Optimal Redesign of Environmental Monitoring Networks: the software MSANOS

Monitoring networks redesign is a field rich of practical applications, mainly at the light of recent EU environmental directives. A software application capable of redesigning a given Monitoring Network (MN) can rightly be considered a valuable decision support system. In fact, such software can support resource managers to improve the informative power of the MN and make more sustainable its maintenance costs. Redundancies and clustering of monitoring locations, over the considered area, often provide the manager with an insufficient knowledge for decision-making processes and pose the need for upsizing or downsizing the MN or relocating monitoring sites over the area. In this paper, a suitable software application able to carry out all the three tasks mentioned above and a related case study are presented.