Remote sensing for inland water quality detection and monitoring: State-of-the-art application in Friesland waters

Remote sensing is an emerging technology with respect to water quality detection and monitoring. It must be made clear to end-users that the results of the technique are beneficial to them in their work. For this purpose it is necessary to provide the end-user with adequate water quality information from remote sensing at the right time, in the right format, at a competitive price (as compared to alternative methods). A methodology has been developed in The Netherlands, based on these criteria, applicable anywhere in the world. The methodology embedded in PC-based software is based on sound modeling of the water-atmosphere system. This makes it possible to derive accurate remote sensing algorithms for estimating water quality parameters for the types of water present. The case study in Friesland described here is a representative example of an applied inland water study.