Delivering Benefits in the Great Lakes Region

Bill Werick, GLOS Board

The good intent is to manage oceans, and to manage we measure

But management is bureaucratized, a good and a bad thing;◦ Fixed division of labor◦ Hierarchy of offices◦ Rational-legal authority◦ Creation of rules to govern performance

Good: a century ago, this helped professionalize governance

Bad: Departmentalization fragments whole management subjects, for instance oceans or the Great Lakes

The problem

There are gaps between those who collect and manage data and those who need it to manage the lakes for the public good

US/Canada; states and provinces; public/ private Within each geo-political entity, agency

authorizations◦ Corps of Engineers◦ Environmental Protection Agency◦ US Fish and Wildlife Service◦ National Marine Fisheries◦ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission◦ Federal Emergency Management Agency

The issues

Flooding

Local government, Developers

Commerce is in charge when salmon are in salt water, Interior in fresh water, more complicated when they’re smoked

Professional class of data gurus, webmasters, statisticians has developed but without experience in the management area where the data are used

Data integration sites are meant to close gaps, but they are too often one-agency products - incomplete, overlapping with incomplete products from other agencies

Hardened silos

There are several agencies “in charge” of flooding, but there is no good record of flood damages in the United States. No one really knows how effective flood programs are.

Ecosystem restoration projects are supposed to address the goals identified in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, but we don’t even have a list of all the projects that have been built, let alone any idea of the services they provide.

There is no “Miss Utility” to call to find out what the minimum lake levels are that impact a new power plant, and mistakes are made.

For example

GLOS is a public non-profit, Michigan corporation designed to connect the worlds of water users and managers and data providers when necessary to capture benefits that would otherwise be lost.

Regional association of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)

We are a niche player. The Board is all volunteer. Our goal is not to grow, not to become yet another data provider, but to close key gaps between information needed and information provided.

We do data, models and data management We are a catalyst for improvement, not a competitor to

other data developers

GLOSDirector: Jen Read

Board members:• Mark Burrows - IJC, Coast Guard• Murray Charlton - ex Env. Canada• Nancy Frank - Univ. Wisconsin• Frank Kudrna - Kudrna & Assoc.• Tracy Mehan –ex EPA Cadmus Group• Dale K. Phenicie• Don Scavia - Univ. Michigan• Dave Ullrich - director Great Lakes and St.

Lawrence Cities Initiative• Bill Werick - ex Corps of Engineers

A storm is coming High pressure on budgets because of $7

trillion in additional debt projected for the next ten years

Four-fifths of the budget are fenced off Presidents 2012 budget projections:

◦ 2011: $1.645 trillion, 10.9 percent of GDP; ◦ 2012: $1.101 trillion, 7.0 percent of GDP; ◦ 2015: $607 billion, 3.2 percent of GDP;◦ 2017: $627 billion, 3.0 percent of GDP

The future is about to happen

Low pressure from outside silos to reform National Ocean Council Collaborative Science, Services and Tools to

Support Integrated and Adaptive Water Resources Management MOU (Corps, NOAA, USGS May 2011)

Integration initiative9. Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Observations, Mapping, and Infrastructure: Strengthen and integrate Federal and non-Federal ocean observing systems, sensors, data collection platforms, data management, and mapping capabilities into a national system, and integrate that system into international observation efforts.

More money for more data is not in the cards More effective data management using savings from

integration of data programs is possible Federal budget process, appropriations sub-committee

structure by their nature will protect the status quo The question is, will our house bend or break in the

storm? To best survive, we have to work together to make sure

we have◦ the data we need◦ delivered in a way that maximizes its utility◦ at a reduced cost

We can’t do that unless we work together

Change is possibleSmart money