Abstract: Estuaries and coasts are the most sensitive zones in land-sea interaction-these zones have now become the core of earth system science research. In recent years, estuarine and coastal environments are facing serious challenges from rises in both sea level and high-intensity human activities. Strengthening the capacity of estuarine coastal environmental monitoring technology is essential for understanding the process and change mechanisms of the estuarine and coastal environments and improving our prediction of future changes. In this paper, monitoring elements, methods, common instruments, and equipment for estuarine and coastal monitoring are discussed holistically based on five aspects: meteorology, hydrology, topography, geology, and environment. Given the uniqueness of estuarine and coastal locations, we show that current monitoring of extreme weather and long time series data is particularly inadequate and needs to be improved holistically.

Key words: estuary and coast, monitoring technologies, monitoring indexes