Second Generation Water Monitoring Using Biological Early Warning Systems and Biological Assays

Currently water monitoring is performed according to EU Directives and National laws and is organised in temporal sampling and analysis of contaminants. Over several decades a wide range of tools, commonly called biosensors, have been developed for monitoring water quality. These devices can produce an early warning, a precocious alarm that can be used for sampling the “same” water that produces the warning; furthermore, this water sample can be used for biological assays, including biomarkers and ecotoxicology tests that provide extremely useful information on classification of pollutants.