Session participants will learn about the recently released (to-be-complete in October 2026) Science-Based Framework for Building Resilient Coastal Ecosystems in the Great Lakes Basin, which outlines a framework to support ecosystem resilience, enabling coastal systems to respond to and recover from climate-related disturbances. This work was funded and executed through a cooperative agreement between the Great Lakes Commission and USGS Great Lakes Science Center and coordinated in partnership with the Great Lakes Coastal Assembly, through the Coastal Resilience Workgroup and Ecosystems Task Force.
In 2024, the GLC Standing Committee on Climate Resilience - comprised of commissioners, observers, and partners from the 10 state and provincial jurisdictions of the Great Lakes - prioritized the following Recommended Action from the Action Plan for a Great Lakes Basin: “GLC facilitates development of a common set of metrics…to determine the current state of Great Lakes climate resilience and measure progress.” Over the past ~ 2 years, a work group of the Standing Committee has been meeting to build the first suite of metrics for public use on the (forthcoming) Great Lakes Insights website and is continuing to develop additional resilience metrics. Session participants will learn about the resilience metrics development process and preview key resilience metrics on the Great Lakes Insights platform.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been widely utilized to enhance collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and organizations in the Great Lakes and beyond. This presentation will explore how multi-scale collaborations such as CoPs and networks can serve as a powerful framework for connecting coastal stakeholders, practitioners, and scientists to share knowledge, resources, and encourage collaboration. First, session participants will learn about efforts to build resilience in southern Lake Michigan through a new Illinois and Indiana coastal resilience-focused CoP, co-developed in collaboration between Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, the Indiana Lake Michigan Coastal Program, and the Illinois Coastal Management Program. Speakers will share insights on building the bi-state CoP, the role of Sea Grant partnerships in advancing this work, successes and challenges, and future directions for the CoP. Expanding to broader scales, the session will illustrate how basin-wide and national CoPs enhance coastal resilience through peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. Speakers will highlight how these networks foster meaningful engagement, encourage knowledge sharing and coordination, and provide opportunities to strengthen connections across organizations and scales.
This session covers the history of the Sandusky Bay Restoration Initiative and the steps required to build support and move the Initiative from concept to implementation. The session will also highlight restoration goals, the theory of change, data collection requirements, water quality modeling, and ecological restoration design parameters (water level changes, herbivory, ecological functions, etc.) identified to guide landscape-scale design to achieve project goals.
This session builds on previous sessions and covers completed and ongoing efforts to advance Sandusky Bay Initiative innovative projects to construction, as well as long-term adaptive management strategies to evaluate performance and improve designs, and lessons learned. Specifically, four innovative, synergistic projects have been completed that entail one lacustuary restoration at the mouth of Pickerel Creek, and three nature-based barrier wetlands. Permitting and outreach elements of another larger project in the center of the Bay, the Inner Bay Wetlands, are also being advanced.
The Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study (GLCRS) is a watershed study being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in partnership with the eight Great Lakes states. The study aims to identify potential vulnerabilities of coastal resources under a range of plausible future lake level conditions and develop recommendations to improve the resilience of the U.S. Great Lakes coast. This presentation will describe the study's approach to assessing vulnerability and risk, including the use of exploratory future lake level scenarios, screening-level GIS analyses, and qualitative risk assessments informed by local resource manager engagement. Rather than attempting to predict a single future, GLCRS evaluates multiple plausible scenarios to characterize uncertainty and identify vulnerabilities across a range of future conditions. The presentation will highlight how risk concepts were incorporated into basin-wide exposure analyses and more detailed focused evaluations of up to 140 site-specific coastal resources across the Great Lakes basin. These results will be used to identify and develop recommendations that can improve the long-term resilience of communities, infrastructure, ecosystems, and other coastal resources along the U.S. Great Lakes coast.
ommunities along New York’s Lake Ontario shoreline face increasing flood and erosion risks associated with high water levels, shoreline change, and climate variability. While natural and nature-based features (NNBF) are increasingly promoted as alternatives to shoreline hardening, implementation remains limited by uncertainty about where specific strategies are appropriate and how they can be coordinated across fragmented shorelines. Existing planning tools typically focus on individual sites or shoreline segments, providing limited support for landscape-scale adaptation planning. This project explores the feasibility of developing a Lake Ontario Adaptation Atlas, a regional decision-support tool that would identify suitable adaptation strategies across interconnected shoreline systems. Drawing on interviews with adaptation tool developers, a review of shoreline classification systems, and an assessment of existing adaptation planning resources from the Great Lakes and beyond, the study evaluates approaches for delineating Operational Landscape Units (OLUs), organizing adaptation strategies, and identifying suitability indicators. Findings suggest that OLUs should be defined as process-based planning units that integrate upland, shoreline, and nearshore dynamics while remaining practical for planning and implementation.
New York’s Lake Erie communities are increasingly facing the impacts of flooding, erosion, storm surge, and varying water levels, yet technical modeling efforts often fall short of incorporating the perspectives and lived experiences of the people most affected. The presentation shares Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s Niagara River/Lake Erie Watershed Expanded Coastal Resiliency Study - an integrated approach to coastal modeling that combines scientific analysis with meaningful community engagement, resident education, and State agency collaboration. Using examples from community-based coastal resilience planning efforts, the presentation highlights how involving local stakeholders throughout the modeling process can strengthen project outcomes, improve public understanding of risk, and build long-term trust between residents, local elected officials, and State agencies. Rather than treating modeling as a purely technical exercise, this approach positions local stakeholders as critical knowledge holders whose observations, priorities, and concerns help shape both the modeling inputs and resulting restoration strategies. The presentation will examine methods for translating complex coastal data into accessible visualizations and engagement tools that support informed participation by non-technical audiences. It will also discuss the role of state agency partnerships in aligning local priorities with regional resilience goals, regulatory frameworks, and funding opportunities.
