SciDev.Net

A comprehensive, worldwide network of monitoring sites is required to understand the consequences of environmental change on a global scale, according to this Science article.

At present, there are no comprehensive and reliable data from African and Asian regions ― including the Indian subcontinent and surrounding seas ― that have a significant impact on the regional and global environment.

To address this the Indian government has proposed a monitoring network, INDOFLUX, that will survey the region's environment, thus generating baseline data from which to evaluate future environmental changes.

A team of scientists from India and the United States have developed a set of objectives for the proposed network, namely to gain a scientific understanding of the nature and magnitude of environmental change in India, the vulnerability of its natural systems, and how atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial environments interact.

The scientists point out that this knowledge is imperative because a large percentage of the regional population relies on natural resources and the region has a high ratio of population to length of coastline, suggesting the consequences of land use on the environment ― and vice versa ― will be extreme.

Link to full article/paper in Science

Reference: Science, 316, 204 (2007)