Nearshore water quality assessment at the Arno River mouth using Landsat TM data  <B>Nearshore water quality assessment at the Arno River mouth using Landsat TM data</B><P>A.M. Dreoni1, F. Maselli2 and E. Pranzini1</B><I><P> 1 Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Firenze, Italy <BR> 2 I.A.T.A.CNR Piazzale della Cascine, Firenze Italia</I><P> Abstract<P> Remote sensing is a cost effective technique to collect suspended sediment concentration (s.s.c.) data over large areas. In this study, a Landsat TM image of the Arno River mouth has been processed to obtain a s.s.c. map which has been related to the river discharge and wind data. The image was georeferenced and corrected for the atmospheric effect by a LOWTRAN based software. S.s.c. values were obtained using an algorithm that correlates this parameter with the water leaving energy. Since in nearshore waters a large part of the waterleaving radiation comes from the seabottom instead of from the suspended particles, a further correction was performed, using a digital terrain model (DTM) derived from bathymetric surveys. The procedure proved to be rapid and reliable as required to enter a long lasting monitoring project.<P>