Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption and fluorescence spectra were analyzed from samples collected in the Lena River Delta region (Siberia, Russia; summer-2013) and in the Alfacs Bay (Ebro River Delta, Spain; summer-2013/winter-2014) in order to use optical measurements to infer loading and origin of CDOM. Absorbance spectra and Excitation-Emission matrices (EEMs) were obtained with a HORIBA Aqualog® spectrofluorometer. CDOM absorption at 443nm (a443) and terrestrial absorption slope (STER, 275–295nm) were inversely related (r2=0.49; p<0.05) and differed significantly (p<0.05) among the campaigns. The highest a443 values were presented by the Lena (1.28±0.81m-1) followed by Alfacs summer (0.53±0.33m-1) and Alfacs winter (0.32±0.27m-1) samples. A significant vertical decrease of a443 over the water column was observed within the Lena samples, with the highest values in the surface samples (2.10±0.7m-1) and the lowest values within the bottom (5–25m; 0.71±0.25m-1) (p<0.05). No differences between surface and bottom samples were found for the Alfacs samples (p>0.05). The slope ratio between STER and the marine absorption slope (SMAR, 350–400nm) showed that surface Lena waters were under influence of terrigenous CDOM while the deeper layer was characterized by marine CDOM content. Traditional “peak-picking” method for EEM analysis detected four components: UVA and UVC humic-like (peaks C and A, respectively; allochthonous; detected in all samples) and tyrosine- and UVA marine humic-like (peaks B and M; autochthnous). However, peaks B and M were characteristic from bottom Lena samples and few Alfacs samples presented peak B. Parallel-Factorial-Analysis will be further applied on EEMs to precisely detect the CDOM components.