Environmental monitoring is the systematic and repeated observation of parameters of the living and inanimate environment according to predetermined rules.

Monitoring addresses the sectors of the inanimate environment, e.g. noise, corrosion, pollutant concentrations in air and water.

Biomonitoring chechs the conditions of the living environment over certain time periods with the help of indicators (bioindicators). There are two kinds of methods passive and active biomonitoring. Passive biomonitoring studies the influences on bioindicator on their natural site of growth while for active monitoring standardised biological material is exposed under defined conditions.

Bioindicators are organisms or communities of organisms which react to environmental influences by changing their vital functions and/or chemical composition. Their presence or absence in a biotic community is characteristic for environmental influences. There are reactive (sensitive) indicators, which react with specific symptoms (e.g. tobacco Bel W3), and accumulative indicators, which accumulate substances mostly without developing visible damages (e.g. green cabbage). These amounts of accumulated substances can be measured.

source: VDI 3957 Part 1 (1999)

List of guidelines:

• VDI 3957 Part 1 (1999): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants. Fundamentals and aims. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 2 (2003): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (bioindication). Method of standardised grass exposure. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 3 (2000): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants. Standardised exposure of green cabbage. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 5 (2001): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (bioindication). Standardised exposure of spruce. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 6 (2003): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (bioindication). Determination and evaluation of the phytotoxic effect of photooxidants. Method of the standardised tobacco exposure. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 8 (2003): Determination of the growth rate of epiphytic lichens for ecological long-term monitoring. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 10 (2004): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (bioindication). Source-related measurements of ambient air quality using bioindicators. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Blatt 11 Entwurf (2006): Biologische Messverfahren zur Ermittlung und Beurteilung der Wirkung von Luftverunreinigungen auf Pflanzen (Bioindikation). Probenahme von Blättern und Nadeln zum Biomonitoring von immissionsbedingten Stoffanreicherungen (passives Biomonitoring). Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 12 (2006): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants (bioindication). Mapping of diversity of epiphytic bryophytes as indicators of air quality. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 13 (2005): Biological measuring procedures for determining and evaluating the effects of ambient air pollutions by means of lichens (bioindication). Mapping the diversity of epiphytic lichens as an indicator of air quality. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 13 (2007): Biological measuring procedures for determining and evaluating the effects of ambient air pollutions by means of lichens (bioindication). Mapping the diversity of epiphytic lichens as an indicator of air quality. Corrigendum. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Part 14 (2005): Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (bioindication). Phytotoxic effects of inorganic fluorides in ambient air. Method of Standardised Gladiolus Exposure. Berlin: Beuth.
• VDI 3957 Blatt 16 Entwurf (2007): Biologische Messverfahren zur Ermittlung und Beurteilung der Wirkung von Luftverunreinigungen auf Pflanzen (Bioindikation). Nachweis genotoxischer Verbindungen mit dem Tradescantia-Kleinkern-Test. Berlin: Beuth.