VIDL Network experience can introduce you to Environmental Science which includes all aspects of the world in which we live. A short list of those aspects will include the air we breathe, the water we drink, ground we walk on, the heat and cold we feel, the radiation we absorb, the decisions we make, and the consequences we reap.

Environmental Science involves four main steps: basic research, applied research, regulation and outcome. These steps are not necessarily linear and facets of each may affect the others. For example, a worker in a manufacturing plant believes that she and some of her co-workers are suffering hearing loss more than their friends who work elsewhere. The cause and an outcome will involve the interaction of all of the four steps.

This example seems quite obvious; loud noise damages ears and makes people go deaf. Make machines quieter and wear ear protection. Unfortunately, this obviousness has only been agreed upon for only a generation or so. Outcomes are being continually recognized and their causes researched and their regulation updated.

Individual VIDLNetwork Environmental modules and related projects will cover the many aspects of the four steps. Initially, the focus here has been placed on regulatory processes. These will include topics such as Environment assessment of property, occupational safety, and monitoring and management of air, water and waste.