Monitoring Pollutants in Wastewater: Traditional Lab Based versus Modern Real-Time Approaches

Clean water - the most natural and yet the most precious natural resource that mankind needs. Current quality assessment methods of water parameters are mainly laboratory based, require fresh supplies of chemicals, trained staff and are time consuming. The ever-growing demand for simple, real-time and reliable techniques for the detection of pollutants and contaminants in the environment has sparked the development of remote detection and monitoring systems which include application specific sensors, instrumentation and signal processing. Real-time water quality monitoring is essential for National and International Health and Safety, as it can significantly reduce the level of damage and also the cost to remedy the problem. This book chapter critically compares the capabilities of traditional lab based and modern in situ methods for real-time wastewater quality monitoring and suggests further developments in this area.