Methods for inland water quality monitoring by remote sensing data is reviewed, and it turns out that remote sensing data in visible wavelength were mostly used, while few data in short-wave infrared wavelength were used, because the reflectance of water in short-wave infrared wavelength was thought to be zero. But based on the in situ measured spectra over the water of Taihu Lake in East China, some of the reflectance of waters in short-wave infrared wavelength is found to be bigger than zero, for the water of Taihu Lake is eutrophic, and the back scattering coefficients of chlorophyll-a and suspended matter are not too small. An experiment is carried out with a scene of Thematic Mapper data and concurrent in situ measured chlorophyll-a data over Taihu Lake. The experiment shows that the fifth band of Landsat Thematic Mapper, which is in short-wave infrared wavelength, has a good correlation with the in situ measured chlorophyll-a data, which means remote sensing data in short-wave infrared wavelength has much potential in monitoring inland water quality of those turbid and eutrophic waters.
