The increasing pollution of water bodies, the global climate change accelerating toxic algae blooming problems, the growing demand of drinking water to be treated from lakes, rivers and groundwater as well as the one still coming from the residual natural water sources require the real time control of a large number of water quality parameters.

Most of them are measured in laboratory by well-known and long term established analytical methods, but it is not easy to apply the same methods for continuous on-line monitoring in different field applications.  

The current state of the art on the application of optical based analytical methods to measure chemical parameters for automated water quality measurement using different instrumental technologies (LFA, µLFR, CFA and Discrete one) for on-line and field applications will be presented, as well as the basics of early warning systems using optical methods and biosensors for detection of acute toxicity in water samples.

The field automation for unattended use on floating platforms and coastal buoys of Enzyme Linked Immuno-Magnetic Optical assays to measure specific toxic algae species from the genera Alexandrium, Pseudo-nitzschia and Dinophysis, their associated toxins (Saxitoxin, Okadaic acid, Domoic acid), flame retardants (PBDE) and pesticides (Glyphosate) in coastal water, developed in the frame of the SMS European research project (http://www.project-sms.eu) will be finally shown.