TY - JOUR AU - Gushgari, Adam TI - Improving utility and value of wastewater-based epidemiology data for community stakeholders JO - Emerging Contaminants and Environmental Health PY - 2026 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - EP - 5 SN - ISSN 3070-3549 (Online) AB -

The field of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has experienced significant adoption in response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and current initiatives will soon apply the novel technique to environmental matrices outside of municipal wastewater samples. Many well-designed surveillance programs have been abandoned or underutilized due to a disconnect between data providers and end users. As the breadth of wastewater surveillance applications continues to increase, it will be essential to improve upon the core principles, standardization procedures, and data analysis techniques that are central to the field. This review evaluates strategies to improve the practical utility and expand the multidisciplinary value of WBE data for community stakeholders, examining how expanding analytical capabilities towards multi-target surveillance, standardizing laboratory methodologies, improving data normalization and modeling approaches, and prioritizing data transparency can bridge this gap. Improving the utility and increasing the value of WBE data may lead to increased adoption of the methodology and foster the multidisciplinary utilization of wastewater surveillance datasets. Particular attention is given to lessons learned from COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) surveillance, representing the largest WBE deployment to date, with an emphasis on generalizable principles applicable across narcotics monitoring, multi-pathogen surveillance, and emerging contaminant tracking. Furthermore, the importance of serving needs-based communities, economically disadvantaged communities, and developing nations is highlighted as a core principle of WBE, serving not only to promote universal health equity but to contribute to the global understanding of communicable disease prevalence. Consideration of these and similar principles may support continued project buy-in, strengthen longitudinal WBE datasets, and increase the global adoption of the technique.

KW - Wastewater and environmental surveillance KW - public health KW - communicable disease KW - high-risk substances DO - 10.20517/eceh.2026.06 UR - https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/eceh.2026.06