Toxic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) are one of the most significant threats to the security of Earth’s surface freshwaters. In the United States, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (i.e., the Clean Water Act) requires that states report any waterbody that fails to meet applicable water quality standards. The problem is that for fresh waters impacted by cyanoHABs, no scientifically-based framework exists for making this designation. This study describes the development of a data-based framework using the Ohio waters of western Lake Erie as an exemplar for large lakes impacted by cyanoHABs. To address this designation for Ohio’s open waters, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assembled a group of academic, state and federal scientists to develop a framework that would determine the criteria for Ohio EPA to consider in deciding on a recreation use impairment designation due to cyanoHAB presence. Typically, the metrics are derived from on-lake monitoring programs, but for large, dynamic lakes such as Lake Erie, using criteria based on discrete samples is problematic. However, significant advances in remote sensing allows for the estimation of cyanoHAB biomass of an entire lake. Through multiple years of validation, we developed a framework to determine lake-specific criteria for designating a waterbody as impaired by cyanoHABs on an annual basis. While the criteria reported in this manuscript are specific to Ohio’s open waters, the framework used to determine them can be applied to any large lake where long-term monitoring data and satellite imagery are available.

有毒的蓝藻有害藻华 (cyanoHAB) 是对地球地表淡水安全的最重大威胁之一。在美国，1972 年的联邦水污染控制法（即清洁水法）要求各州报告任何不符合适用水质标准的水体。问题是，对于受氰基HABs 影响的淡水，没有任何基于科学的框架来进行此指定。本研究描述了一个基于数据的框架的开发，该框架使用伊利湖西部的俄亥俄水域作为受氰基 HAB 影响的大型湖泊的范例。为了解决俄亥俄州开放水域的这一指定问题，俄亥俄州环境保护署 (EPA) 召集了一组学术、州和联邦科学家制定一个框架，该框架将确定俄亥俄州 EPA 在决定因氰基HAB 存在而导致的娱乐用途损害指定时要考虑的标准。通常，这些指标来自湖上监测程序，但对于伊利湖等大型动态湖泊，使用基于离散样本的标准是有问题的。然而，遥感方面的重大进展允许估计整个湖泊的 cyanoHAB 生物量。通过多年的验证，我们制定了一个框架来确定特定湖泊的标准，以每年将水体指定为受到氰基HABs的损害。虽然本手稿中报告的标准特定于俄亥俄州的开阔水域，