Abstract: One of the most important waterborne viral pathogens, human astrovirus (HAst V), can cause acute diarrhea, and was believed to be present in environmental waters in China. In order to investigate the distribution and removal of human astrovirus in domestic wastewater, the conventional PCR method combined with a nucleic acid sequencing technique and real-time PCR method with specific primers were used to detect the human astrovirus in the influent and the effluent before disinfections of three wastewater treatment plants. A seroepidemiological survey and semimonthly quantitative surveillance of the human astrovirus for one year were achieved. The results showed that the positive ratios of human astrovirus in the influent and effluent before disinfection were 91.5% and 36.6%, respectively. The serotypes of human astrovirus in the studied area were mainly identified as HAst V-1 and HAst V-4, based on the sequencing results of the nucleic acids. The concentrations of human astrovirus in the influent of WWTPs were in the range of 10²-10⁵ copies/mL, with a mean value of 1.47×10⁴copies/mL. The concentration of human astrovirus in the effluent before disinfection ranged from 10¹ to 10⁴ copies/mL, with mean of 1.03×10³ copies/mL, indicating a 93.15% removal of human astrovirus by the conventional secondary treatment process. The distribution of the human astrovirus in the influent showed seasonal variation, with the concentrations of human astrovirus being high in spring and winter, but low in summer and autumn. The distribution was similar with the circumstances of human astrovirus epidemiology in the studied area, from the aspect of clinical infection. Further studies should be conducted to determine the relationship between occurrence of human astrovirus in domestic wastewater and epidemiology of that in clinical infection.