Best practices published for using satellite imagery to monitor inland HABs

SCCWRP and its partners have published best-practices guidance for using satellite imagery data as a routine management tool to detect and monitor harmful algal blooms (HABs) in California’s large lakes and reservoirs.

The guidance, described in a manuscript published in January by the journal Ecological Indicators, provides quality-assurance safeguards to help improve management confidence in satellite imaging data as a tool for assessing HABs status and trends. Because routine field-based monitoring is rare for many large lakes and reservoirs, water-body managers commonly rely on satellite imagery data for tracking HABs.

Satellite remote sensing data have the potential to provide a viable, cost-effective way to generate a continuous stream of real-time HABs monitoring data. In 2022, SCCWRP and its partners demonstrated how to use satellite imaging data to build a comprehensive, five-year portrait of when and where HABs have been occurring in California’s large lakes and reservoirs.