Researchers are trying to come up with a manageable number of measurements to regularly determine the health of the Great Lakes. They've reduced the total number of indicators from 850 to about 80.
The governments of Canada and the U.S. are close to agreeing ona way to measure the health of the Great Lakes. Researchers are already gathering data for several indicators. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
The governments of Canada and the U.S. are close to agreeing on a way to
measure the health of the Great Lakes. Researchers are already gathering
data for several indicators. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports.
Government agencies on both sides of the border as well as environmental
groups have been working to come up with a set of indicators to measure the
health of the lakes. The initial list included an overwhelming 850
measurements. to narrow the list, researchers asked three questions about
each indicator- was it really necessary- was it sufficient by itself- and
was it feasible- in other words could it regularly be measured. Harvey Shear
is with Environment Canada and co-chairs the indicators effort.
“So, when we screened that 850 through that sieve of those three
criteria, we reduced it down to 80. and this was done through scientific
panels of people within the Great Lakes basin.”
Already data are being collected for 31 of the indicators. Shear says it
will be 2006 before data for all the indicators are regularly gathered. For the GLRC, this
is Lester Graham.