PARENT SESSION
Symposium #36: Conceiving and Implementing Large Scale Restoration Projects.
Organized by: J Kiertscher
Friday, August 9. 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Maricopa Meeting Room, TCC.
Assessing the health of the Great Lakes Basin.
Horvatin, Paul*,1, Rodriguez, Karen2, 1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chicago, IL2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT- Assessing the health of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem is a significant challenge due to its binational governance. A set of Great Lakes Basin ecosystem indicators will enable the Great Lakes community to work together within a consistent framework to assess and monitor changes in the state of the ecosystem as a result of restoration work. To guide the development of a suite of indicators for the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, and other partners employed a series of organizing principles including building upon the work of others, focusing on broad spatial scales reflecting conditions on the scale of the whole Great Lakes Basin, selecting a framework for subdividing the basin based on geographic zones, selecting a system for types of indicators, and identifying criteria for indicator selection. Over 130 people participated either directly with hands-on selection and development of indicators, or by reviewing draft products throughout the process. More than 850 indicators were screened according to the criteria and appropriate indicators identified, resulting in a proposed suite of 80 Great Lakes indicators. For each of the indicators, detailed descriptive information was assembled into a meta-database. Over time, as monitoring and reporting on the full suite of indicators is implemented, we will have a clearer, more complete picture of the health of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem.
KEY WORDS: great lakes basin, indicators, U.S. EPA, Environment Canada