Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s annual magazine.

This issue highlights:

• Educators engage with Great Lakes scientists aboard the Lake Guardian 
• Scientists and educators investigate Lake Michigan biological hotspots
• IISG looks back on 30 years of AIS outreach
• Coastal communities face challenges in managing beach sand and structures
• Stuart Carlton is the new IISG director
• Tomas Höök reflects on his Sea Grant legacy

Understanding future water demand is key to managing these resources sustainably. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG), and University of Illinois Extension recently updated the region’s water demand forecast to reflect new population and employment projections. The forecast shows that water use is expected to continue declining, due to steady advances in water conservation and efficiency that are outpacing population and employment growth. However, in some areas, forecasted water demand will exceed available groundwater supplies.

This publication is available through the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s website at: https://cmap.illinois.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/Regional-Water-Demand-Forecast-for-Northeastern-Illinois-2020-2050.pdf

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s annual magazine.

This issue highlights:

• Swimming Safer: Sharing knowledge, data, and resources
• IISG interns can have invaluable real world experience
• Spelling out nature’s benefits helps inform land use decisions
• Largemouth bass in the busy Chicago River are seeking out natural areas
• Educators explore water quality along the Wild Mile
• We’re funding new research to address emerging coastal issues

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s annual magazine.

To assist green infrastructure project managers with understanding long-term maintenance issues, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant conducted a needs assessment. This assessment grew out of a recognition that declining infrastructure performance and sufficiency is a fundamental challenge to stormwater management over time.

The Helm is a collection of recent IISG success stories, describing some of our research, outreach, and education efforts to address coastal and Great Lakes issues in Illinois and Indiana.

This report represents an important first step in quantifying the extent of the water affordability problem in northeastern Illinois, and exploring strategies for tackling this growing challenge.

This publication brings together program impacts from the 2018-2019 Sea Grant year.

Concern over water service affordability has grown in recent years as water bills escalate at a faster pace than the overall cost-of-living.While the cost of water has been rising over the past decade, the ability of consumers to pay for water service has declined. This review examines the definition and measurement of water affordability through a chronological search and presentation of the regulatory and research literature. Results will be used to determine a method for measuring water affordability for the northeastern Illinois region.