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A spatial classification and database for management, research, and policy making: The Great Lakes aquatic habitat framework
Citation:
Wang, L., C. Riseng, L. Mason, K. Wehrly, E. Rutherford, J. McKenna Jr., C. Castiglione, L. Johnson, D. Infante, S. Sowa, M. Robertson, J. Schaeffer, M. Khoury, J. Gaiot, T. Hollenhorst, C. Brooks, AND M. Coscarelli. A spatial classification and database for management, research, and policy making: The Great Lakes aquatic habitat framework. JOURNAL OF GREAT LAKES RESEARCH. International Association for Great Lakes Research, Ann Arbor, MI, 41:584-596, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
This spatial classification and information structure allows information to be synthesized following ecological hierarchy from grid cells to classification zones, to a lake sub-basin, a lake, or to the entire Great Lakes Basin. It also allows information to be synthesized following political boundary hierarchy from grid cells to classification zones, to a management unit, to a state or province, to multiple states/province, or to the binational boundaries between the U.S. and Canada. This spatially structured database with 45 data types and over 300 variables could be used to develop basin-wide management plans, prioritize locations for funding and specific management actions, track protection and restoration progress, and conduct research for science-based decision making.
Description:
Managing the world’s largest and complex freshwater ecosystem, the Laurentian Great Lakes, requires a spatially hierarchical basin-wide database of ecological and socioeconomic information that are comparable across the region. To meet such a need, we developed a hierarchical spatial classification framework and database system - the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Framework (GLAHF). GLAHF consists of catchments, coastal terrestrial, coastal margin, coastal nearshore, and offshore zones that encompass the entire Great Lakes Basin. The catchments captured in the database as river pour points or coastline segments were attributed with information that are known to influence the physicochemical and biological characteristics of the lakes from the catchments. The coastal terrestrial zone consists of 30-m grid cells and was attributed with information from the terrestrial region that has direct connection with the lakes. The coastal margin and the nearshore zones consist of 30-m grid cells and were attributed with information describing the coastline conditions, coastal human disturbances, and moderately to highly variable physicochemical and biological characteristics. And the offshore zone consists of 1.8-km grid cells and was attributed with information that is relatively less variable compared with the other aquatic zones. These five classification zones and their associated data are nested within lake sub-basins and political boundaries, such as state/provincial or management boundaries. This spatial classification and information structure allows information to be synthesized following ecological hierarchy from grid cells to classification zones, to a lake sub-basin, a lake, or to the entire Great Lakes Basin. It also allows information to be synthesized following political boundary hierarchy from grid cells to classification zones, to a management unit, to a state or province, to multiple states/province, or to the binational boundaries between the U.S. and Canada. This spatially structured database with 45 data types and over 300 variables could be used to develop basin-wide management plans, prioritize locations for funding and specific management actions, track protection and restoration progress, and conduct research for science-based decision making.
