A Great Lakes Wetlands Decision Support System

Overview

the Great Lakes Commission (GLC), through the 2007 National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Category 4 Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) is creating a web-based Spatial Decision Support System utilizing free and open source software (FOSS) and Open Standards to facilitate comprehensive baseline tracking and analysis of wetlands change over time. Specifically, this system will:

1. Identify available wetlands data within the Great Lakes, using national, state, and provincial sources. These data are currently inconsistent in scale, resolution, accuracy, temporality, and classification, which makes baseline comparison amongst different wetlands datasets very difficult. The aggregation and normalization of this information across time and space will better support trend assessments and restoration progress reports.
   
   
2. Integrate data from the US Army Corps of Engineer's Great Lakes Habitat Initiative (GLHI) database. The GLHI project includes an inventory of site-specific actions to protect and restore wetlands and aquatic habitat across the Great Lakes region. By leveraging this database, efforts to identify and account for areas of wetlands change (i.e. restoration gains) can be better understood and managed throughout the region.
   
   
3. The system will provide a suite of user-friendly query and analysis tools to help users discover and analyze aggregated wetlands datasets. These tools will facilitate comprehensive, inter-agency tracking, reporting, and analysis within the Great Lakes region.
   
   
4. The system will make available value-added wetlands data available through a variety of file formats and as OGC Web services. This breadth of products and services will maximize the accessibility and extensibility of otherwise unconnected wetlands-related datasets.
   
   

Contact
For more information about the Great Lakes Wetlands Spatial Decision Support System contact: Christine Manninen (734-971-9135)