Based on the three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy combined with wavelet compression and APTLD for the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water, the rapid determination of PAHs in water was achieved. The samples were prepared by using three kinds of PAHs, naphthalene (NAP), fluorene (FLU) and acenaphthene (ANA). First, the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of the samples were measured with FLS920 steady-state fluorescence spectrometer. The data were excited and emitted by calibration and de-scattering to obtain the real spectrum. In order to solve the redundant information problem of three- dimensional fluorescence spectral data, the experimental spectral data is compressed by wavelet transform, and the compression score and data recovery fraction can reach 92% and 95% respectively. APTLD was applied to analyze the compressed data and reflect the second-order advantage. The experimental results show that the method can still be used for rapid determination, and the recovery rate is more than 94% and the predicted root mean square error is less than 0.29 with seriously overlapped and intermittent fluorescence spectra of PAHs.