Dear Colleagues,

Following the success of our Sensors Special Issue entitled “Optical Sensing for Environmental Monitoring”, we would like to once again invite our colleagues from across the world to contribute their expertise, insights, and findings in the form of original research articles and reviews for the second edition of the Special Issue, entitled “Optical Sensing for Environmental Monitoring-2nd Edition”.

Environmental monitoring has become essential for human sustainability and for the efficient and safe use of environmental resources. It plays a vital role in pollution mitigation, the preservation of biodiversity, and providing data for assessing the impacts of climate change. Environmental monitoring typically involves sampling and analyzing data with the help of sophisticated instruments to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment (air/water/soil). However, this usually involves sample collection, transport, storage and off-site analysis, which may not be cost-effective and may alter sample characteristics. The use of sensors is fast gaining traction because of their ability for in situ monitoring and rapid transmission of real-time data. Various types of sensors can be used for environmental monitoring, based on optical and spectroscopic (fluorescence, Raman, and IR) techniques. Typical detection may involve the monitoring of environmental changes in the ocean, atmosphere, or nuclear/industrial facilities under harsh conditions (e.g., subsea pipelines) in both the temporal and spatial domains. This may be carried out remotely, involving multiple parameters. Optical or optical fiber-based sensors are emerging as potential for environmental monitoring. Optical fibers have advantages like smaller size, immunity to electromagnetic interference, freedom from corrosion, chemical inertness and large bandwidth, which can accommodate the growing needs of sensing and monitoring in challenging environments.

Current trends in environmental sensor development are to realize in-situ-type, smaller, easy-to-use, and rapid sensors with “smart” capabilities. Future sensors are expected to have high sensitivity and selectivity with real-time monitoring or multi-analyte detection capability based on the “lab-on-a-chip” principle. This can simplify the analysis, reduce the cost, and extend reliable monitoring outside the central laboratory. Optical biosensors based on bio-affinity molecules can provide very good sensitivity and selectivity for monitoring. Sensor arrays or CCD-based imaging can be implemented for monitoring various spatial locations or multi-parameter sensing. Again, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based approaches are being integrated for simplifying sensor data or image analysis. This Special Issue will include featured research articles on environmental monitoring based on optical techniques.

Prof. Dr. Radhakrishna Prabhu
Dr. Carlos Fernandez
Dr. Sandhya Devalla
Guest Editors

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