The State Environmental Monitoring (SEM) was established pursuant to the Act of 20 June 1991 on the Inspection of Environmental Protection to provide reliable data on the state of the environment. State Environmental Monitoring is the system of measurements, assessments and outlooks of the state of the environment as well as the system of collecting, processing and disseminating information on the environment.
The Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection is responsible for developing long-term programmes under the State Environmental Monitoring to implement the tasks arising from separate legislative acts, international commitments as well as development strategies and programme documents. The SEM programmes have been developed since 1991.
The activity of the SEM is coordinated by the bodies of the Inspection of Environmental Protection.
At voivodship level, the SEM tasks are performed by the Voivodship Inspector of Environmental Protection as a government administration body in the voivodship. At national level, the SEM tasks are performed by the Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection; the CIEP also coordinates all the tasks conducted for the purposes of the State Environmental Monitoring.