**2.6 Storage and monitoring**

Storage and monitoring are considered to be single step, because monitoring is required to assure that the CO2 stored will not leak out to the atmosphere. According to the report of the Special Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2005), this monitoring aims to verify possible leaks or other aspects indicating deterioration of the storage over the long term, to assure there are no risks to the environment. Various technologies can be used to perform different types of monitoring:


All the data gathered by these monitoring efforts are fed into computer systems equipped with "intelligent" software as part of a risk management system, which besides indicating tendencies that can foretell risky situations and determine operational changes, also indicates mitigation routes in case of leaks or malfunctions of the system.
