A FLUORESCENCE LIDAR SIMULATOR FOR THE DESIGN OF ADVANCED WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES

Water quality assessment plays an important role in sustainable development of natural resources. Fluorescence LIDAR is among the preferred remote sensors used in water quality monitoring. This work presents an underwater fluorescence LIDAR simulator for water quality assessment developed to design, test, and validate methodologies for the retrieval of key biophysical parameters or to discriminate dissolved substances and pollutants. Experimental results illustrating the usefulness of the simulator are provided focusing, as a case-study, on a key water quality indicator playing a major role in the global carbon balance, namely the Chromophoric/colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM).