Funded by the Italian Ministry for Scientific Research, the multidisciplinary research programme "SAM" (Advanced Systems for automatic monitoring of the marine coastal pollution) aims at the installation of an integrated coastal monitoring network and at the development of new instrumentation and rapid analytical procedures to be applied in nowcasting and water quality assessment. The new strategies here described (analysis methods and automatic devices) provide reliable and useful tools for the control of seawater pollution and, more in general, for the management and sustainable use of coastal zones. Flexibility in the assembly of the technical instrumentation makes the SAM systems a versatile equipment for environmental surveillance. Research of new methods for the rapid estimation of faecal pollution microbial indicators has been addressed towards the optimisation of an immunofluorescence staining assay and the definition of an analytical procedure for the determination on liquid medium of the beta-glucuronidase activity of Escherichia coli involving the use of a fluorogenic substrate. The immunofluorescence and enzymatic protocols proposed suggest simple, rapid and sensitive alternative ways for the specific detection of E. coli in natural waters. The application of the protocols developed to the analysis of field samples collected in March-April 2001 has highlighted the advantages of the two methods, both of them providing near real-time results that correlate significantly with conventional plate counts.