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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)
- The Great Lakes Indicator Suite: Changes and Progress 2004 - Draft for discussion (PDF) (50 pp., 30.2mb)
- Executive Summary (PDF) (4 pp., 445 kb)
- Forestry Paper (PDF) (24 pp., 312kb)
- Indicator Review Report (PDF) (50 pp., 359kb)
-
SOLEC 2004 Proceedings (PDF) (122 pp., 1.7mb)