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Highlights of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network: validation, application, and reverberation.
Citation:
Schaeffer, B., K. Wolfe, P. Whitman, J. Werdell, E. Urquhart, M. Tomlinson, R. Stumpf, D. Smith, B. Seegers, W. Salls, R. Parmar, M. Papenfus, S. Mishra, A. Meredith, K. Loftin, D. Keith, JohnM Johnston, J. Iiames, E. Hilborn, J. Darling, R. Conmy, M. Coffer, AND S. Bailey. Highlights of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network: validation, application, and reverberation. Ocean Optics Conference, Binh Dinh, Quy Nhon, VIETNAM, October 02 - 07, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
The mission of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) project uses satellite data to monitor and quantify cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. Satellites allow for broad coverage of thousands of lakes and reservoirs on a daily basis. A summary of the environmental, economic, health, and social work will be presented.
Description:
The Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) project mission is to provide a useful and accessible approach for detecting and quantifying cyanobacterial blooms and related water quality using satellite data records. CyAN developed an early warning indicator system to detect cyanobacterial blooms across >7,000 of the largest lakes and reservoirs in the conterminous United States and Alaska. Validation efforts include traditional methods involving coincident in situ data and non-traditional approaches such as presence-absence agreement with state events and advisories and visual observations at drinking source waters. Indicator metrics include temporal frequency, magnitude, spatial extent, and occurrence at the waterbody, state, regional, and national scales. Software applications were designed for technical analysis in NASA’s SeaDAS and NOAA’s RS Tools ArcGIS plug-in and more generalized analysis in EPA’s mobile and web applications with multiple training sessions provided. Economic benefits were quantified as annual potential avoided costs between satellite and traditional in situ measures; an impact assessment framework to characterize the socioeconomic benefits; and broad-scale property value models. CyAN’s impact have been documented through state actions, use by local lake associations, and new recommendations of satellites for monitoring cyanobacteria in national and international documents. Technology and knowledge transfer along with user perceptions are documented through newly suggested operational frameworks and survey results. Historical and forward-stream data are now publicly available for community use. We highlight how CyAN put the power of satellite data into the hands of the people.
