UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has published Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and Desalination: A Guide to Impacts, Monitoring, and Management.
The publication is designed to help the desalination industry tackle an issue that represents a potential threat to human health as well as the distribution of desalinated water.
The manual includes 12 cases studies containing practical information for desalination plant designers and operators. Fundamental features of algal blooms, species identification, HAB ecology, toxins, biomass and extracellular products, risk assessment frameworks and approaches to secure safe drinking water in the face of a toxic marine HAB, along with an HAB Management Response Plan, are covered in further chapters. Ways to maintain plant operations when challenged by an increase in suspended solids and organic loads associated with HABs are also discussed.
The publication was sponsored by the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).
Copies of the manual can be ordered online at http://www.ioc-unesco.org/HAB-desalination