Mar 1, 2016

The State has contracted SFEI to provide intellectual, scientific, and technical resources to support its efforts to monitor and report on the ever-growing problem of cyanobacterial blooms in its lakes and rivers. These blooms are such a serious concern because they can generate harmful toxins which can threaten wildlife, livestock, pets, and in certain cases, human life. SFEI is partnering with the California Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Bloom Network (CCHAB), a new workgroup of the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, to deliver a status and trends report, a series of newsletters, and an interactive website that will host satellite data from NOAA. The satellite data is both historical in nature, allowing a window into past patterns of cyanobacterial detection, and an early sentinel for the emergence of new blooms in near-real time. The tool will be both public-facing and an internal instrument for lake managers who wish to be more tightly coordinated and alerted to conditions on the water’s surface that could possibly indicate adverse conditions ahead. The work will be completed over the course of two years, though the new tool itself will be piloted with select natural resource managers in Winter 2016.

Programs and Focus Areas: 
Clean Water Program
Environmental Informatics Program