Integration of on-line and off-line methodologies for the assessment of river water quality

Legislation related to water quality is becoming more stringent worldwide. A clear example is the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EU) (WFD) that involves both a good chemical and biological status of water bodies. To achieve this good status advanced water quality monitoring platforms are needed. For that purpose, several detection technologies have been tested to evaluate their potential for river water quality assessment including on-line and off-line methodologies for measuring both chemical and biological status. The combination of these technologies has proved to be capable of detecting the presence of contaminants at low concentrations and sudden changes in water quality.