GEORGE HOSTCENTER FOR WATER AND THE ENVIRONMENTNATURAL RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE

MAY 20, 2009

Collaborative Research and Data Delivery

at the NRRI GIS Laboratory

Outline

Recent and ongoing collaborative research Lake Superior Streams Amphibian/Atrazine relationships Breeding Bird monitoring Horticultural peat mining

Data delivery and analysis tools Lake Trends: Google Map Visualization of Historic Lake Data Great Lakes Environmental Indicators– Great Lakes Basin Lake Superior Decision Support – Lake Superior Basin CoastalGIS – LS North Shore LCCMR Data Portal – Minnesota – statewide aquatic and

terrestrial North Shore Data Consortium

LakeSuperiorStreams.org and the Regional Stormwater Protection Team

Western Lake Superior Sanitary District

Why focus on Lake Superior Streams?

• Hundreds of vulnerable trout streams on North and South Shores –some ImpairedImpaired

• Sensitive to temp, flow, O2, sediment, turbidity, nutrients

• Lake Superior is the ultimate receiving body of water

• Many smaller communities (MS4s) now need stormwater plans and permits

“..protect and enhance the region's shared water resources through stormwater pollution prevention by providing coordinated educational programs and technical assistance”

Initiate watershed and stormwater projects Share information, ideas, resources, grant

writing, technical expertise and more.

Western Lake Superior Regional Stormwater Protection Team (co-evolved with LSS.org ; now >26 organizations)

Lester-Amity WatershedStressors

Stream Scale Study

Potential stress levels summed

by subwatershed

Upstream stressors

accumulate downstream

LUCINDA B. JOHNSON, PATRICK K. SCHOFF, JENNIFER H. OLKER, TOM HOLLENHORST, ANGELA K. ROHWEDER

Effects of Hydrology and Land Use on Amphibians in the Prairie Pothole Region

RD-83087901-0

Glenn R. Guntenspergen

W. Carter Johnson

Intensive2004

2005

PPR Atrazine

Scale: 0.01 – 0.62 μg/LSurvey 2: mid-May – mid-June

Wetland density (seasonal and semi-permanent) across with Prairie Pothole Region with examples of density and distance to all wetlands within 2 km of study sites.

Distance (m) to wetlands within 2 km

Algona Brookings Minot Poplar

Landscape connectivity when seasonal wetlands are lost (500 m buffers)al

l SP

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%

Tal

l SP

, 40%

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%

Tal

l SP

, 0%

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% T

Songbird monitoring plotsSample NW ¼ of every township over 3 years – 540 maps/yr

Horticultural Peat Mining

Map serves to delineate areas for

• Guide to reclamation

•Leasing land to another operation

•Release from permit (reclamation completed)

•Collaborators:

• MN DNR• Army Corps of Engineers• Michigan Peat Co.• Peat Inc.

•Allow accurate assessment of site for reclamation, permitting, and continued mining

Data delivery and analysis tools

Lake Trend Visualization Tool - MinnesotaGreat Lakes Environmental Indicators– Great Lakes

BasinLake Superior Decision Support – Lake Superior

BasinCoastalGIS – Lake Superior North ShoreLCCMR Data Portal – Minnesota – statewide North Shore Data Consortium

LakeTrends – Google map-based search for historic lake water

quality dataNear surface temperature

Secchi depth

Great Lakes Environmental Indicators

2002-2006

27 investigators across 10 collaborating institutions

GIS analysis of ‘segmentsheds’ and stressors provided a means to direct field crews to sample sites

GIS matched with web-based data entry and retrieval system

Lake Superior Decision Support SystemsEPA GLNPO, Lake Superior Lakewide Mgt Plan (LaMP), state

agencies

Watershed Stressors for the Lake Superior Basin

Watershed Stressors for the Lake Superior Basin

Integrated stessors(road density, NPDES permit density, % agriculture, % urban)

Summarized by high rest watershed

Watershed health visualization tool

www.nrri.umn.edu/coastalgis/

Extent: variable – Coastal Program Boundary, watersheds, counties

Statewide Conservation Plan Data Portal

Democratizing access to Minnesota’s data assets: a user friendly data integration and visualization tool

Online resource to access data from contemporary diverse sources

Emphasis on data integration - allow web based analysis, rather than just visualization, of GIS data sets. How many townships in the Arrowhead? Trout streams in Hennepin County? Private / Public land by zipcode in St. Louis Co.?http://gisdata.nrri.umn.edu/MNConserve

Upcoming: North Shore Data Consortium

Motivation: strong interest in high res spatial data for land use planning and environmental assessment, LiDAR in particular

Issue: Interagency strategies for data prioritization and funding are needed

Upcoming: North Shore Data Consortium

Coastal Program Proposal: Create the North Shore Data

Consortium as a vehicle for bringing interested parties together

Acquire LiDAR for a segment of Lake Superior’s North Shore to demonstrate capabilities of data

Potential collaborators: Agency, academic, tribal, NGO, and industrial partners

Status: recommended to NOAA for funding by Gov. Council on MN Coastal Program

Take-home points

All natural resources have some sort of spatial context

GIS can play a role through the full analytic process Forming the question How and where to sample A factor level in data analysis Delivering results

Take-home points

Interagency collaborations This land is your land This land is my land

How about OUR land?

Democratizing data is a key to successful planning and management!

NRRI GIS web sites

Great Lakes Environmental Indicators http://glei.nrri.umn.edu

Lake Superior Streams www.LakeSuperiorStreams.org

Lake Superior Decision Support Systems www.nrri.umn.edu/lsgis2

Statewide Plan – interactive collaboration site http://Gisdata.nrri.umn.edu/MNConserve