Useful Components of Early Warning Systems as Demonstrated in the Great Lakes

Session: Building an Early Warning System for the Great Lakes

Theodore Slawecki, LimnoTech, [email protected]

Abstract

The International Joint Commission has been working towards the development and implementation of an early warning system (EWS) for the Great Lakes that will help the scientific and management communities identify and address emerging threats and stressors to water quality. EWSs already exist in the Great Lakes for some specific threats, such as chemical spills in the Huron-Erie Corridor, harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, and aquatic invasive species throughout the Great Lakes Basin. This presentation will review such extant systems in the Great Lakes in the context of EWS definitions from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the European Commission, and others in order to consider the completeness and utility of the systems. An assessment will also be presented of needs and gaps in these systems that can inform the development of an organizing or coordinating framework for a “system of systems” approach to realize a comprehensive Great Lakes EWS.