Monitoring of water quality in the coastal zone using optical remote sensing

The marine environment is subject to international conventions and regulations, such as the European Marine Strategy Directive, the EU Water Framework Directive or the OSPAR and HELCOM conventions. These regulations aim at improving the environment conditions and require monitoring of the water quality. Traditionally measurements taken from ships are used for this purpose. Remote sensing techniques for water quality monitoring have been developed during the past 15 years and are now in a pre-operational stage. This includes sea surface temperature, inherent optical properties and concentrations of water constituents such as phytoplankton or suspended matter. Deriving these parameters in the coastal zone imposes important methodological and technological challenges, which are only partly solved today. In the framework of the ESA GMES project MARCOAST a network of service providers has been initiated which delivers reliably water quality parameters derived from remote sensing data. The Water Quality Service System WAQSS is an element that provides data specifically prepared for the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Validation of the products is a critical element and has been successfully proven that the WAQSS products are fit for the purpose of supporting monitoring for EU regulations.