INTELLIGENT CONTROL SYSTEMS SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING: A TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK FOR EVIDENCE BASED ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v22.n7.4060Keywords:
Environmental Monitoring, Intelligent Control, Evidence Based Policy, Environmental Governance, Sensor NetworksAbstract
Environmental monitoring is increasingly expected to do more than “observe” ecological conditions: it must also sustain lawful enforcement, support defensible administrative decisions, and enable credible public accountability. Yet many monitoring programs still rely on fragmented sampling routines, manual calibration cycles, and opaque data handling practices that can undermine evidentiary reliability—especially when measurements are challenged by regulated entities, communities, or courts. This paper develops an interdisciplinary framework that connects intelligent control systems with environmental governance needs. We conceptualize monitoring as a socio technical “evidence infrastructure” and show how control oriented functions—state estimation, adaptive sampling, fault detection, and disturbance rejection—can be designed to improve data continuity, uncertainty management, traceability, and responsiveness. Drawing on literature in wireless sensor networks, environmental sensor networks, industrial control, and governance by disclosure, we propose a reference architecture that integrates sensor/edge layers with an auditable data pipeline and governance aligned performance indicators. A simulation based case study for urban air quality monitoring illustrates how adaptive sampling and estimation can reduce missingness, shorten detection delay for exceedance events, and improve robustness to sensor drift while maintaining energy constraints. The discussion translates technical design choices into legal policy implications, including chain of custody practices, transparency and contestability, cybersecurity requirements, and institutional capacity building. The paper contributes a practical roadmap for agencies seeking to modernize monitoring under budgetary pressure without weakening evidentiary standards.
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