Social-Ecological Network Structures of Lake Erie Water Quality Management

Session: 21. - The Science-Policy Interface in Great Lakes Research

Kelly Siman, University of Akron, [email protected]
Meghan Klasic, University of California, Davis, [email protected]
Rachel Lamb, University of Maryland, College Park, [email protected]
Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, [email protected]
Kelsey Leonard, McMaster University, [email protected]
Bereket Negasi Isaac, University of Waterloo, [email protected]

Abstract

Despite more than 40 years of decision-making by Lake Erie water resource managers' across state, provincial, tribal/first nation/métis, federal, and international borders, and countless “random acts of restoration,” Lake Erie remains the most polluted Great Lake. Effective management strategies, that build towards Lake Erie's long-term resilience, need to better account (consider) for social-ecological system interactions at the landscape level. Using social-ecological network analysis (SENA) to conceptualize the cross-scale relationships between water resource managers (governance actors) and ecological processes (ecological actors), our research explores the underlying SENA structures that exist among decision-making bodies of Canadian and United States regions of Lake Erie. Differences in network structures can inform measures of learning and leadership that relate to natural resource management outcomes. To inform our SENAs, we evaluate ecological management decisions at the HUC-8 watershed level made between 2007 and 2017, under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). This project investigates: 1) SENA structures of Lake Erie coastline management and 2) how SENA structures changed in response to the 2012 amendment. Through this applied approach, our research informs social network and water resource resilience literature by beginning to unravel the complex relationships between and among social and ecological actors

1. Keyword
First Nations

2. Keyword
policy making

3. Keyword
Lake Erie

4. Additional Keyword
governance

5. Additional Keyword
cross-scale

6. Additional Keyword
social-ecological network analysis