• Identify the contributions of land cover change and climate change on increasing flood discharges
• Provide tools to assist in projections of future flood magnitudes that can be used with existing management practices to reduce flooding impacts
• Provide input for flood study prioritization through a comparison of published regulatory discharges with flood discharges computed for current conditions
• Investigate possible future impacts of changes in land cover and precipitation on flood peaks

• Develop a method to define in stream hydraulic habitat (fluvial habitat unit – FHU)
• Map low-flow and high stage floodplain units to determine spatial
  distribution and connectivity
• Use dynamic mapping to 1) relate low flow stage FHUs with Best Management Practices (BMPs) and channel geomorphology to develop structure specific ecological performance measures based on aquatic community needs; 2) determine the availability of high-stage refuge habitat at a watershed scale; and 3) complete a watershed specific ecosystem potential analysis that considers organism sources, system connectivity, and both low and high stage habitat to assess system capacity for the development of sustainable aquatic ecosystems
• Evaluate research findings to provide guidance for BMP design and placement to achieve watershed management goals established by local agencies and stakeholders along Southern Lake Michigan.

• Estimate the recreational value of single-day visits to two nature centers within Metropolitan Chicago

• To provide information on past low lake levels of Lake Michigan, to better
  understand why there have been lower lake levels in the past, and to better predict and thus prepare for future low lake levels

The goal of this project is to develop a web-based model that calculates the expected change in water demand with development and relates it to expected availability.

• Document the locations and diets of the invasive, PontoCaspian colonial hydroid, Cordylophora caspia in southern Lake Michigan
• Assess the feeding habits of C. caspia
• Determine whether the distribution of C. caspia is related to the presence of Dreissena polymorpha or D. bugensis as substrates