LETTERS
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
wantstohear from you! Uninformative data Dear Editor: You opened a very fruitful item and discussion with your editorial "Too Little Data, Too Many Models" (May 1, 1998, p. 207A) on die overkill of models compared to the availability of data in recent years. One step further was made in the letter of Whittemore (July 1, 1998, pp. 300A-301A) where the linking of monitoring to modeling is presented as a useful tool in environmental science. We just finished the international North-West European Shelf Project and came to the conclusion that although there are many data available, nearly no environmental information can be extracted from them. One of die goals was to study trends in long-term time series based on available data and to compare the performance of different eutrophication and water-quality models of the North Sea from different institutes. An enormous amount of data is available for salinity, temperature, nutrients, and cadmium in the Norm Sea. However, they are not useful to calibrate and validate the models because the strategy behind the collection of the data has never been to serve the models. On die basis of statistical analysis of the available data and the aims of die models, an international project will be necessary in the near future to define the strategy and to develop a monitoring network covering the whole North Sea. To optimize the use of modern techniques, the integration between monitoring and models, as suggested by Whittemore (July 1, 1998, p. 300A), should be extended witii remote sensing data and specific sensors. Your editorial
and Whittemore's letter are excellent contributions to speed up the discussion on the integration of environmental monitoring and models. R. LAANE RIKZ P.O. Box 20907 2500 EX The Hague The Netherlands
Errors noted Dear Editor: There are errors in the most recent issue (August 1, 1998, p. 362A). The two aryl chlorines on DDT and its derivatives are missing, and the structure of DDMU is missing one alkyl chlorine. CHITSAN LIN Department of Marine Environmental Engineering National Kaohsiung Institute of Marine Technology Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C. e-mail:
[email protected] Editor's Note: The figure was drawn to highlight the dechlorination process. As shown, the molecules are not structurally correct, and as a result of transcription errors, DDE as shown is DDD; DDE as shown is DDD; and DDMU as shown is DDNU.
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OCT. 1, 1998 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 4 4 1 A
