Over the last ten years there has been a significant increase in the number and type of remote monitoring systems used to measure a range of natural and man-made environmental parameters. Initially developed as stand-alone systems that required a field technician to down load the data, these monitoring units are now web enabled allowing for the centralised storage of data in repositories. The data is as diverse as it is detailed and the quantity of the data is both challenging to manage and challenging to interpret. The increase in the number of monitoring systems has coincided with an increase in the requirement for the timely notification of changes to environmental parameters. The current trend is to use 'dashboard' and 'traffic light' systems that incorporate alarms using email and SMS notifications which result in reactive management strategies. This paper provides an overview of the research behind Situation Awareness and Data Visualisation that can assist in the integration of monitoring data from a range of different data streams. The research indicates that the user's perception and awareness of the situation is enhanced when they are provided with appropriate data visualisation. Furthermore, the increased situation awareness results in decision-making that can be pre-emptive rather than reactive.