Great Lakes Monitoring Inventory and Gap Analysis

Overview

The Great Lakes Commission has developed an inventory of environmental monitoring programs in the Great Lakes basin in an effort to create awareness of, and access to, monitoring program information. Through a major grant from the Joyce Foundation, the Commission engaged in this large-scale, binational initiative to collect monitoring program information from federal, state/provincial, local and nongovernmental organizations across the Great Lakes region. The inventory, compiled primarily by the Great Lakes Commission, with additional information provided via the Binational Executive Committee (BEC) inventory, includes more than 600 monitoring programs and is the basin’s first comprehensive monitoring inventory. U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office is also providing support to make this inventory available over the Internet in a geographically searchable format.

Using the monitoring inventory, the Commission also developed a report that assesses gaps and overlaps in monitoring programs. This report includes policy recommendations to address these gaps and improve the effectiveness of monitoring efforts. The Great Lakes Monitoring Inventory and Gap Analysis compares results from the monitoring inventory to monitoring needs identified through the SOLEC indicator process. The gap analysis summarizes monitoring efforts in 21 separate areas, reviewing the combination of current efforts and highlighting potential gaps in monitoring coverage. This analysis is followed by a set of recommendations for the monitoring community to consider when seeking to establish a complete monitoring network for the Great Lakes basin.

Acknowledgments
Funding is provided through grants from the Joyce Foundation and the U.S. EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office.

Contact
For more information about the Environmental Monitoring Inventory for the Great Lakes Basin, please contact Anne Sturm at asturm@glc.org or call the Commission at 734-971-9135.