Method for Obtaining Water-Leaving Reflectance from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Based on Air–Ground Collaborative Calibration for Water Quality Monitoring

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral remote sensing imaging systems have demonstrated significant potential for water quality monitoring. However, accurately obtaining water-leaving reflectance from UAV imagery remains challenging due to complex atmospheric radiation transmission above water bodies. This study proposes a method for water-leaving reflectance inversion based on air–ground collaborative correction. A fully connected neural network model was developed using TensorFlow Keras to establish a non-linear mapping between UAV hyperspectral reflectance and the measured near-water and water-leaving reflectance from ground-based spectral. This approach addresses the limitations of traditional linear correction methods by enabling spatiotemporal synchronization correction of UAV remote sensing images with ground observations, thereby minimizing atmospheric interference and sensor differences on signal transmission. The retrieved water-leaving reflectance closely matched measured data within the 450–900 nm band, with the average spectral angle mapping reduced from 0.5433 to 0.1070 compared to existing techniques. Moreover, the water quality parameter inversion models for turbidity, color, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus achieved high determination coefficients (R2 = 0.94, 0.93, 0.88, and 0.85, respectively). The spatial distribution maps of water quality parameters were consistent with in situ measurements. Overall, this UAV hyperspectral remote sensing method, enhanced by air–ground collaborative correction, offers a reliable approach for UAV hyperspectral water quality remote sensing and promotes the advancement of stereoscopic water environment monitoring.