- 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
Sea Grant Illinois-Indiana
Results
The Calumet area ecological management strategy: measuring the non-market economic benefits
- Estimate the recreational value of single-day visits to two nature centers within Metropolitan Chicago
Urban stream naturalization – a systems context for practice implementation
- 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.
Quantifying the impact of land cover change and of climate change on floods in Northeastern Illinois
- 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
Aquatic nuisance species – evaluating the ecological and economic value of the 100th Meridian Initiative
- In what parts of the Columbia and Colorado river and reservoir systems are zebra mussels likely to thrive if they are introduced from infested eastern waters?
- For those parts of the target river systems that meet the ecological requirements of zebra mussel, what a) environmental goods and services, and b) financial and commercial goods and services are at risk?
- What are the costs and how effective are different prevention strategies? For the 100th Meridian Initiative, what is the most cost-effective level of investment in prevention and control?
Economic impact of ballast-mediated invasive species in the Great Lakes
- Determine the ecological changes caused by nonindigenous species that were introduced and established in the Great Lakes via ship ballast discharges
- Quantify the minimum net financial cost (based on market costs) imposed on
the Great Lakes region by shipping-mediated nonindigenous species - Forecast the potential range in North America for a subset of high risk species
- Assess how unquantified costs (for currently unstudied species, for market costs imposed outside the Great Lakes region, for non-market costs imposed within and outside the Great Lakes region) might change our evaluation of the net cost of the species and net value of shipping
- Develop policy recommendations and an outreach strategy to inform the public and policy-makers as decisions are made about the management of ballast and the St. Lawrence Seaway
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