You can use the total biomass as an indicator of water quality and changes in habitat (trophic state); also if there is an increase in cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, that is an indicator of eutrophication and increased nutrients into a system, and leads to poor water quality, and/or toxin production, leading to health concerns or a decline in fisheries. Improvement in water quality could mean a return to oligotrophic conditions and more green algae (edible to zooplankton).
Shannon-Wiener index (H) may be calculated by the following formula:
H=∑[(pi)xln(pi)]
Where −
· pi = proportion of total sample represented by species i.
· Divide no. of individuals of species by the total number of samples.
I am not sure I follow what you mean by "algae index" or what type of system you are working in. For streams and rivers you could look at the work of Jan Stevenson (researchgate.nethttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/R-Stevenson) or the US Environmental Protection Agency's use of periphyton (https://www3.epa.gov/region1/npdes/merrimackstation/pdfs/ar/AR-1164.pdf) as a start. The USEPA also has a lakes program (National Lakes Assessment | US EPA). I realize these may be outside your geographic area but hopefully they will give you a starting point.
Please make your question more concret. Do you work with plankton or with benthic algae, with diatoms or other other classes of algae. There exist al lot of diffrent assessment procedures to evaluated water quality with algae. see the works of Martyn Kelly : Article Benthic algae assessments in the EU and the US: Striving for...
orFor Germany see: https://www.gewaesser-bewertung.de/index.php?article_id=425&clang=0.
May bee you can find ideas for the topic.
The following article might help for a better understanding related to the algal index estimation.
Article Spatio-temporal evaluation of the surface water quality in t...
Jasim m. Salman experts have already nailed it particularly the formula shared by Uthirasamy .S and the links of Avinash Kumar and Omar Farouk Al Mashhour are the best ones and I liked the links and the data shared about the ALGAL index estimation and the assessment of ecological status using the phytoplankton inices,,,Thanks
NSF is a good option for water quality index. good on line literature available.
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