Abstract: This paper proposes a universal design method for ocean environment monitoring system.An ocean environment monitoring system can be separated into collection layer, data layer and application layer.The key technology in three layers is presented:collection program in assistance with configuration tool can obtain observations from multiple heterogeneous sources, storage requirements can be satisfied without database modifications and application client can be fast generated based on functional module library.The method has been applied in IEEE standard P2402-based monitoring system developments.It is proved to be feasible and effective in the development cases for different ocean environment monitoring systems.