This paper examines the problem of the approximate reconstruction of the unknown state variables in distributed-parameter systems. New results on the observer theory for important classes of linear and non-linear operator, partial differential, and partial differential-integral equations in describing distributed-parameter systems are presented. The specific developments employ the recent results on Lyapunov stability theory, along with the theory of linear and non-linear semigroup operators, and their infinitesimal generators. The questions of observability, stability of the state reconstruction error dynamics associated with the proposed observer structure are discussed. The theoretical results are illustrated with some applications to problems of the kinetic lumping of complex distributed-parameter chemical reaction systems, as well as the observer design for linear and non-linear distributed-parameter diffusion systems.