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The trend of illicit drug abuse has become more severe due to the lack of measures for real-time monitoring. In recent years, a novel method of obtaining relevant information through wastewater analysis has become a tracking method to deal with the problem. The information obtained from chemical analysis of specific human excretion products (biomarkers) in urban wastewater can be used to estimate the exposure or consumption of the population under investigation to a defined substance, which is named wastewater-based epidemiology. With further development of the novel method, multi-domain and multi-disciplinary information related to the population can be obtained through wastewater analysis in addition to the identification of illicit drugs. In this study, we introduced principles and applications of wastewater-based epidemiology and discussed reviewe the development and prospects of wastewater-based epidemiology in China.