Extraction of waterline in tidal flat has been one of the main concerns in the remote sensing of coastal region. This study aimed to define the spectral characteristics of turbid water near the shoreline and to find the appropriate spectrum to delineate the waterline at the inter-tidal flat in the western coast of Korean Peninsula. Spectral reflectance curves were obtained by the field measurements under the diverse condition of water depth and turbidity at the study area in Kyong-gi Bay. Spectroscopy measurements showed that reflectances of the exposed mudflat, shallow turbid water, and normal coastal water were significantly different by wavelength. Shallow water near the waterline showed diverse conditions of turbidity. Spectral reflectance tends to increase as turbidity increases, particularly at the visible and near infrared spectrum. At the middle infrared wavelength, tidal water showed very little reflectance regardless of the turbidity and water depth and was easily disting from the exposed tidal flat. The exact waterline between exposed tidal flat and seawater should be extracted from the image data obtained at the middle infrared wavelength.