Abstract. The forecasting of natural hazards requires a multi-parameter approach to incur an increased understanding of the processes involved in nature and thus aid to decrease the risk of false alarms. For very complex interactions concerning fluid-flow modulation induced by tectonic activities (volcanic, geothermal ans seismic areas, land-slide zones...), the diversity of the sensors is so broad that the use of existing technology provides a difficult barrier for scientists with a limited knowledge in metrology. To address this requirement, an Environmental Data Acquisition System EDAS was developped at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, this system is conceptually based on the standardisation of geodynamically based instrumentation and provides for the implementation of resistive and capacitive transducers by means of sensor interfaces which operate using standard supplies and standard output input signals. The core base of this standardised data acquisition system are the DAS and µDAS monitoring devices which produce standard data files which follow a standard sequence to contain date, time and the recorded values in ASCII columns. These files can in turn be viewed and analysed by utilising the software explicitly created for EDAS files.