It has been shown throughout this book that most measurements of the natural environment are still being made using manual and mechanical instruments developed a century or more ago, albeit refined, but nevertheless limited. In consequence, we are less well informed about the environment than we would like to think, with data of uncertain accuracy and limited geographical coverage.

But with the developments of the past four decades, culminating in intelligent data loggers that record measurements from precise electronic sensors and are able, through satellite telemetry, to transmit their data from anywhere on earth, the environment can now be measured to much higher accuracy, with complete geographical coverage, in near-real time. This potential is only fully achieved, however, if the instruments are of good quality, correctly sited and well maintained. If they are not all these things, the data will be no better than those from the old instruments, possibly worse and certainly unreliable.

As in the past, so it will be in the future that the majority of measurements of the natural environment will continue to be made by individual organisations, small and large, commercial and governmental – research institutes, national weather services, water resources agencies and a host of others. These organisations will continue to buy, develop, operate and maintain equipment of their own choice, to their own standards and to suit their own budgets and purposes, just as they have in the past.