The deteriorating water environment demands new approaches and technologies to achieve sustainable and smart management of urban water systems. Wireless sensor networks represent a promising technology for water quality monitoring and management. The use of wireless sensor networks facilitates the improvement of current centralized systems and traditional manual methods, leading to decentralized smart water quality monitoring systems adaptable to the dynamic and heterogeneous water distribution infrastructure of cities. However, there is a need for a low-cost wireless sensor node solution on the market that enables a cost-effective deployment of this new generation of systems. This paper presents the integration to a wireless sensor network and a preliminary validation in a wastewater treatment plant scenario of a low-cost water quality monitoring device in the close-to-market stage. This device consists of a nitrate and nitrite analyzer based on a novel ion chromatography detection method. The analytical device is integrated using an Internet of Things software platform and tested under real conditions. By doing so, a decentralized smart water quality monitoring system that is conceived and developed for water quality monitoring and management is accomplished. In the presented scenario, such a system allows online near-real-time communication with several devices deployed in multiple water treatment plants and provides preventive and data analytics mechanisms to support decision making. The results obtained comparing laboratory and device measured data demonstrate the reliability of the system and the analytical method implemented in the device.

The current state of knowledge of the main aspects regarding the behaviour and fate of pesticide residues in the soil environment is reviewed in this article. Once a pesticide is introduced into the environment, whether by application, disposal, or a spill, it can be influenced by many processes. Physical and chemical properties of the pesticide, site characteristics, such as soil, geology, and vegetation, environmental conditions, crop management systems, and chemical handling practices can all affect each process. Each factor must be considered when determining the likelihood of pesticide movement and off-target effect. These fate processes can have both positive (they can bring a pesticide in contact with the target pest) and negative (leading to injury of nontarget plants and animals) influences on a pesticide’s effectiveness or its impact on the environment. Processes responsible for accumulation, movement and disappearance of pesticides in the soil and the factors involved in their dynamics are assessed. Also, the environmental significance of the formation of bound residues and some techniques used currently for remediation of pesticide-contaminated soils are discussed according to the recent researches

Adsorption, degradation, and movement are the key processes conditioning the behavior and fate of pesticides in the soil. Six processes that can move pesticides are leaching, diffusion, volatilization, erosion and run-off, assimilation by microorganisms, and plant uptake. Leaching is the vertical downward displacement of pesticides through the soil profile and the unsaturated zone, and finally to groundwater, which is vulnerable to pollution. Pesticides are frequently leached through the soil by the effect of rain or irrigation water. Pesticide leaching is highest for weakly sorbing and/or persistent compounds, climates with high precipitation and low temperatures, and soils with low organic matter and sandy texture. On the contrary, for pesticides with a low persistence that disappear quickly, the risk of groundwater pollution considerably decreases. Different and varied factors such as physical-chemical properties of the pesticide, a permeability of the soil, texture and organic matter content of the soil, volatilization, crop-root uptake, and method and dose of pesticide application are responsible for the leaching rate of the pesticides. Soils that are high in clays and organic matter will slow the movement of water, attach easily to many pesticides, and generally have a higher diversity and population of soil organisms that can metabolize the pesticides.