verify whether the safety measures are provided
to the laborers
• Document or records inspection: observation
of documents such as budget is spent on
recommended EPMs.
• Interview/inquiry: inquire local public opinion
about the experiences of the project,
• Sampling and analysis: water, air, soil samples
are analyzed in the laboratory
 Monitoring methods, scheduling and responsibilities

• The level or timing of monitoring should be done

on the basis of potential severity or degree of
uncertainty associated with the impact. It can be
hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly etc.

Primary guidelines for monitoring scheduling is;

• More regular for critical parameters during
construction stage,
• Intermittent during operational and maintenance
stage, and
• Periodical for compliance monitoring
 Responsibility of monitoring

There can be several stakeholders involved in the

monitoring processes-the following are the major
ones;

• The proponent: develops in-built mechanisms of

monitoring,
• The concerned authority (ministry): inspects and
directs the proponent
• MOEST: receives reports from the concerned
authority and
 Environmental auditing
• It is a regulatory measure carried out after the
operational stage of a project which evaluates
the pre and post-project state of the
environmental resources.
• It is undertaken by the MOEST two years after
the commencement of the services of the project
(Rule 14, EPR 1997).

 In practice, it is usually carried only once after

the completion of the construction work of the
project
 Objectives of Environmental Auditing
Role of Environmental Auditing:
• assesses the effectiveness of EPMs (benefit
enhancing and impact mitigating), and monitory
mechanisms including the accuracy of the
predictions.
• compares the environmental quality
(Biophysical, socioeconomic and cultural)
before and after the implementation of project

 Ministry of Env. Science and Technology is

responsible for carrying out the environmental
auditing in Nepal
 Types of Auditing
Six different types of Auditing are proposed by the National
EIA guidelines 1993 in Nepal.
• Decision point Auditing: effectiveness of EIA as a decision
making tool
• Implementation Auditing: focuses on the implementation of
the EPMs, their effectiveness and compliance
• Performance Auditing: audits the responses of the
stakeholders and
• Project impact Auditing: environmental effects arising from
the project activities,
• Predictive technique auditing: examines the utility and
accuracy of predictive techniques applied as EPMs
• EIA procedure Auditing: critically examines the methods
and approaches used in preparing the EIA report