Recent Advances in Water Quality Monitoring

Dear Colleagues,

Water-quality monitoring in open and near-shore marine environments requires the assessment of multiple stressors and ecosystem responses. The implementation of environmental policies related to water-quality monitoring is a demanding task for several agencies and competent authorities in order to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) for diverse applications, such as recreation, drinking, fishing, aquaculture, industry, etc. However, it is economically and logistically challenging to extensively monitor the marine environment. Although in situ measurements are the most reliable for water-quality assessment, it is usually time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive, especially over large ocean environments, to collect these data. Moreover, the gaps in situ data availability and the limited access or dissemination of existing data in many countries around the world increase the complexity of water-quality monitoring. In such a context, the scientific community is trying to overcome these gaps by introducing novel technologies for monitoring ocean water quality. The use of remote sensing (RS) tools, numerical ocean modeling, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools in support of water-quality monitoring and environmental assessment has gained significant importance in the last decade, whereas the list of relevant services continues to expand. Although RS techniques may not be as accurate as in situ measurements, they can effectively mitigate most of the limitations of field-based data collection, providing cost-effective and frequent observations over the marine environment to facilitate effective water-quality monitoring over time.

The main goal of this Special Issue is to provide a scientific platform to discuss recent advances in the application of RS systems and modeling and AI techniques to monitor the water quality parameters in the marine environment. This Special Issue will attempt to elucidate the current progress in this field by collecting new techniques and technologies, case studies, and showcases for monitoring water quality in diverse marine areas and water bodies. Applications of various RS techniques and products and model-derived parameters, such as sea surface temperature, salinity, currents, chlorophyll-a, primary production, phytoplankton functional types, suspended matter, turbidity, transparency, reflectance, inorganic nutrients, dissolved oxygen, CDOM, oil spills, plastics, etc., are also of interest.

Authors are encouraged to submit contributions on the advances in water quality assessment. Topics can include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Remote sensing products for water quality monitoring (chlorophyll-a, turbidity, harmful algal blooms, etc.);
• Marine litter detection and tracking;
• UAVs and other new sensing platforms’ feasibility as water quality solutions;
• Integration and assimilation of satellite data into models of marine ecosystem dynamics;
• High spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing for studying ecosystem dynamics;
• Time series analysis and trends;
• Operational remote sensing products and their integration into classical monitoring programs;
• Generating higher-level ecosystem indicators from satellite data;
• Water quality analysis at national, continental, or global scale;
• Combining coastal and terrestrial remote sensing products to investigate water-catchment interactions.

Dr. Alexandra Pavlidou
Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Hoteit
Dr. Ana Martins
Dr. Ioanna Varkitzi
Guest Editors

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