Heavy metal pollution of water resources is of worldwide concern, stimulating the development of breakthroughs in detection and remedy technologies. In the digital age, imaging solutions have been applied to almost every sector of civil society, from health and manufacturing to diagnostics, defense, and personal security. The next generation of monitoring sensors and systems for water quality and pollutants is developing at a rapid pace. The present review discusses various aspects of imaging-assisted quantification of heavy metals in water, including transduction techniques (colorimetric and photoluminescence), sensor materials (organic linkers, metal nanoparticles, carbonaceous & semiconductor quantum dots, etc.), the roles of equipment and readout tools (color charts, image scanners, digital cameras, mobile phones, etc.), substrates (organic and inorganic), and sampling methods. To the best of our knowledge, no such efforts have been made previously to critically and comprehensively analyze various aspects on the new imaging-based technologies in the environmental sector.

水资源的重金属污染是世界范围内关注的问题，刺激了检测和补救技术的突破性发展。在数字时代，成像解决方案已应用于几乎所有公民社会部门，从健康和制造业到诊断，国防和人身安全。下一代水质和污染物监测传感器和系统正在快速发展。本综述讨论了成像辅助定量分析水中重金属的各个方面，包括转导技术（比色和光致发光），传感器材料（有机连接剂，金属纳米颗粒，碳质和半导体量子点等），设备的作用和读出工具（颜色图表，图像扫描仪，数码相机，手机等），底物（有机和无机）以及采样方法。据我们所知，以前没有做出过这样的努力来对环境领域中基于影像的新技术进行严格和全面的分析。