Great Lakes Governance Reform for Place-based Regeneration of the Natural and Built Environment

Canadian municipalities are confronted by challenges related to continued growth, climate change and aging infrastructure, and the increasingly limited ability of receiving waterways to absorb the impact of stormwater runoff and pollution. There is increased recognition that integrated water, wastewater and stormwater management is required to ensure cost-effective water services as well as sustainable water resources to support public health, economy and environment now and in the future. In particular, this is a defining moment for the Great Lakes St. Lawrence region, with the opportunity to update the approaches taken for ecosystem improvement and protection in the region. The outcome of a 2007 review of the binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement resulted in a broad call for revisions to the Agreement, so that it can once again serve as a visionary document driving binational cooperation to address both long-standing and emerging Great Lakes environmental issues in the 21st century. The focus of the new agreement emphasizes the creation of a nearshore framework. While this term is still undefined, it reflects a policy need for a framework for scientific cooperation in the nearshore zone. In parallel, there is a need for a governance framework that enables place-based decision making for appropriate interventions, in order to promote resilience at the land-water interface. Governance frameworks for integrated water management are limited in Canada, and this research seeks to identify the most promising models

Réforme de la gouvernance des Grands Lacs pour la revitalisation adaptée au milieu à la fois naturel et bâti

Les municipalités canadiennes sont confrontées aux défis liés à la poursuite du développement, au changement climatique et au vieillissement des infrastructures, ainsi qu’à la capacité de plus en plus réduite des étendues d’eau réceptrices à absorber l’impact du ruissellement pluvial et de la pollution. On s'accorde de plus en plus à reconnaître qu’il faut faire appel à la gestion intégrée des eaux, des eaux usées et des eaux pluviales afin d’assurer la rentabilité des services d’eau et la viabilité des ressources hydriques et d’appuyer, dès maintenant et à l’avenir, la santé publique, l’économie et l’environnement. En particulier, il s’agit d’un tournant décisif pour la région des Grands Lacs et du Saint-Laurent, puisqu’on a la possibilité d’actualiser les approches adoptées pour l’amélioration et la protection des écosystèmes de la région. L’examen de 2007 de l’Accord relatif à la qualité de l’eau dans les Grands Lacs, un accord binational, s’est soldé par de nombreux appels à la révision de l’Accord afin qu’il procure de nouveau une vision alimentant la collaboration binationale qui permettra d’aborder, au 21e siècle, les enjeux environnementaux des Grands Lacs à la fois anciens et émergents. Le nouvel accord met l’accent sur la création d’un cadre des eaux littorales. Quoique ce terme n’ait pas encore été défini, il reflète, du point de vue des politiques, la nécessité de mettre en place un cadre de collaboration scientifique pour la coopération concernant la zone des eaux littorales. Parallèlement, on a également besoin d’un cadre de gouvernance qui privilégie le processus décisionnel adapté au milieu dans le contexte d’interventions appropriées, afin de favoriser la résilience de l’interface terre-eau. Comme les cadres de gouvernance pour la gestion intégrée des eaux sont peu nombreux au Canada, cette recherche vise à dégager les modèles les plus prometteurs

Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Rapid degradation of the world\u27s large lakes

Large lakes of the world are habitats for diverse species, including endemic taxa, and are valuable resources that provide humanity with many ecosystem services. They are also sentinels of global and local change, and recent studies in limnology and paleolimnology have demonstrated disturbing evidence of their collective degradation in terms of depletion of resources (water and food), rapid warming and loss of ice, destruction of habitats and ecosystems, loss of species, and accelerating pollution. Large lakes are particularly exposed to anthropogenic and climatic stressors. The Second Warning to Humanity provides a framework to assess the dangers now threatening the world\u27s large lake ecosystems and to evaluate pathways of sustainable development that are more respectful of their ongoing provision of services. Here we review current and emerging threats to the large lakes of the world, including iconic examples of lake management failures and successes, from which we identify priorities and approaches for future conservation efforts. The review underscores the extent of lake resource degradation, which is a result of cumulative perturbation through time by long-term human impacts combined with other emerging stressors. Decades of degradation of large lakes have resulted in major challenges for restoration and management and a legacy of ecological and economic costs for future generations. Large lakes will require more intense conservation efforts in a warmer, increasingly populated world to achieve sustainable, high-quality waters. This Warning to Humanity is also an opportunity to highlight the value of a long-term lake observatory network to monitor and report on environmental changes in large lake ecosystems

The Great Lakes, a 35th year anniversary; time to look forward

The year 2007 marks the 35th Anniversary of the Canada-US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). On April 15, 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and President Richard Nixon signed the GLWQA. This Agreement expresses the commitment of Canada and the United States to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. The GLWQA has had substantial influence on the cleanup and restoration of the region. The progress made since 1972 is evidenced by the documentation by scientists of the presence of spawning lake whitefish, the resurgence of cormorant population, the rediscovery of sturgeon populations, and the return of nesting and fledging bald eagles. Threats to the Great Lakes in the face of climate change, invasive species, habitat loss, and more, demand a renewal and revitalization of the GLWQA. The time is now to renovate the binational promises

The Great Lakes, a 35th year anniversary; time to look forward

The year 2007 marks the 35th Anniversary of the Canada-US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). On April 15, 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and President Richard Nixon signed the GLWQA. This Agreement expresses the commitment of Canada and the United States to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. The GLWQA has had substantial influence on the cleanup and restoration of the region. The progress made since 1972 is evidenced by the documentation by scientists of the presence of spawning lake whitefish, the resurgence of cormorant population, the rediscovery of sturgeon populations, and the return of nesting and fledging bald eagles. Threats to the Great Lakes in the face of climate change, invasive species, habitat loss, and more, demand a renewal and revitalization of the GLWQA. The time is now to renovate the binational promises

Renegotiation of the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: From Confusion to Promise

For nearly four decades, the Great Lakes regime has invoked the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement as the mechanism for binational cooperation on programs and policies. Many advances in water quality have led to unquestionable improvements in ecosystem quality, habitat and biodiversity, and water infrastructure. Still, Great Lakes scientists have issued compelling evidence that the ecological health of the basin ecosystem is at significant risk. In 2012, the Agreement will be revised for the first time in 25 years. The degree of engagement in a future Agreement, including scope, issues of significant importance, governance and collaboration will hinge on a thorough analytical process, so far seemingly absent, coupled with real consultation, so far marginally evident. Renegotiating the Agreement to generate a revitalized and sustainable future mandates that science inform contemporary public policy, and that inclusive discourse and public engagement be integral through the process. Many of these steps are still absent, and the analysis presented here strongly suggests that the constituents of the Great Lakes regime voice their views critically, emphatically, and often. If the negotiators listen, we can collectively make the Lakes Great

Renegotiating the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: The Process for a Sustainable Outcome

This is a defining moment for the Great Lakes St Lawrence region, with the opportunity to renovate the regime for ecosystem improvement, protection and sustainability. The binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was first signed in 1972. The outcome of a 2007 review of the Agreement by government and citizens, resulted in a broad call for and revisions to the Agreement, so that it can once again serve as a visionary document driving binational cooperation to address long-standing, new and emerging Great Lakes environmental issues in the 21st century. A prescription for renegotiating the Agreement to generate a revitalized and sustainable future mandates that science inform contemporary public policy, third Party Mediation presses for and coordinates a deliberate negotiation, and inclusive discourse and public engagement be integral through the process.treaty negotiation; Great Lakes; water resource management; public engagement; sustainability

Adaptive Capacity for eutrophication governance of the Laurentian Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater body in the world, holding 20% of the worlds freshwater. Together, Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, are home to over 35million Americans and Canadians, a factor that lead to severe human related stress to the lakes’ ecosystem. The eutrophication of Lake Erie is one manifestation of this anthropogenic stress from nutrient enrichment from farming, sewage treatment plant discharges, airborne emissions and nutrient flows from paved surfaces. This paper examines the eutrophication of Lake Erie and shows that it is a wicked problem that can benefit from an adaptive governance approach. More specifically, it proposes a framework for assessing adaptive capacity and tests this framework through key informant interviews in the case where adaptive capacity was displayed; a Lake Erie that went from severe eutrophication the 1960s to significant nutrient reduction and restoration of the Lake Erie ecosystem in the 1990s. This research also aims to identify gaps in adaptive capacity for current eutrophication governance of Lake Erie

Twenty-First Century Science Calls for Twenty-First Century Groundwater Use Law: A Retrospective Analysis of Transboundary Governance Weaknesses and Future Implications in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin

How has groundwater use been historically governed by the binational to municipal government levels across the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin (GLB)? To what extent have they contemplated the physical–environmental requirements to maintain aquifer storage in devising policies and making decisions governing groundwater use? Although it is amongst the largest freshwater stores in the globe, cases of groundwater shortages are increasingly being reported across GLB communities, raising questions on the fitness of governance approaches to maintain groundwater storage (GWS) with growing climate and human pressures. Applying retrospective analytical methods to assess the century-old collaboration of the United States and Canada to maintain GLB water quantities, we characterize long-term trends and undertake systematic diagnosis to gain insight into causal mechanisms that have persisted over the years resulting in current GWS governance gaps. We reveal the surprising prominence of policies originally intended to safeguard surface water quantities being used to govern groundwater use and thereby maintain GWS. We also connect these, based on sustainable aquifer yield theory, to growing groundwater insecurity in the Basin’s drought-prone and/or groundwater-dependent communities. Based on deep understanding of long-standing policy pathologies, findings inform transboundary GWS governance reform proposals that can be highly useful to multiple levels of government policymakers