Environmental analysis is the use of

analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

and other techniques to study the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. The purpose of this is commonly to monitor and study levels of

pollutants A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

in the atmosphere, rivers and other specific settings. Other environmental analysis techniques include biological surveys or

biosurvey A biosurvey, or biological survey, is a scientific study of organisms to assess the condition of an ecological resource, such as a water body. Overview Biosurveys are used by government agencies responsible for management of public lands, environ ...

, soil analysis or

soil test Soil test may refer to one or more of a wide variety of soil analysis conducted for one of several possible reasons. Possibly the most widely conducted soil tests are those done to estimate the plant-available concentrations of plant nutrients, i ...

, vegetation surveys and tree identification, and

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

which uses satellite imagery to assess the environment on different spatial scales.

Analysis techniques

Chemical analysis typically involves sampling some part of the environment and using lab equipment to figure out how much of a certain target compound exists. Someone might use chemical analysis to assess pollution levels for remediation, or to make sure groundwater is safe for drinking. Biological surveys typically include a measurement of the abundance of a certain species within a certain area to ascertain information about the ecosystem for specific reasons. Analysis like this could be used in efforts to understand species abundance, or to look at how external effects from the environment are affecting an ecosystem. A soil test may involve chemical analysis, but most often soil tests involve removing a section of soil to understand what each layer of soil is composed of for specific reasons. Soil samples might be needed if someone is determining whether they can build on a certain site, or just to produce a model of an area. A vegetation survey is quite similar to a

because one is measuring the abundance of plant species and trees within a specific area to understand more about the ecosystem for specific reasons. Sometimes these are done to understand ecological effects from outside factors, or to just determine overall ecosystem health. Remote sensing can be used for environmental analysis by taking imagery shot by satellites in multiple wavelengths to assess areas of different scale for a certain objective. Remote sensing can be used to identify land use, it can be used to determine damages from forest fires, it can be used for weather systems and meteorology, and also for atmospheric composition. Recent advances in remote sensing field has also led to the development of autonomous devices for the analysis of physico-chemical parameters of the environment using

sensors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

References

Analytical chemistry Environmental science {{chemistry-stub