CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS Organized Session GC24: Environmental Monitoring: Luxury or Necessity?
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting December 10-14, 2007 San Francisco, CA Contributed abstracts for the AGU Fall meeting are due September 6. Abstract below: Environmental monitoring has been criticized for being unscientific and for diverting money that would be better spent on real research. Yet monitoring is commonly a necessary foundation for environmental research, and typically costs only a small fraction of the cost or value of the associated policy implementation or resource protection. Well-conceived monitoring programs have embedded scientific questions and hypotheses, and monitoring often uncovers unexpected trends or patterns that lead to new hypotheses. Additionally, monitoring originally motivated by one issue can prove useful for addressing other very different issues not conceived at the outset, as in many recent studies of climate change. We solicit contributions that highlight the scientific and economic value of environmental monitoring. Possible examples include: elements of an effective monitoring program; results of monitoring that have advanced scientific understanding; monitoring that has raised important new or unexpected scientific questions beyond the original objectives; and cost-benefit analysis of monitoring. For more details, or to submit an abstract, please see: http:// www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=685 For more information, please contact Jennifer Jenkins, at [EMAIL PROTECTED], or (802) 656-2953. Jamie Shanley, Douglas Burns, and Jennifer Jenkins Co-Conveners Jennifer Jenkins, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor Program Director, Vermont Monitoring Cooperative The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Gund Institute for Ecological Economics University of Vermont 617 Main St. Burlington, VT 05405
