Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) such as gasoline and diesel are among the most common and widespread contaminants in urban and industrial environments. The authors were engaged by the imprint Springer to complete a book giving visibility to technologies overcoming limitations associated with conventional characterisation approaches, as well as pertinent concepts and methods that may still be underutilised by the industry internationally. The open access book entitled ‘Advances in the characterisation and remediation of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons’ was prepared as a contributed volume involving the participation of more than 100 global experts from academia, government agencies, and the private sector. An analysis of the book contents yielded general insights into the state of the art regarding the investigation of PHC-impacted sites. As highlighted in several chapters, fate and transport of fuel products are controlled by multiphase flow mechanics and constitutive relations intrinsically linked to biological phenomena and the spatial and temporal variability of multiple subsurface properties. Most site characterization methods presented in the book (from direct-push vertical profiling and biogeophysics to sequence stratigraphy or molecular biological tools) address aspects often overlooked in conventional site investigation projects, including: (i) the entrapment of fuel products due to capillary forces, (ii) the essential role played by microbial activity, and (iii) subsurface heterogeneity effects. Further research and adoption of up-to-date concepts and methods are encouraged to ensure best practices are implemented and PHC risks are managed sustainably and responsibly.