Focus Areas

GLISA works in a diversity of sectors, but especially in agriculture, cities, and Tribal communities to co-develop information, resources, and activities.

Agriculture

The agricultural sector and farmers have been negatively affected by increases in warm-season absolute humidity and precipitation, which in turn have led to flooding, losses of nutrients and fieldwork opportunities, and have created favorable conditions for pests and pathogens.1 Projected changes in precipitation seasonality, coupled with rising extreme temperatures before mid-century, will reduce productivity levels without major technological advances.2 While adaptation strategies are emerging, they require substantial testing and funding to implement, resulting in great uncertainty for individual growers and the industry overall.3 GLISA is working to deepen our connection to the agriculture and agribusiness sectors in the region as well as transfer lessons and strategies learned from our work to other regions and groups working on agricultural water management and sustainability.

Agriculture

Featured Projects

Cities

Cities in the Great Lakes region are particularly vulnerable as they face multiple and overlapping climate and socio-environmental hazards, including increased precipitation, extreme flooding and heat events, pollution, aging infrastructure, erosion, economic decline, and social inequality. 4 5 Population change has played a major role in defining the region, and the loss of manufacturing and labor in the past five decades has had a profound effect on socioeconomic sustainability and equity.6 7 The recent possibility of increased migration to the Great Lakes region has emerged as an important issue for cities and their ability to recover and grow. Understanding how emerging stressors and potential opportunities overlap and feedback on each other through time is essential to inform how Great Lakes cities plan ahead in a way that avoids further exacerbating inequalities and the impacts of climate change.

Cities

Featured Projects

Tribes

Due to their reliance on natural resources for cultural subsistence and socioeconomic and ecological resilience,8 9 tribes in the Great Lakes region are especially vulnerable to climate change. Increases in extreme events have already had devastating and costly impacts, as demonstrated by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa flood of 2016, which resulted in $25M in damages to roads and public infrastructure.10 Throughout the region, tribes depend on water resources for cultural subsistence and lifeways such as wild rice harvesting, spearing, and maple sugaring.11 Many tribal nations view water as life,11 and climate change is expected to affect the Great Lakes region’s waterways in the future. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), also known as Indigenous knowledge, has been shown to inform decision-making at the tribal level.12, 13 The relationship between tribes and water needs to be explored to inform tribal adaptation as they relate to water resources on tribal lands.
Tribes

Featured Projects

References

  1. Walsh, M. K., P. Backlund, L. Buja, A. DeGaetano, R. Melnick, L. Prokopy, E. Takle, D. Todey, and L. Ziska. 2020. Climate Indicators for Agriculture. USDA Technical Bulletin 1953. Washington, DC. 70 pages. https://doi.org/10.25675/10217/210930.
  2. Angel, James R., Chris Swanson, Barbara Mayes Boustead, Kathryn Conlon, Kimberly R. Hall, Jenna L. Jorns, Kenneth E. Kunkel, et al. “Chapter 21: Midwest.” In Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II. U.S. Global Change Research Program, (2018): 872–940. https://doi.org/10.7930/nca4.2018.ch21.
  3. Mase, Amber S., Benjamin A. Gramig, and Linda S. Prokopy, 2017. Climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation behavior among Midwestern U.S. crop farmers. Climate Risk Management 15: 8-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2016.11.004.
  4. Angel, James R., Chris Swanson, Barbara Mayes Boustead, Kathryn Conlon, Kimberly R. Hall, Jenna L. Jorns, Kenneth E. Kunkel, et al. “Chapter 21: Midwest.” In Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II. U.S. Global Change Research Program, (2018): 872–940.
  5. Kalafatis, Scott E. “When Do Climate Change, Sustainability, and Economic Development Considerations Overlap in Cities?” Environmental Politics 27, no. 1 (January 2, 2018): 115–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2017.1373419.
  6. Hackworth, Jason. “Race and the Production of Extreme Land Abandonment in the American Rust Belt.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 42, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 51–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12588.
  7. Strait, John. “The Disparate Impact of Metropolitan Economic Change: The Growth of Extreme Poverty Neighborhoods, 1970–1990.” Economic Geography 77, no. 3 (July 1, 2001): 272–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2001.tb00165.x.
  8. Angel, James R., Chris Swanson, Barbara Mayes Boustead, Kathryn Conlon, Kimberly R. Hall, Jenna L. Jorns, Kenneth E. Kunkel, et al. “Chapter 21: Midwest.” In Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II. U.S. Global Change Research Program, (2018): 872–940. https://doi.org/10.7930/nca4.2018.ch21.
  9. Panci, Hannah, Melon Montano, Aaron Shultz, Travis Bartnick, and Kim Stone. “Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment.” April 2018. https://glifwc.org/ClimateChange/GLIFWC_Climate_Change_Vulnerability_Assessment_Version1_April2018.pdf
  10. Fitzpatrick, F. A., E. D. Dantoin, Naomi Tillison, K. M. Watson, R. J. Waschbusch, and J. D. Blout. Flood of July 2016 in Northern Wisconsin and the Bad River Reservation: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5029, 21 p., 1 app. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175029
  11. Chief, Karletta. “Emerging Voices of Tribal Perspectives in Water Resources.” Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, no. 163. April 2018. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10073921-emerging-voices-tribal-perspectives-water-resources.
  12. Tribal Adaptation Menu Team (TAM). “Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu.” Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, Wisconsin, 2019. 54 p. https://www.glifwc.org/ClimateChange/TribalAdaptationMenuV1.pdf.
  13. Kalafatis, Scott E., Julie C. Libarkin, Kyle Powys Whyte, and Chris Caldwell. “Utilizing the Dynamic Role of Objects to Enhance Cross-Cultural Climate Change Collaborations.” Weather, Climate, and Society 11, no. 1 (January 1, 2019a): 113–25. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-17-0115.1.