Market opportunities for advanced sensor technologies arising from the need to protect the environment

This paper reports on awareness that the processes that sustain the wealth of the world's industrialized nations that are themselves responsible for the greatest environmental damage, has led to an urgent reappraisal of many aspects of late twentieth-century life. It is clear that vital functions such as transport, power generation, agriculture and energy consumption must be adapted and developed so as to continue to meet the users' needs, yet comply with ever more stringent legislation and public demands for a healthy environment. This will involve all manner of practices that reduce the use and release of environmentally hazardous materials, but it is inconceivable that all such emissions and discharges will ever be eliminated totally. Thus, there is a growing need for technologies that can control environmentally hazardous materials at source and monitor their presence in the external environment. It is in this capacity that new and improved sensor technologies will play a critical role