The Centre for Cyanobacteria and their Toxins (CCT), as the national representative for UNEP and the project CYANONET, is developing an international register of methods, techniques and preparations for cyanobacterial bloom management. The aim of the database is to centralize information about the verified methods, their proper applications and proved effects, and to avoid the use of unverified treatments with unknown effects.
The responsible organisation recognises that awareness, published data, official recognition and management practices with respect to the occurrence, health and economic significance of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins vary widely between countries and regions. For some countries, professional and public awareness is relatively high and management measures and materials are available. In others, this is not the case.
Cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxins present quantifiable economic costs. These include costs of closure of drinking water sources, provision of alternate drinking water supplies, monitoring and laboratory costs, catchment and in-lake management actions, construction of new water treatment facilities and materials, financial losses to aquaculture and to the leisure and tourist industry, and examples are given here. Decision-making on which costs are acceptable, will be influenced increasingly by international guidelines and national legislation, and on the uses made of individual waterbodies. These can range from no action needed, to full remediation.
CyanoData aims, in the longer term, to increase such awareness by the dissemination of information, and by the sharing of experience and best practice.
In the database you can browse through public-added entries or add your method, treatment or biological kontrol of waterbloom management. Of course you can read all article made public by CaynoData.