This book provides background information on the main parameters used to determine the state and the quality of the earth's water, soil and air. Some of the parameters covered are pressure, wind speed, temperature, humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, volatile organic compounds, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen concentration, turbidity, redox potential, and flow rates

The book goes on to provide a systematic review of the methods and instrumentations used to measure the state and quality of these parameters. Some of the methods covered to determine air, water and soil quality are: digital barometric pressure sensors, Laser Doppler anemometer, automated aspiration Assmann psychrometer, isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers, tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy for stable isotope studies, scintillometers, radiometers, photometers, photon meters, methods of eddy covariance and accumulation, quantum-cascade laser based spectrometers, chemiluminescent and fluorescent methods, ultraviolet photometry, methods of particle emission control, gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS), the combination methods of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS), optical acoustic spectroscopy (OAS), the technique of mass spectrometry based on proton transfer reactions (PTR-MS), miniature gas analysis systems, open air analysis system, Fourier transform spectrometry, optical emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma (OES-ICP), mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (MS-ISP), method of mass spectrometry with membrane introduction (MIMS).