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State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference

State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference 2004

The sixth State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference was held in Toronto, Canada, in October 2004. The theme of the conference was Physical Integrity of the Great Lakes.

A number of changes were introduced at SOLEC 2004. Significant improvements in both the SOLEC process and the configuration of the indicator suite were made as a result of two outside reviews by experts and stakeholders. Improvements included the deletion, modification, addition or combination of indicators. Details of the modifications are documented in a companion report, The Great Lakes Indicators Suite: Changes and Progress 2004.

Another change introduced at SOLEC 2004 was the concept of indicator “bundles.” In previous State of the Great Lakes reports, indicators were grouped by geographic areas and issues (e.g., offshore and nearshore aquatic, nearshore terrestrial, coastal wetlands, human health, societal) or by indicator function (e.g., state of the environment, pressures on the environment, and human responses). For SOLEC 2004, indicators were grouped into more logical “bundles,” including Contamination, Biotic Communities, Invasive Species, Coastal Zones, Aquatic Habitats, Human Health, Land Use/Land Cover, Resource Utilization, and Climate Change. Within most of the main bundles are sub-bundles to further delineate issues or geographic areas.

The assessments for each indicator and for the Lake and River reports were also modified slightly to provide both a “status” component (Good, Fair, Poor, Mixed) and a “trajectory” component (Improving, Unchanging, Deteriorating, Undetermined)

Background Papers

Proceedings


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