2006
Update to the Executive Summary:
The Great Lakes Center
for Environmental and Molecular Sciences (GLEAMS) Center, a partnership between
Western Michigan
University and Michigan
Technological University’s
Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), has released an expanded and improved
version of its Great Lakes dynamic decision
support system (DDSS) tools. The
purpose of these DDSS tools is to make complex environmental decisions more
manageable through visual presentation and comparison of sediment contamination
and water quality data through user-friendly web-based mapping interfaces. Improvements are: 1) an expansion of the
GLEAMS Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) risk assessment tool to evaluate the Lower Fox River basin of Wisconsin,
2) an enhanced, more intuitive web mapping interface, 3) new Kalamazoo River
water quality data with water quality index (WQI) tool enhancements, and 4)
updated watershed portal content. The DDSS tools can be accessed via the GLEAMS
Portal (http://www.greatlakesdecisionsupport.org)
under both the “GIS Data & Maps” and “Modeling & DDSS” hyperlinks.
2004
Executive Summary:
Establishment of the Center
The Michigan
based Great Lakes
Center for Environmental
and Molecular Sciences (GLEAMS) was established in FY02. The Center, a collaborative venture between Western Michigan University's
Environmental Institute (EI) and the Altarum Institute, builds upon an EPA
funding base initiated for FY00 and FY01 for the WMU Environmental
Institute. Funding for GLEAMS includes
the EI’s FY01 funding plus FY02 funding allocated for GLEAMS specifically. FY03 funding for GLEAMS has been allocated by
Congress and is in the process of being awarded to the Center by the EPA.
The Center strives to address the
effects of urban, industrial, agriculture and other non-point pollution on the Great Lakes through investigations conducted on multiple
spatial and temporal scales. A primary
goal of this Center is to develop watershed-scale methods to assess and protect
human and ecological health by restoring and maintaining stable, diverse, and
self- sustaining populations of fish and other aquatic organisms, wildlife, and
plants. To this end, ongoing work by the
Center uses advanced analytical and environmental chemistry coupled with
dynamic Geographic Information Systems (GIS) electronic mapping to describe
spatial patterns of reported and previously unreported contaminants in Great
Lakes watersheds and their movements through the system.
In conjunction with new dynamic GIS
based contaminant mapping, analysis tools and decision support systems, the
Center has the unique status of being the primary developer of new genomics
based tools for assessing exposure and health impacts in Great
Lakes ecosystem organisms.
The Center's approach has been heralded worldwide (e.g., Wall St.
Journal, BBC, Chronicle of Higher Education, Ecological Society of America,
Associated Press) with the goal of providing precise data to be used in
environmental decision-making regarding the need to clean up contaminated
watershed sites as well as documentation of the success of those efforts where
applied.
Work To Be Completed With Current Funds
Work to be completed using current EPA
funds includes the following project categories relevant to environmental
health risk assessment and environmental management:
·
Fate and transport
studies including baseline hydrologic modeling that define the movements and
bioavailability of both organic and metals contaminants in the Kalamazoo River watershed
·
Genomics based
ecotoxicology studies in both laboratory and field caught frogs and fish that define neurological,
endocrine, and other physiologic health effects at the molecular level
·
Genomics based
mammalian health studies that define contaminant induced changes in behavior,
brain and liver function, and neuroimmune system activation
·
Construction of a
GIS based decision support system that incorporates fate and transport data and
genomics based risk data with other available data for use in environmental
management
·
Incorporation of
the decision support system on the Center's dynamic Web portal
·
Provide shared
ownership of the Center's web portal with watershed councils, agencies, and
other environmental stakeholder groups
·
Partner with EPA
Region 5 in sponsoring a Watershed Academy Program to educate stakeholders,
scientists, and environmental managers on how to utilize new information
technology tools such as our decision support system and Web portal for more
effective watershed management
Future Work
The logical extension of this work (to
be supported by FY03 funding and a current funding request for FY04) is to
couple ongoing GIS mapping, Great Lakes watershed contaminant fate and
transport modeling, and genomics based risk assessment tools to understand
contaminant effects on the health of game fish in the Great Lakes and the
effects of contaminated fish consumption on human populations. This approach will result in the development
of a completely integrated dynamic decision support system and lead to improved
policy recommendations that will help restore economically important breeding
game fish populations once again to Lake Michigan,
and will provide the first genomics based diagnostic data regarding exposure
and possible health effects in humans.
Since genomics based data are unequivocal compared to older, less
precise bioassays, these studies should help settle contentious scientific
debate regarding the need to clean up specific contaminated watershed sites to
protect ecosystem and human health. (Funding for pilot work on human exposure
and health effects has been provided by a private source). It is important to note that these tools and
systems are completely scalable and transportable and can be applied in any
watershed nation wide.
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