The objectives of this investigation are : 1. To analyze spectral signature and the associated vegetation index for geometric illumination conditions inf1uenced by low solar elevation and high slope orientations in mountainous forest. 2. To assess the accuracy of the spectral angle mapper classification for the a winter land cover in comparison with the maximum likelihood classification. 3. To produce the image of water quality and water properties that could be used to estimate the water pollution sources and the tide-included by turbid water in estuarine and coastal areas. These objectives are to characterize environmental and ecological monitoring applications of the Nak-Dong River Basin by using Fuyo-1 OPS VNIR data acquired on December 26, 1992. The results of this paper are as follows : 1. The spectral digital numbers and vegetation indexes (NDVI and TVI) of mountainous forest are higher on the slope facing the sun than on the slope hidden the sun under low sun elevation condition. 2. The spectral angle mapper algorithm produces a more accurate land cover classification of areas with steep slope, various aspects and low solar elevation than the maximum likelihood classifier. 3. The maximum likelihood classification images can be used for identifying the location and movement of both freshwater and salt water, regardless of geometric illumination conditions. 4. The color-coded density sliced image of selected water bodies by using the near-infrared band 3 can provide distribution of the water quality of the Lower Nak-Dong River. 5. The color-coded normalized difference vegetation index image of the selected mountain forest is suitable to classify winter vegetation cover types, i.e., forest canopy densities for slope orientations.