Project Description:
Background
The Great Lakes watershed of the United States incorporates virtually all of Michigan and northern regions in seven additional states (IL, IN, MN, NY, OH, PA, WI), covers 201,460 square miles of drainage area, and encompasses 15 United States Geological Survey (USGS) Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)4 subregions (USEPA 2019; USGS 2018). The Great Lakes watershed includes ten major US cities, many more minor cities, suburban regions, and long spans of rural regions, especially in the Lake Superior watershed, the upper Lake Michigan watershed, and long stretches of the Lakes Ontario and Erie watersheds (Methot et al., 2015; Pendall et al., 2017; USGCRP, 2018). The region includes approximately 147 counties, and approximately 23% of them are 75% or more rural (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). In addition, significant indigenous populations live within the Great Lakes watersheds in New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (Bennett et al., 2014).
The risk factors associated with the extreme storm and other weather-related events, the sociodemographics, size, resource availability, and other vulnerability factors of the communities, and the existing and planned critical infrastructures of each community (broadly writ) - all play a role in each communitys potential resilience to the increasing storm and weather-related threats. There is already a significant amount of relevant information and data, resilience toolkits, community risk perception studies, and guidance, especially for community leaders and administrative agencies (managers of different types). However, there is little guidance for communities and community groups in general, and few studies that have worked with (and created guidance for) the diffuse and disparate rural and even suburban communities that make up a significant portion of the Great Lakes watershed. Further, while there is some work within and with indigenous populations related to addressing climate and weather stressors, and some work with immigrant and subsistence fishing-dependent populations associated especially with the Areas of Concern and pollution in the Great Lakes, these populations have also barely been a focus of the community resilience to weather-related efforts in coastal communities, especially in the U.S. Great Lakes watershed.
The focus of this project, then, will be to ensure that rural and suburban as well as urban communities are included in all aspects of the community engagement surveys and workshops, and that communities with significant proportions of Native Americans, immigrants, and subsistence living populations are also included, explicitly, in the case studies that will be developed through community workshops. The resulting guidebook will reflect and help inform and guide all types of communities in the Great Lakes watershed, and we will develop a logic algorithm to help communities identify which resources and tools in the guidebook are relevant to their community.
