With 2022 coming to a close and the new year around the corner, I would like to share some Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) opportunities for funding, fellowships, and employment that cover a range of skillsets, knowledge, and training—from undergraduates to seasoned scientists.
For starters, we have issued a request for proposals for two-year research projects that address southern Lake Michigan coastal concerns as well as have the potential to benefit underserved communities in the region. While we have designated areas of special interest related to this funding opportunity, we will consider preproposals in a variety of topic areas.
Coming soon will be more opportunities to specifically study PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the Great Lakes. The National Sea Grant Office recently announced that IISG will lead the development of a regional research competition to better understand the risk, exposure, and remediation of these environmental contaminants.
For faculty members and graduate students interested in research funding, the 2023 IISG Scholars Program competition is now open. The program is designed to help build a community of researchers and outreach professionals focused on critically important Lake Michigan issues. These one-year awards are intended to help graduate student scholars further their research impact and help faculty scholars develop innovative, fundable proposals for future work in the region.
We also have several prestigious fellowships open for graduate students looking to expand their horizons. For example, the Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship offers the opportunity to spend 2024 in Washington D.C. working in Congress or an Executive Branch office. The fellowship brings together graduate students’ interest in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources with national policy decisions affecting those resources.
Taking a moment to brag a little, in 2023, we will have more Knauss fellows than we’ve had before—three fellows representing IISG will spend the year working and learning in Executive Branch offices.
Are you a recent bachelor’s degree graduate? We’re looking to hire a visiting Great Lakes outreach associate to assist with a variety of science outreach and education efforts. In this position, you would work with three successive mentors for a 4-month rotation, each focused on different types of projects and subject areas that support IISG’s larger mission.
We are also hiring for our 2023 Summer Undergraduate Intern Program that provides students opportunities to work directly with our specialists and engage in social and environmental science, outreach, or communication efforts. IISG’s interns gain invaluable knowledge and skills allowing them to explore potential future career options, while simultaneously helping coastal communities and residents make more informed decisions about resource management and everyday activities.
Speaking of hiring, I’d like to welcome two new members of the IISG team. While Janice Milanovich had been working part time with our pollution prevention team for the past several years, she is now officially on staff as a Great Lakes educator. In this position, she works to enhance Great Lakes literacy by engaging K-12 educators and students with aquatic science. Her extensive experience in environmental education, as well as outreach, will greatly enrich our education team.
Dominique Turney has recently joined Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. She is a Purdue University aquatic research scientist who will spend 25% of her time serving as a Great Lakes Science Initiative liaison for IISG. Through this position she will help connect and promote Great Lakes science at Purdue and IISG. Dom came to Purdue from the Illinois Natural History Survey where her research was focused on Asian carp in the Upper Mississippi River.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
As the world gets measurably hotter every year, many of us are experiencing the effects of climate change. A recent Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant climate planning survey of elected officials, natural resource managers, and other relevant professionals in the greater Chicago area reveals that they agree.
An overwhelming 90% of survey respondents reported that the climate in their location is changing, and more than 70% said that they are either extremely or very sure about that.
This survey, which was sent out in 2020, repeated a survey from 2012, thereby providing insight into evolving attitudes and actions of local officials. Then, 61% of respondents reported that their local climate was changing. Both times the survey was sent to professionals in Cook, Lake, Will, DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Kendall counties in Illinois and Lake, LaPorte and Porter in Indiana. In 2020, each of these counties was represented in the 144 responses.
“In terms of local climate change concerns, flooding, which can also include storm intensity and runoff, was rated the highest,” said Veronica Fall, IISG climate extension specialist. “And it has increased over time—in 2020, 76% said information related to flooding was extremely important, which is notably higher than 56% in 2012.”
But local decision makers were not just concerned about flooding—the majority ranked 17 of 20 possible factors as extremely important, with land use planning and zoning, water infrastructure, climate adaptation costs, invasive species and economic vulnerability also near the top of the list.
“One encouraging result regarded climate adaptation planning,” said Fall. “In 2012, about 60% of the respondents were not involved in climate adaptation planning at all, whereas in 2020, the largest group was in the understanding phase—doing assessments and developing plans. And the percentage of respondents that were implementing an adaptation plan also increased since 2012.”
Fall was encouraged to see that nearly all survey participants felt that everyone should be involved in responding to climate change impacts, including government, other agencies, non-profits and more. And they felt that climate change should be considered in all decisions.
“Local officials are starting to understand that it’s going to touch every aspect of society,” said Fall. The survey also provided some insights into local needs in terms of information and resources. For Fall, this is helping her direct her efforts to where they can be the most helpful.
“One point that really jumped out to me was this—survey participants understood that temperature and flooding are going to increase, but Lake Michigan water levels were at a record low in 2012 and record high in 2020 so expectations of climate change impacts on lake level results from the two survey mirrored these occurrences.
“When it comes to Great Lakes water levels, it turns out that variability is the name of the game,” said Fall. “I’m trying to do more to share this information, to convey what it will look like in our region where we can expect higher highs and lower lows over the next few decades.”
She also discovered that many communities still need basic information on climate change and climate impacts. For instance, 41% of respondents reported that they only have some of what they need with regards to information on expected local impacts.
And as more decision makers understand that they need to create an adaptation plan, many are looking for a roadmap of how to do it. “In fact, 57% expressed a need for case studies based on communities that have already implemented their climate change adaptation plans,” said Fall.
The 2022 issue of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s magazine, The Helm, is now available. This annual publication is a collection of program research, outreach and education success stories as well as ongoing activities to address coastal concerns. This issue is focused on water supply forecasting, climate change, Great Lakes Areas of Concern, and more, including IISG’s 40 years of service to the southern Lake Michigan region.
Here are some headlines from this issue:
Chicago area communities tap into water supply data to plan for sustainability and affordability
IISG celebrates 40 years of research, outreach, and education
Great Lakes onboard educator workshops offer scientists learning opportunities
What factors contribute to revitalization in cleaned up Great Lakes Areas of Concern?
More Chicago area decision makers are taking action on climate change
I’m proud to share with you some of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s (IISG) recent accomplishments, covering a few of the multitude of water resource issues that we focus on.
First off, this summer, IISG completed our portion of a multi-state funded project to support stormwater management through green infrastructure activities at a very local level—in fact, this project is called One Block at a Time.
Working in Northwest Indiana, Kara Salazar, former Purdue faculty member Sara McMillan, and their team of interns and community collaborators helped install rainwater harvesting structures and accompanying rain gardens in Hammond and Michigan City. These installations support community resilience by providing more water to irrigate heavily used community gardens and managing rainwater on site to alleviate flooding and polluted runoff.
In high school classrooms, Andrew Coursey is helping teachers engage their students in a unique STEM education experience—through aquaponics. He has developed a curriculum and with donated equipment, helped nine Indiana teachers set up these systems in which fish and plants grow separately but interdependently.
Now, Andy is working with the Chicago High School for Agriculture, which has a grant to establish an aquaponics system on their large campus. At the other end of the spectrum, he is planning to adapt the curriculum for use in classrooms that do not have access to an aquaponic system.
Our upcoming issue of The Helm magazine highlights a climate planning survey in which an overwhelming 90% of responding local officials, natural resource managers, and other relevant professionals in the greater Chicago area in Illinois and Indiana reported that the climate in their location is changing.
This study, led by Veronica Fall, repeated a survey from 2012, providing insight into evolving attitudes and actions of local officials. Then, 61% of respondents reported that their local climate was changing. In terms of specific climate change concerns, in 2020, 76% said information related to flooding was extremely important, which is notably higher than 56% in 2012.
Another study described in the Helm focused on three Lake Michigan Areas of Concern (AOCs) to assess what drives revitalization in communities where contaminated waterways are cleaned up. Assistant Director Stuart Carlton was part of a team that undertook case studies of both Muskegon Lake and White Lake AOC communities in Michigan and those along the Grand Calumet River AOC in Indiana.
One factor that can make a difference is having large (or anchor) institutions, such as colleges or hospitals in communities. Local events, including art shows and festivals, that draw more people to the river or lake also drive revitalization. They can serve to celebrate success during the cleanup process, but also to change perceptions of the status of a waterway, which have a long history of being viewed by the public as polluted and degraded.
We also welcome new members to the IISG team.
Katie O’Reilly has joined IISG as an aquatic invasive species (AIS) specialist. She holds a Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame, engaging in her doctoral (and postdoctoral) research in the Stream and Wetland Ecology Laboratory. Katie has a strong presence on Twitter as @DrKatfish where she shares knowledge and enthusiasm for Great Lakes and other fish. Katie is also a previous IISG Knauss fellow.
Along with the rest of the AIS team, Katie will engage in outreach to raise awareness of the threat of aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes and other water bodies.
Speaking of Great Lakes fish, our fisheries specialist, Mitch Zischke, has moved on to other opportunities and Peter Euclide, a Purdue University fisheries biologist, will step into this role, part time. His initial focus will be on continuing workshops with fishers in Illinois and Indiana to keep them informed on the latest Lake Michigan fishery research and issues facing the fishery.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Summer brings us many of us outdoors, and so at Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG), we turn some of our attention to providing data and guidance to help people make wise choices regarding recreational activities around Lake Michigan or other water bodies.
This is prime buoy season, and in early May, our new Chicago buoy was placed in the waters off Navy Pier, one of the busiest boating sites in the Great Lakes. This buoy is helping inform decisions for the Chicago office of the National Weather Service, as well as water recreationists, with real-time data of the lake’s conditions right there.
Chuoy, as it is fondly called, joins our two other yellow buoys in the waters near Wilmette, Illinois and Michigan City, Indiana—all three are overseen by Ben Szczygiel, our buoy specialist.
In addition to their benefits for forecasting and water safety, the buoys provide a useful research tool. In fact, a Purdue University researcher is using buoy data in his Sea Grant-funded study to assess changes in southern Lake Michigan water levels and wave conditions and potential impacts for shoreline management.
With Lake Michigan considered the most dangerous of the Great Lakes in terms of strong currents and, consequently, drownings, water safety is a priority for IISG.
Along with providing more buoy data, we have redesigned and enhanced the website, Lake Michigan Water Safety to include safety tips for swimming, boating, and fishing, both before heading out and while on or in the water. Also on the website, IISG’s Leslie Dorworth has compiled on-the-ground and online resources for beach managers and others looking to raise awareness and provide safety tips.
This year also kicked off a new research project to assess the impact of the Chicago Park District’s community water safety training and develop a swimming instruction program in Evanston, Illinois that will be adapted for implementation in other Chicago communities. A researcher from the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is leading a team focused on decreasing drownings at Lake Michigan beaches.
If you’re along the lakefront Labor Day weekend, look up! Our aquatic invasive species team is reaching audiences in new ways, including with an airplane banner. In the spirit of our Be A Hero campaign, the plane is flying a message reminding everyone to help prevent the spread of aquatic invaders.
Back indoors, summer is also intern season for IISG. This year, eight undergraduate students are assisting program specialists. Some of their tasks include working on rain garden design and implementation, invasive species outreach, youth education, and factsheet and video development. IISG is also collaborating with Shedd Aquarium to support an intern whose summer project is focused on neglected infrastructure in underserved Chicago neighborhoods.
In other news, we recently announced a new video series that features five cities that are or were in Great Lakes Areas of Concern—Duluth, Buffalo, Sheboygan, Ashtabula, and Muskegon. Local waterways have undergone cleanup of extensive legacy pollution and the cities are now enjoying the benefits of this in terms of improved and increased recreation, tourism, housing, and business development.
Looking at the big picture, 2022 is Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s 40th anniversary. As we plan our celebration, we are also in the midst of strategic planning—assessing priorities for four more years. A perfect moment to look at how the program has evolved and grown over time and to ponder what we can do be the most impactful going forward.
Many Great Lakes communities that have carried the burden of legacy pollution for decades have an opportunity for a new lease on life when local waterways are finally cleaned up. A new video series features five cities along waterways deemed Areas of Concern (AOCs) that are in various stages of the cleanup process and are experiencing revitalization.
Historically, the Great Lakes region was a center of industry—steel, leather and lumber, to name a few—that eventually shut down or moved elsewhere as economies and priorities changed. Left behind in these waters was a soup of contamination, leaving degraded waterways and depressed communities.
In the United States and Canada, dozens of sites were identified as AOCs in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and over the years, many have undergone remediation.
The U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) has provided leadership throughout the cleanup process, which involves dredging or capping contaminated sediment. Even before the cleanup and subsequent restoration, local agencies and organizations have a seat at the table to discuss processes and priorities.
The videos feature five cities—Duluth, Minnesota; Muskegon, Michigan; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Ashtabula, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York—that have had some or all of their contaminated sites cleaned up and ecosystems restored. Local government representatives, business owners and residents share the impact of this work on recreation, tourism, economic development, housing and quality of life in the area.
Video interviews revealed stories about rivers and lakes that have been brought back to life and are bringing people to the water.
For example, the Buffalo River is the new home of restaurants, microbreweries and a host of other new developments. Along the Sheboygan River or nearby, $60 million has been invested in housing with hundreds of new apartments, and the St. Louis River in the Duluth area has been designated a National Water Trail by the National Park Service.
“Our motto is basically, if you clean it, they will come,” said Chris Korleski, EPA GLNPO director. “We’ll go in and dig up contaminated sediment, restore habitat and make that area a place where people actually want to go. This work restores the environment and promotes economic growth, but I think mostly it promotes a sense of community that was absent from that area.”
To learn more about the remediation, restoration and revitalization of Great Lakes Areas of Concern, visit GreatLakesMud.org.
This spring we have planned lots of opportunities to engage our audiences with new information as well as to bring together experts to share knowledge and set new goals.
The Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference fosters collaboration among scientists, educators, agency and industry personnel, and other stakeholders. Organized by our Pollution Prevention Team, this annual event will take place virtually on April 27-28 with presentations and discussions focus on all aspects of emerging contaminants, such as PFAS and microplastics, in the environment.
Emerging contaminants include litter along the shores of the Great Lakes, which can end up in various waterbodies. IISG’s Sarah Zack was awarded funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program to lead the development of a prevention and messaging campaign for the Great Lakes region. Thus far, a binational advisory team has surveyed relevant partners to determine which debris type and audience to target in this campaign. We anticipate our efforts in the broad area of marine debris will only increase in the future due to national investments in addressing this issue.
Our aquaculture team is always creating new informational resources, from cooking videos to the Eat Midwest Fish website to a coloring book. The Aquaculture Marketing Webinar Series informs farmers about marketing trends and strategies, current research, best practices, and opportunities. The topics for this webinar series are stakeholder recommended and aim to meet the needs of aquaculture producers in the Midwest and Great Lakes region.
At the upcoming Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in May, IISG will share research insights, outreach tools, and education successes. In particular, from the perspective of large, multi-organizational, coordinated projects, our CSMI (Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative) Team will discuss successes and lessons learned from this on-going effort on the Great Lakes and beyond.
Here’s something fun—Mulch Madness! Every year in March, as many minds are focused on basketball, we have our own competition. In addition to Rainscaping Education workshops and research related to green infrastructure, Mulch Madness provides an online way to learn more about native plants in the region. All plants in competition can be found in the Red Oak Rain Garden on the University of Illinois campus. We’re inviting you to join us and vote for your favorites.
In personnel news, I’m pleased to announce that Joan Cox, who has been an integral part of our education program, has accepted the role of visiting outreach associate to work on the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS). She brings her considerable agricultural knowledge to NLRS updates and other related efforts.
Looking forward, summer is around the corner, and with it, our buoys will be back—we now have a third one in the waters near Navy Pier. And if you will be around southern Lake Michigan beaches this summer, look up. You might see our airplane banner flying by sharing a message to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. Summer also means our student interns will be coming onboard and so will another round of IISG faculty and grad student scholars.
Managing stormwater has become more challenging as urban development increases, storms get bigger and sewer systems can’t keep up. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant funded a University of Illinois project to help communities add green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to their strategies to prevent local flooding.
The research and outreach team set out to incorporate information about local soils as well as other factors in planning and designing GSI sites.
Mary Pat McGuire in the U of I Department of Landscape Architecture led this multidisciplinary research project, adding to her knowledge and skills with those of geologists, water resources engineers, and a community outreach specialist. With this range of expertise, and students contributing throughout, the project encompassed research, modeling, design and engagement.
“At the beginning of the process, we had to learn to communicate with each other because we brought different professional languages to the table,” said David Grimley, a Quaternary geologist at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS). “By the end, we all got the bigger picture—we all learned from the experience.”
The team focused their efforts in the Calumet region, which encompasses the southeast side of Chicago along with nearby suburbs. This flat, low-lying area has historically been particularly prone to flooding. Add to that, long-standing, traditional infrastructure is aging and is frequently in need of repair or upgrading. Many communities in the Calumet region, as well as elsewhere, do not have the financial resources to update their sewer systems, which at best, may still be insufficient.
Green stormwater infrastructure offers a nature-based way to enhance traditional or “grey” infrastructure. The idea of GSI is to increase opportunities for rainfall to be absorbed where it lands, whether into a well-placed rain garden or even onto permeable pavement, instead of running off parking lots, streets and sidewalks and into sewer systems, potentially overwhelming them.
But GSI doesn’t always work as well as it might. Rain gardens are sometimes too small or are placed convenient for human activities, but not ideal for drainage. McGuire, however, thinks that effective GSI needs to be considered from a more wholistic perspective—about reconnecting to the land and retrofitting neighborhoods for water.
“We might solve urban stormwater problems by looking back at the pre-urban landscape—what was there before the city was there,” she explained. “Tracing those patterns back, we can try to find stormwater design solutions that don’t just perform like checking off boxes but actually start to reconnect with the natural history of the site.”
Understanding natural history and planning effective GSI includes studying subsoils, which sit under the topsoil and have been there for many millennia.
Soil Maps
Pilot projects began to take shape in two Calumet region municipalities, Calumet City and Midlothian. “We chose communities that we felt would be receptive to the research—these communities were at a place in their process where they wanted to learn more about the science and it would likely inform their green infrastructure planning,” said Margaret Schneemann, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant water resource specialist.
McGuire and Schneemann worked closely with local officials to discuss potential sites for installing GSI to reduce flooding as well as enhance the neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, ISGS Quaternary geologist Andrew Phillips, along with Grimley and several students, set out to fill in data gaps in these two communities in terms of soils—both at and below the surface. Their work built on earlier soil mapping overseen by state and federal agencies.
“Some data from previous surveys was old or incomplete,” said Phillips. “By doing field tests at six sites in both Calumet City and Midlothian we were able to update information in these two locations to be more accurate and more site specific.”
Piotr Szocinski, an ISGS student worker, loads soil samples dug at Amoozemeter stations. (Photo courtesy of Mary Pat McGuire)
For planning GSI, the key soil characteristic is how water moves through it. For example, sandy soils, which have relatively large particles, will allow rainfall to pass through much quicker than smaller, denser clay particles that absorb water. To gather this data, the soil team used a device called an Amoozemeter, which measures soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, or how quickly water passes through.
In terms of understanding soil types and distribution, it helps to take a page from a geologist’s mindset, which is tuned into a long view of history. The geologic parent materials for Midlothian subsoils were likely formed during and just after the time when glaciers moved through the region, creating and shaping Lake Michigan—about 20,000 years ago.
These soils tend to be fine grained but are quite variable, not just from site to site, but in terms of depth, sometimes changing back and forth from sand to clay as you dig down.
From left to right, Kristine Ryan and Sarah Smith, Natural Resources Conservation Services soil scientists helping out on the project, describe soil characteristics in a core. (Photo courtesy of Mary Pat McGuire)
“As the glacier retreated, melting water running off the ice into the lake added complexity to what eventually became the Midlothian soil parent material,” said Grimley.
Calumet City soils are much younger—more like 5,000 years old. By then, the glaciers were gone and what would one day be the south suburb provided beachfront along Lake Michigan’s southern shore. There, the soil is sandy. Like Midlothian, other parts of the city have clay soils.
“In both Midlothian and Calumet City we found that there was a lot of variability in the soil profiles, and we found that location matters—you need data for your particular site,” said Grimley.
Green Infrastructure Models
Assessing the impact of soil variability on GSI effectiveness was part of the task of the team’s modelers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Ashlynn Stillwell, a U of I water resource engineer, and Reshmina William, a graduate research assistant, brought the project back to the present, while incorporating the updated knowledge of local soils.
“We were primarily working to answer the question of how green infrastructure relates to the history of a place through its soils as well as present conditions—what’s on the surface, including the human presence through development over time,” said Stillwell.
From a hydrology and hydraulics perspective, they were interested in understanding how GSI functions in response to different land surface conditions and to different rainfall conditions. But what defines whether green infrastructure is working well? What are reasonable expectations in terms of reducing runoff and flooding? Through the modeling process, the researchers set their rate of success.
“In our simulation, we used an 80% runoff reduction standard, which is higher than where most policies are currently set,” said Stillwell. “We found that for a lot of situations, we can achieve that. We can design good infrastructure that’s highly functional—we can have stringent policies and actually achieve them in many of these locations.”
One important factor in whether green infrastructure is successful is its size—a bigger surface area is usually better, especially if subsoils are denser. Another is how much of the land upstream of the GSI is hard surfaces, leading to more runoff flowing toward the rain garden or permeable pavement, perhaps overtaxing it.
“The most effective green infrastructure is distributed throughout a watershed rather than having all the rainfall collected and sent to one big detention basin at the end,” said Stillwell. “End-of-pipe solutions are more likely to fail and more likely to have continued localized flooding challenges than green infrastructure distributed in space.”
Stillwell and William’s modeling evaluation tools were later applied to the project designs for Calumet City and Midlothian.
The Landscape Designs
McGuire led the process of designing GSI plans for two 250-acre neighborhoods, recruiting her students to take them on as semester-long projects.
“It’s critical that we involve our students directly in our design research so that they take interdisciplinary, engaged research with them into professional practice,” said McGuire. “In this project, our geology, landscape architecture, and engineering students were involved in every aspect of our work and contributed immensely to the research and outcomes.”
Divided into two groups, the students focused on one of the two communities. For both, the plans were designed for public land in residential areas—in Midlothian, the Jolly Homes neighborhood, and in Calumet City, the Yates neighborhood.
The GSI plan for Calumet City, titled “Before the City, there was the Sand,” won a 2019 American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award in the Student Collaboration category.
The students had visited regional nature preserves as well as the Yates neighborhood for inspiration as they looked for ways to reconnect residents with the forgotten dune and swale landscape.
In their project description, the students proposed to “. . . create places for water that ameliorate the pattern of street and basement flooding through a new pattern of green infrastructure inspired and informed by the distribution of sandy sediments underneath the city.”
Their design replaces many hard, compacted surfaces with permeable pavement, rain gardens and trees on streets, alleys, vacant land, parking lots, a public park and at an elementary school.
The students for both teams joined McGuire and Schneemann to present their green infrastructure designs to the two communities at public meetings. Calumet City officials were particularly enthusiastic.
The design plans sparked a lot of discussion in terms of possibilities, according to Schneemann. “There was a really positive reception and an aspiration to know what to do next. The designs really sparked a lot of momentum.”
“Through their research, the students created great ideas and used a variety of plants,” said Val Williams, Calumet City Director of Economic Development. “It was amazing just how much water could actually be stored and slowly released, right on site.”
The design for Calumet City used a variety of plant species on public land in the Yates neighborhood.
What’s Next
Calumet City officials continue to seek funding opportunities to implement the GSI design plan, and in the meantime have started a pilot Green Alleys project through the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s Green Infrastructure Program. The largest of the four pilot sites, where alleys will be redeveloped to better absorb rainwater, is in the Yates neighborhood.
This success in moving forward is, in part, due to the U of I research that inspired Calumet City to dig deep and learn more about what’s underground—specifically, mapping the city’s sewer system. The city was incorporated in 1893, making it one of the oldest communities in the region, and its infrastructure was laid not long after that.
“Everything has been done since then has been a band aid,” said Williams. “In some cases, some of the infrastructure is so old that you can barely read any of the historical records and in some cases, historical records just don’t exist anymore.”
“The city is doing a new sewer assessment and inventory of what’s there and what’s been installed and is trying to get all the sewer atlases up to date in the GIS database,” said Matthew Buerger, a Calumet City engineering consultant.
The thinking is that flooding problems can be addressed from several angles. Now that the city knows that much of the soils are well-draining, understanding the status of the sewer system is another piece in the puzzle. By installing green infrastructure where it can do the most good and upgrading and cleaning out sewers where necessary, Calumet City can efficiently and affordably manage stormwater.
The data from the soil survey has also proven to help open doors for more opportunities.
“The University of Illinois study was great because it showed that the soils throughout the entirety of Calumet City are very conducive for green infrastructure to work,” said Bueger.
The data has been a valuable resource in securing around $15 million in grant money from a variety of sources. While the focus of these grant projects runs the gamut, addressing flooding and green infrastructure are always a component.
“Green infrastructure—when we’re talking about plantings and permeable pavement, or we’re talking about things that can absorb and mitigate—these are included in every single piece of what we do now,” added Williams.
In small-town Indiana, a conversation with local decision makers about how they are responding to climate change may depend on defining the risks. While the concept of climate risks may be not be considered relevant by some local officials, flooding problems, for example, most definitely are.
William Bianco, a political scientist at Indiana University, discovered this and much more about community attitudes and actions related to climate change through his Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Scholar project.
Through Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI), Bianco’s team of six students interviewed local officials in the summer of 2020 using the institute’s Hoosier Resilience Index, which is designed to help communities understand the importance of taking action to contend with climate change.
“We were trying to get a sense of the facts on the ground—to understand why some communities see climate risks differently than others and are making different choices,” said Bianco.
They found that when it comes to preparing for the impacts of climate change, regardless of what side of the political fence they land, local decision makers in Indiana want to be good stewards of their communities. Some may be skeptical about climate risks, but they want their communities to be resilient.
“When we talk about communities not being ready for climate change, it’s really a definitional question,” said Bianco. “We have to ask the question differently— are they aware that stormwater patterns are changing, rather than, are they accommodating climate threats.”
These conversations with local leaders also revealed that whether a community in Indiana is preparing for the impacts of climate change depends on access to resources.
“Insofar as we’re asking local communities, by default, to carry the burden of accommodating climate risks—one of the big problems we face is that not all communities are created equal,” said Bianco. “A lack of intention is not driven by ideology—it’s simply they don’t have the capacity to take action.”
There are some doable steps that communities can take to be better prepared. The student researchers pulled together a list of these options and shared them with local leaders, both to learn what they are already doing and to raise awareness as needed. The options include enrolling in the federal flood insurance community rating system, developing invasive species management areas, and forming formal structures for disaster management—a COAD, or Community Organizations Active in Disaster.
Setting up a COAD helps local leaders connect with emergency services and provides a path to develop a protocol for how to respond in a disaster.
Through the Environmental Resilience Institute’s engagement with local leaders, communities are talking to each other about responding to climate risks at conferences and other avenues. The ERI is publicizing success stories by having local officials talk about what they are doing—they are sharing their plans and activities with their counterparts in other communities.
“We learned that what communities are doing is a function of the actual risks they face, which is hopeful,” said Bianco. They may not call it ‘preparing for climate change,’ but they are nonetheless aware. There are untapped opportunities for informing local leaders and in making policy changes, not through persuasion, but by simply providing them tools.”
Bianco is one of nine faculty and seven graduate students who are or have been Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant scholars. The program helps develop a community of scientists to research critical issues related to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes region through funding and other opportunities for one year.
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