Future Development

There is a constant challenge in managing EC's air quality monitoring networks to strike the right balance between adopting new measurement methods that appear promising and could fill major knowledge gaps, and continuing to operate mature measurement programs that provide essential information on long term trends.

Many measurements are only made on one day out of every six, or one day in three, because the costs of doing daily analyses are beyond what budgets permit. Managers must always strive for the highest information content out of each additional data point and program - akin to scientific triage to fill knowledge gaps and support public policy and services.

Meanwhile, remote sensing of atmospheric constituents and parameters is a field that is exploding. Real-time assimilation of observational data into chemical weather models and Earth Observing Systems will create an unprecedented push for new measurement methods, similar to what is already well underway in meteorological monitoring and weather forecasting.

Canada has shown over the past thirty years that it can operate world-class air quality monitoring programs. Its challenge will be to adapt to new demands over the next twenty years without jeopardizing the scientific foundation it has worked so hard to build.