Introduction. The main approach to the development of modern cities is an approach based on the balance of social, economic, and environmental subsystems, within the framework of which plans to achieve sustainable growth are implemented. In the era of digitalization, the most important condition for effective environmental management is the use of advanced tools for analyzing data obtained during the environmental monitoring procedure. Materials and methods. The methodology for monitoring the state of various components of the environment involves a number of sequential operations. The first stage of the study (obtaining a priori information) pursues the goal of creating a landscape-geochemical basis on which information about typical elementary landscapes reflecting the structure of the area is placed. The second stage includes obtaining operational information about the state of selected environmental components using field and laboratory methods. At the third stage, desk processing of information is carried out. Results. The structure of environmental monitoring can be divided into levels in accordance with the degree of detail of the tasks assigned to it. The most appropriate division of environmental monitoring in cities for the conditions of the Urals seems to be the following levels: a) local, examining the state of the environment as a whole in the city or on the border of the sanitary protection zone of an enterprise and b) detailed, examining the state of the environment from the impact of waste disposal facilities. Discussion. In the field of environmental monitoring, a digital database should be created at the local and detailed levels, with the help of which it is possible to conduct analysis and further forecast the state of the environment, with the subsequent development of environmental measures. Environmental monitoring within cities with a mining and metallurgical complex must be carried out comprehensively, including the atmosphere, surface water, soil, snow cover, groundwater and vegetation. Conclusion. Thus, the proposed environmental monitoring system is characterized by high environmental and economic efficiency, which meets the requirements of sustainable development at the present stage. Resume. For the cities of the mining and metallurgical complex of the Urals, it is necessary to conduct two-level environmental monitoring with the development, implementation and dissemination of digital technologies in the environmental sphere. Environmental monitoring within cities with a mining and metallurgical complex must be carried out comprehensively, including the atmosphere, surface water, soil, snow cover, groundwater and vegetation. Conducting local monitoring in the territory of influence of the enterprise and detailed monitoring in the zone of influence of waste disposal facilities presupposes the presence of stable observations in the space-time interval and a stable ingredient composition. The instability of observations leads to deterioration of the analysis, which reduces the quality of the forecast of the situation
and recommendations for preventive measures. Suggestions for practical applications and directions for future research. The research results can be useful in the formation of a data bank on the state of the environment for the development and adoption of environmental measures with high environmental and economic efficiency at industrial facilities of the mining and metallurgical complex.