Environmental monitoring has proven to be a rich source of biological and ecological data but typically does not conform to traditional monitoring techniques. Events of interest are often dynamic and may not tolerate the introduction of a conventional infrastructure without disrupting the environment being monitored. The new NIMS architectures require minimal infrastructure, are rapidly deployable, and have self anchoring coordinate systems. Simple cableways provide system mobility with minimal occlusion of the monitored transect allowing for accurate positioning and high positional resolution within the space of interest. These new systems have been developed to operate in either a two dimensional plane (NIMS-RD: e.g. monitor river or stream properties) or in a three dimensional volume (NIMS-3D: e.g. monitor incident solar radiation under a forest canopy).