Application Of Remote Sensing And GIS In Water Quality Assessment - Review Paper Alina Nero* 1 and Saju Simon S.G 2 *1 Assistant Professor ,Department of Civil Engineering, ACE College Of Engineering, Thiruvallom,Trivandrum,Kerala,India – 695027, alinanero88@gmail.com 2 Assistant Professor, Department of BME,Noorul Islam University,Kumaracoil-629480,KK district,Tamil Nadu,India , sajusimon.nta@gmail.com Abstract Water quality assessment and management has attained significant importance over the years owing to the growing concern and awareness on environment and health related impacts.This review paper highlights on how the different Remote sensing and Geographic Information System(GIS) techniques has been applied for the water quality assessment.Satellite images used for tracing the organic contamination in surface water through different models like WQI models,GIS based spatial regression models,export coefficient model,GPZM groundwater pollution zone model.Pollution mapping techniques through GIS helps in identifying the extent of pollution and the overlying with different thematic layers highlights the source of pollution.High resolution satellite data such as hyperion were used for mapping water quality degradation components using biooptical model.The wavelength and band selection of the remote sensed data is of importance for the identification of particular contaminants in water body.Relating to health aspects ,GIS is being used for evaluating and controlling the water quality in the distribution system.It is not only the assessment but also managing the non point sources to improve water resources .Integration of Remote sensed data and visualization capability of GIS along with different models help in better decision making in the field of water resource . Index Terms : Water quality,Remote sensing,GIS,models. 1.Introduction At the united nations conference at Mar del plata in 1977 which launched the international drinking water supply and sanitation decade this philosophy was adopted :- ―All peoples ,whatever their stage of development and social and economic condition have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs‖. Our water resources are of major environmental, social and economic value. If water quality becomes degraded this resource will become degraded. Water quality is important not only to protect public health but provides ecosystem habitats, used for farming, fishing, mining and International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.59 (2015) © Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm 60