Water pollution is a severe worldwide problem that urgently requires development of novel sensing concepts allowing for monitoring in situ a variety of contaminants at very low concentrations in a cost-effective and multiplexed format. Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) resonators represent novel and promising tools for the development of high-performance sensing platforms for environmental monitoring. Here we report an overview of WGM platforms for monitoring different classes of water contaminants. The theoretical basis of these novel sensing platforms are presented. Several chemical/bio-chemical strategies for binding specific chemo/bio-receptors on the surface of the optical resonators are discussed. Finally, the main issues that currently hinder these devices from leaving research laboratories towards the development of high compact and sensitive tools to be launched on the market are reviewed and discussed together with future perspectives.

水污染是一个严重的全球性问题，迫切需要开发新颖的传感概念以实现现场监控具有成本效益的多路复用格式，可以以非常低的浓度收集各种污染物。回音壁模式（WGM）谐振器代表了用于开发用于环境监测的高性能传感平台的新颖且有前途的工具。在这里，我们报告了用于监视不同类别的水污染物的WGM平台的概述。介绍了这些新颖的传感平台的理论基础。讨论了在光谐振器表面结合特定化学/生物受体的几种化学/生物化学策略。最后，结合未来的观点，对目前阻碍这些设备离开研究实验室以开发要在市场上推出的紧凑型高灵敏工具的主要问题进行了讨论。