Disclosed are systems and methods for inspecting and monitoring an inner surface of a pipeline. One system includes a pig arranged within the pipeline and having first and second ends, one or more optical computing devices arranged on at least one of the first and second ends for monitoring a fluid within the pipeline. The optical computing devices including at least one integrated computational element configured to optically interact with the fluid and thereby generate optically interacted light, and at least one detector arranged to receive the optically interacted light and generate an output signal corresponding to a characteristic of the fluid. The system also includes a signal processor communicably coupled to the at least one detector of each optical computing device for receiving the output signal of each optical computing device and determining the characteristic of the fluid as detected by each optical computing device.