According to the high fluorescence quantum yields of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the fluorescence spectra of phenanthrene were investigated by three dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix(3DEEM). The results show that the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of phenanthrene in aqueous solution mainly have two fluorescence peaks. On the basis of three-dimensional fluorescence spectrometry analysis of phenanthrene, the excitation wavelength of 255 nm and emission wavelength of 273 nm were chosen for the quantitative analysis of phenanthrene. The linear range for the determination of phenanthrene was 5.0-250.0 mg·mL-1, its detection limit was 3.88 ng·mL-1, and its relative standard deviation was 4.23% (n=5). It was a good precision. It has been tested satisfactorily for the determination of artificial sample in tap water. The recoveries are in the range of 90%-105%. The method provided basis for the rapid monitoring of trace PAHs in water.