I would like to detect the quality of waterbodies using spaceborne images. Before developing algorithm, I would like to know about the soft ware and hardware requirements. If anyone is working on this area, kindly share your experience.
With all respect, I think the question is not specific. The choice of instruments for water quality monitoring/assessment using remote sensing images depends on two important factors: viz., (1) The type of remote sensing image being used, and (2) the water quality parameter being studied. For multispectral and hyperspectral images, commonly used field instruments are: Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MRIS), and Ground object spectrometer (GOS).
Following studies may be helpful.
Article Water quality monitoring and evaluation using remote sensing...
Article Field Spectroscopy for Assisting Water Quality Monitoring an...
Chapter Use of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing to Estimate Water Quality
Chapter Remote Sensing for Water Quality Surveillance in Inland Wate...
You do not need to purchase an expensive software (e.g., ENVI or ERDAS IMAGINE) for image processing. I would suggest to use freely available software QGIS for this purpose. https://www.qgis.org/en/site/
Sumaiya Mn , I fully agree with Ram L. Ray, QGIS is one of the best open source GIS softwares. I did my entire thesis in QGIS. An added advantage in QGIS is the vast available documentation both in text and video formats. Almost all GIS activities can be done in QGIS which are accomplished using Arc, ENVIS, IDRISI ec. All you need is consistent efforts in understanding its functionalities.Video tutorials are the best to begin with. If you have little bit of programming skills, you can try python with QGIS for advanced GIS works.