Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessments
Summary
An experienced team of wetland ecologists, geographers, and software engineers used a geodesign process to develop and host a web-based geospatial application that will support the identification and restoration of potential coastal wetlands (i.e., areas that could be restored to coastal wetlands if hydrologically connected to the Great Lakes) along the U.S. coast of the Great Lakes. Techniques, data types, and analysis approaches used in the recent Western Lake Erie Restoration Assessment (WLERA) model are being extended to include other priority coastal areas of the Great Lakes. The first phase of the work produced three restoration assessments for the pilot area identified by the LCC Coastal Working Group (U.S. coast from roughly [...]
Summary
An experienced team of wetland ecologists, geographers, and software engineers used a geodesign process to develop and host a web-based geospatial application that will support the identification and restoration of potential coastal wetlands (i.e., areas that could be restored to coastal wetlands if hydrologically connected to the Great Lakes) along the U.S. coast of the Great Lakes. Techniques, data types, and analysis approaches used in the recent Western Lake Erie Restoration Assessment (WLERA) model are being extended to include other priority coastal areas of the Great Lakes. The first phase of the work produced three restoration assessments for the pilot area identified by the LCC Coastal Working Group (U.S. coast from roughly Sandusky, OH to Au Gres, MI). The first assessment called WLERA (Western Lake Erie Restoration Assessment) is focused on Lake Erie from between the mouths of the Detroit River, MI and Black River, OH. The second assessment CRSRA (Connecting River Systems Restoration Assessment) is focused on the connecting channels area that includes the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair River. The third assessment (SBRA - Saginaw Bay Restoration Assessment) extends along the shore of Lake Huron from the St. Clair River through Saginaw Bay. As funding allows, additional assessments will be conducted for priority restoration assessment areas identified by the LCC Coastal Working Group (e.g., Green Bay, northern Lake Michigan-Huron, eastern Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario). Additionally, a dynamic, interactive, and user friendly web-based mapping application was developed for each restoration assessment to promote widespread yet regionally- focused use by managers and decision makers. Each application is anchored by a central GIS data model and website dedicated to coastal restoration in the Great Lakes. This work integrates closely with the developing Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program decision support tool (http://greatlakeswetlands.org/DST).
Results from this work are available through online viewers (see assessment home pages) and published manuscripts.
