Modern scientific and methodological approaches to monitoring water bodies and wastewater: a review

This review of scientific and methodological approaches to monitoring water and wastewater was conducted to address the issues of environmental safety of water, population access to high-quality drinking water, and wastewater as a major anthropogenic pollutant. The scientific data search was performed in the PubMed biomedical database, the Russian scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.RU, and the official websites of scientific journals with thematic sections on the subject. The search included publications from 15 years. Despite numerous studies demonstrating the advantages of automated monitoring systems—which, while costly, enable real-time control of water bodies—state monitoring of water quality still relies on traditional methods. These are characterized by complexity, high maintenance costs of laboratory equipment, the use of chemical reagents, longer testing times, and limited applicability for on-site and real-time monitoring. Under these conditions, a unified automated system for monitoring the ecological and hygienic status of aquatic environments and wastewater treatment would considerably improve water body protection. This would ensure the supply of safe drinking water to the population and the optimal use of water in health resorts and recreational zones.

Legislative action is required to establish a unified, integrated approach that enables real-time identification of water pollution sources, locations, and levels, as well as mapping of the ecological and hygienic status of water bodies.