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Creating Ecological Currencies for Quantifying Resource Improvement

Year Awarded: 2002
Awarded: $521,000
Team Leader:  Enterprising Environmental Solutions
Tel: 412-481-9400
Email: svandemark@pecwest.org

This team developed a set of ecological improvement goals for the Great Lakes, methods to measure improvements, conceptual models of hydrologic-ecological relationships due to water use changes, and hypothetical examples illustrating how to find resource improvement solutions. The team’s Great Lakes water use survey identified the range and distribution of future water use demands in the basin. A workshop in Windsor, Ontario further explored coupled eco-hydraulic conceptual models and evaluated a process to identify ecological indicators and currencies based on ecological goals and endpoints for the Great Lakes basin. The team demonstrated the applicability of the approach to developing a range of metrics and ecological currencies. A final “learning event” was held to share significant project results with stakeholders and other project teams.