Great Lakes Coastal Symposium 2024

• Opening Address
• Great Lakes Coastal Assembly Welcome
• Welcome to Rochester

Climate change is altering the Great Lakes region. Coastal disasters are becoming more frequent and more costly; slow-burn hazards like erosion and episodic flooding are also increasingly ubiquitous in the face of heavier precipitation, more rapidly fluctuating water levels, and stronger storms. Coastal resilience – an approach that holistically considers the natural, physical, cultural, and built environments along with the living beings that rely on them – has gained traction globally as the preferred way to address climate change and protect human and ecological communities.

Livelihoods and lifeways are at stake as climate continues to change in the region; ecosystems, communities, recreational amenities, public and private property, and cultural resources are all affected. Multiple players across the region – including at Canadian and U.S. federal agencies, Tribal nations, states and provinces, and non-government organizations – have been proactively involved in coastal resilience initiatives to better understand and plan for future climate change impacts on coastal areas. Increased investment in habitat restoration, shoreline management, and sediment remediation projects from sources like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (U.S.), Inflation Reduction Act (U.S.), Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (U.S.), and Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities Program (CAN) is helping grow our understanding of the impacts of and actions needed to address climate change, and how to make future investments more durable to varying conditions.

This plenary Coastal Resilience Panel will consist of agency personnel that have been leading large-scale Great Lakes resilience studies and efforts. The panelists will provide updates on these efforts and their agency’s perspectives on coastal resilience and adaptability of restoration projects. The panel will set the tone of the overall resilience theme for the Great Lakes Coastal Symposium and will provide a foundational introduction to crucial dialogue that will continue throughout the conference.

 This presentation is part of the Rock: It's Not Just for Revetments Anymore organized session.

Rock can be a useful tool for habitat creation and to protect Great Lakes shorelines from storm surges and fluctuating water levels. Here we will highlight how rock has been used for restoration in the past, as well as new and innovative uses for rock in restoration. We will also showcase several restoration projects funded through the NOAA Restoration Center.

This presentation is part of the Nature Based Solutions Organized Session.

The use of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) for erosion control and flood management along coastal shorelines is growing nationwide. However, as an emerging practice, there are limited tools available to guide landowners and practitioners in the selection of NNBF techniques. The State of New York is currently developing a web-based decision support tool (DST) to better inform the selection of NNBF practices with the intent to increase resiliency in coastal communities. The DST is semi-quantitative, combining engineering practices with ecological considerations in a tool that will be functional and easy to use for both non-professional landowners and professional designers and practitioners. This presentation will review NNBF practices on Great Lakes Shorelines and will review the tool, which is currently under development.

Kaniatarowanenneh (St. Lawrence River) holds immense significance for Akwesasronon (Akwesasne Community Members), shaping their history and identity. Over time, however, the river and community faced environmental challenges from the development of the seaway and hydropower dam. The developments attracted heavy industry to area for cheap energy and shipping access, causing environmental contaminants (PCB, mercury, etc.) and adversely affecting the health and culture of Akwesasronon. This environmental violence generated a fearful relationship between the community and river, eroding cultural knowledge, language, teachings, and practices. This fear, combined with a forced assimilationist history, distanced the people from the environment, disrupting the fulfillment of reciprocal roles defined by the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Words Before All Else).

Akwesasne struggles with shoreline erosion, prompting Akwesasronon shoreline owners to harden their shorelines. A shoreline assessment was developed and framed in the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen to be applied to interested shoreline owners. Semi-structured interviews conducted will help gauge owners’ understanding of shorelines and cultural knowledge. Integrating quantitative and qualitative information will inform shoreline restoration plans, fostering naturalized shorelines that evoke communal and individual responsibilities to creation – an act of decolonization. Embracing a decolonial approach, the project draws from Linda Tuhiwai Smith's critique of research and aligns with Tuck and Yang's affirmation that decolonization is not a metaphor. The hypothesis is that strengthening Akwesasronon relationship with creation through their biocultural context improves shoreline health and cultural knowledge reclamation.

This presentation is part of the Rock: It's Not Just for Revetments Anymore organized session.

Climate change, changes in Great Lakes water levels, shoreline armoring, invasive species and many other factors have had significant impacts on the resilience of nearshore habitats and species. This talk will focus on the Great Lakes Reef Restoration Working Group, the purpose of the group, who participates, and goals. In addition, a brief overview on several reef restoration projects will be highlighted in a short presentation.

This presentation is part of the Nature Based Solutions Organized Session.

The Great Lakes shorelines have seen increased damages in recent years from flooding and erosion due to historically high lake levels, severe storms, and climate change. Cities are on the frontlines facing these issues and the most vulnerable communities often have even fewer resources to address them. This presentation will provide an overview of two programs that provide direct technical support to municipalities in the Great Lakes region. The two programs are the Initiative for Resilient Great Lakes Coasts, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, and funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative's Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative, funded in large part through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Both programs engage with a cohort of communities to advance their coastal resilience projects and build local capacity for incorporating nature-based solutions into coastal hazard mitigation. This talk will share the program models and municipal engagement approach, and include a discussion of some of the challenges and opportunities identified thus far as this work continues. The program leads and partners will present engineered designs of innovative nature-based solutions with multiple co-benefits.

Conservation and restoration practitioners are asked to consider the role of Indigenous Knowledges in environmental policies and decision-making. We examine the responsibilities of Haudenosaunee and settler societies in this new endeavor within the context of Great Lakes.

This presentation is part of the Rock: It's Not Just for Revetments Anymore organized session.

The Township of Chesterfield, Michigan had a tough decision to make regarding a failing seawall along one of their public parks. The choice was to replace the seawall with another or find an alternative solution. In partnership with the Great Lakes Commission and NOAA, an alternative solution was designed to naturalize the shoreline and install offshore habitat shoals for protection. Implementation of this project has resulted in 740 feet of softened shoreline and 3.2 acres of restored nearshore habitat.

This presentation is part of the Nature Based Solutions Organized Session.

Climate change impacts coastal communities through flooding, storm surge, extreme weather (including drought), and sea level rise. These hazards may lead communities to relocate away from the coasts. Conversely, researchers have identified some areas of the United States, such as the Great Lakes, as receiving areas of these potential climate migrants due to the unique attributes of their communities. Despite reference to the link between climate change and human mobility (displacement, migration, planned relocation), there is a dearth of knowledge on how shifts in population patterns intersect with underlying socioeconomic, cultural, political, and environmental processes. Other factors still appear to be more controlling in the decision to move. Resources often enable or constrain the ability of communities to relocate. Programs to empower communities to make decisions on relocation are lacking.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) and other Sea Grant programs received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop a Research Coordination Network. The project named People on the Move in a Changing Climate (PEMOCC) will provide the scientific infrastructure that is required to conduct place-based, use-inspired collaborative research on climate-induced human mobility, and regionally tailored educational and engagement strategies.

In June 2022, NYSG hosted and co-facilitated a PEMOCC workshop for the Great Lakes region in Buffalo, NY. Fifty participants from across the Basin states attended. The goals were to feature the current state of knowledge on climate-induced human mobility, provide local/regional case studies, and address the unique needs of underserved and underrepresented coastal communities. A follow-up meeting will be held in Corvallis, Oregon in September of 2024. This talk will review the findings of both workshop and engage the audience to think about steps to address the findings in order to increase resilience.

This presentation is part of the Rock: It's Not Just for Revetments Anymore organized session.

Historically, rock substrate was available in the Detroit River as spawning and feeding habitat for Great Lakes fish and other aquatic organisms. This presentation will briefly describe the loss of habitat in the Detroit River and how the use of rock and other habitat restoration techniques can provide habitat as well as provide resilient protection from erosion and the impacts of a changing climate.

This presentation is part of the Nature Based Solutions Organized Session. 

Climate-induced flooding along the shoreline of Lake Ontario caused significant damage to infrastructure and property in 2017 and 2019. As climate change continues to impact lake levels in unforeseen and uncertain ways, the region faces a threat from increased erosion, flooding, and low water levels. It is critical to establish dynamic adaptation strategies that make communities better prepared to face the impacts of climate change. Even with many on-going state-level initiatives such as the Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI), Coastal Lakeshore Economy and Resiliency Initiative (CLEAR) and the Great Lakes Action Agenda (GLAA) pushing for nature-based shorelines, ecosystem-based shoreline management and resilient land use practices, structural solutions such as engineered shorelines remain the most popular mitigation strategy for shoreline communities and property owners. This project uses detailed interviews with adaptation professionals, county and regional planners and natural resource managers along the shoreline to identify pertinent barriers to the adoption of non-structural solutions for coastal adaptation. Using a barrier-analysis approach developed by Moser and Ekstrom (2009) - we outline barriers at various stages of the adaptation process, from strategy selection to implementation. We find that informational and resource constraints, misaligned incentives, and institutional and legal hurdles prevent a widespread adoption of non-structural adaptation strategies and suggest ways to overcome these barriers through alternative approaches to traditional adaptation governance mechanisms.

While the physical complexity of Michigan’s coastal dynamics has increased due to climate change and other factors, most notably because of more rapid variability in Great Lakes water levels as well as increased precipitation and storm intensity, the ability of local resource managers to respond efficiently and effectively has not kept pace. Therefore, decisions that have long-term impacts on shoreline are often made under duress without the ability and capacity to critically assess impacts and sustainability. During the most recent high water period (e.g., 2019/2020), many local decision makers began approving or directly implementing measures relating to stormwater management and shoreline armoring. However, these decisions were often made without complete or accurate information since many communities face barriers in assessing risk and costs, choosing appropriate projects, obtaining funding, implementing plans, and collaborating with other coastal communities as well as state and federal agencies. Currently, the unprecedented level of federal investment is combining with water levels hovering near historic averages to create a critical window for action to build capacity and knowledge while undertaking innovative projects.

Under these conditions, we assessed the opportunities, barriers and needs for Michigan’s coastal managers to adopt collaborative and effective resilience practices. Specifically, Michigan Sea Grant (MISG) sought to better understand how to engage with communities and to identify and support specific needs. First, we interviewed individuals from the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network (GLSGN) to learn how their programs conducted outreach and worked in communities as well as what were best practices or barriers. We then organized a workshop for over 50 coastal resilience managers and experts to identify significant barriers to coastal resilience planning and to outline potential solutions, emphasizing nature-based approaches. The proposed presentation would relay the results in terms of barriers and needs as well as the strategy and tactics to meet these needs, including the launch of a new online resource hub and several communities of practice.

This presentation is part of the Rock: It's Not Just for Revetments Anymore organized session.

Ralph Wilson Park is a 100+ acre park located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Buffalo. Rooted in a multi-year community visioning process, the generational transformation of the park is world-class in its approach to resiliency, sustainability and equity. Located at the confluence of the Niagara River and Lake Erie, the park's hardened cement sea wall endures the full brunt of 180 miles of momentum gained as winds and storms cross shallow Lake Erie.
Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, in partnership with the City of Buffalo and multiple stakeholders, the renovation's scope includes extensive habitat enhancement, removal of the cement seawall and replacement with a resilient mix of armored stone and native plantings.
This presentation will focus on the use of armored stone as a means to increase shoreline resiliency/lessen storm impact and flooding in the renovated park. We will also highlight habitat restoration efforts created to enhance fish spawning opportunities and wildlife habitat.

In 2016 the Little Calumet River Conservation Collaborative began planning for habitat restoration, stewardship, and community engagement across a 10-mile stretch of the West Branch of the Little Calumet River in Northwest Indiana. Using a robust spatial prioritization and secretive marsh bird monitoring as an indicator for overall wetland health, the Collaborative identified over 1,400 acres of priority habitat to be restored, contributing to local efforts to build a more climate-resilient Calumet region. Relationships were then carefully built with City of Gary officials and the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, two of the major landowners across the floodplain basin.

Since 2019, the Collaborative has been conducting on-the-ground restoration across 400 acres. In 2023, water control structures were installed at two of these sites, allowing for strategic water level management to minimize invasive plant species and allow for the recovery of marsh vegetative communities.

Community engagement, especially in Gary, Indiana, has been prioritized and will soon reach new depths thanks to two federal grants to conduct engineering and design across 1,100 new acres, including potential remeandering of the Little Calumet River. Input from local residents will help guide and be incorporated into the site’s restoration plans to center the needs of the surrounding underserved communities.

This presentation will aim to detail the complexities and need for community-centered conservation, especially in Environmental Justice communities like Gary, Indiana and many others across the Great Lakes basin.

This panel is part of the Nature Based Solutions Organized Session.

This “double-block” session will include an overview of opportunities to continue knowledge sharing and dialogue around implementation of Great Lakes natural and nature-based approaches. Presenters from the organized session will respond to Q+A while participants have a chance to share their own stories. The facilitator will also highlight some regional and national resources and venues where participants can learn from each other and stay connected, including the Nature-Based Topics Page on NOAA’s Digital Coast and the Great Lakes Chapter of the cross-boundary Nature-Based Coastal Solutions Community of Practice.

The Day in the Life of Lake Ontario- St. Lawrence River project, with funding from the US EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, by training teachers and educators, providing equipment and stipends to teachers, and coordinating student summit events in support of New York’s Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange and New York’s Great Lakes Action Agenda. The development of lesson plans, activity instructions and classroom resources integrated the 9 objectives of the Lake Ontario Lake wide Action and Management Plan, which include safe drinking water, being free nutrients that promote nuisance algae, being free from harmful pollutants, safe swimming beaches, allowing for fish and wildlife consumption, providing healthy habitats for native species, being free from invasive species, being free from harmful groundwater contamination, and being free from other negative effects, such as climate change. Teachers and educators also learned about research being conducted under the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative to understand lake wide conditions. Environmental education outcomes of this 2 year project included: engaging 12 teachers and 25 education partners in a one-day training workshop, providing 10 teachers with equipment bins that they can use with classes beyond the project funding, and engaging 684 students in hands on learning about the Lake Ontario- St. Lawrence River ecosystem to build sense of place and promote stewardship. Monitoring data collected by students at 6 sites under an EPA and DEC approved Quality Assurance Project plan was also completed and made available on the DEC Education website. Based on the success of this 2-year project, recommendations include continuing to coordinate with DITL of LOSLR teachers and partners trained in 2022 and 23 to support student summit events and applying the DITL model to support programming in the Oswego River/Finger Lakes watershed in partnership with DEC, OPRHP, and other interested partners.
Website: https://dec.ny.gov/get-involved/education/teacher-information/day-in-the-life-lake-ontario-st-lawrence-river

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) works toward enhancing our region’s natural environment while protecting our land, water and communities from the impacts of flooding, erosion and increasingly extreme weather. One key component in this process is the design and implementation of remedial erosion control/protection and slope stabilization works to protect human life and property. TRCA’s Erosion Risk Management Program (ERMP) monitors the condition of all TRCA-owned waterfront erosion protection structures on an annual basis, allowing for priority ranking. This helps determine whether detailed study, maintenance or remedial works, or further monitoring are recommended. Various factors that may be vulnerable to climate change implications, such as depth and crest height of a structure, known wave climate in the area, etc., are considered.

Several structures in Bluffer’s Park, monitored since 2006, were identified through the ERMP as failing following high lake level events in 2017 and 2019, and a severe wind storm weather event in 2018. These structures protect Bluffer’s Park, which is an artificial landform built in the 1970s at the base of the Scarborough Bluffs, located within the City of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The park is owned by TRCA and managed by the City, with TRCA maintaining these structures that protect the park and nearby bluffs.

The extreme weather and lake events prompted initiation of the planning process to develop designs, acquire permits and approvals, and complete major maintenance. Climate change and opportunities for aquatic habitat enhancement were key components of the design. TRCA’s objective was to restore and enhance the original erosion protection capability of these structures, thereby protecting Bluffer’s Park from wave energy and continued erosion. Improvements, to increase resiliency and address climate change impacts, included increasing the structure crest height, using larger material, incorporating splash pads behind structures to account for wave overtopping during extreme events, as well as moving trails and public viewing areas to safe distances. Major Maintenance on four (4) structures within the Park was completed between 2018 and 2022. Construction is currently ongoing on a headland structure, scheduled to be complete in 2024, with planning and design underway for another adjacent series of structures. TRCA has undertaken this work to improve resiliency and address climate change factors, and will continue to plan and implement similar projects along the Toronto waterfront within the same framework.

The Great Lakes Action Agenda calls for an evaluation of long-term outcomes pertaining to aquatic toxicity, nutrient, pathogen, and sediment loading, invasive species, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable communities. To evaluate change related to these indicators, an understanding of the current environmental conditions is required for later comparison. The Baseline Conditions Characterization consolidates disparate open-source data to provide a unified analysis of current environmental conditions related to the Great Lakes Action Agenda outcomes at a sub-basin scale. This information aims to tell a full watershed story and will be displayed via a Story Map, which will inform future evaluations and reports of key environmental indicators of sustainable ecosystems. As part of this project, ecosystem and coastal resilience are being evaluated to determine trends in hardened shorelines, undeveloped land within floodplains, and coastal wetland and riparian forest habitats. This presentation will outline the methods of the Baseline Conditions Characterization and explore the trends related to the coastal resiliency of Lake Ontario.

n the southern shore of Lake Ontario, the sediment transport processes are complex due to a highly dynamic environment, complex shoreline configuration, and large range of sediment fractions which includes silt/clay to cobbles and boulders.  Generally, the nearshore environment is supplied by sediments released through the natural erosion and retreat of the bluffs which are found in long stretches along the shoreline ranging from several hundred meters to kilometers in length.  The retreat of these shoreline bluffs can result from a variety of processes that operate at different rates and that respond to different triggering mechanisms. For example, wave erosion at the toe of the bluff is a primary cause of bluff retreat, and brief, intense storms that generate large waves can trigger large amounts of bluff retreat in a matter of a few hours or days. Longer term basin-wide or eustatic increases in lake water level can also increase long-term rates of bluff erosion and recession by exposing bluffs more directly to wave action. Surface erosion at the bluff crest from overland runoff can also contribute to bluff recession.  Once eroded from the bluffs the material is naturally sorted by the waves and nearshore hydrodynamics and subsequently these materials are transported both in an alongshore and cross-shore direction. Eroded materials are distributed throughout littoral cells and sub-cells or alternatively permanently lost from the system in offshore environment. Depending on the sediment fraction, the response in the nearshore environment differs.

To improve the understanding of coastal processes on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) initiated a Project titled: Engineering & Analysis for Coastal Resilience & Ecosystem Restoration Projects. The Project’s primary focus is to study the coastal processes to better inform coastal planning to reduce the risk from flooding and erosion while protecting the coastal ecosystem.

To support the Project, a detailed understanding of hydrodynamics, waves and sediment transport is required. As such, the Project involves a range of activities such as research and data analysis; field services to investigate physical processes, material properties, and shoreline features; desktop assessments; geographic information system analysis (GIS); and a comprehensive numerical modelling program of coastal processes. The key outcomes from the study include wave, hydrodynamic and sediment transport models as well as a detailed sediment budget from Great Sodus Bay to Oswego, which considers fine sediment (silt and clay), sand, and the coarse sediment fractions (pebbles and cobbles) which has not been done in the past due to the lack of data relating to the coarse sediment fractions.

This presentation will describe the overall Project and the latest results with a focus on the numerical modelling including waves, hydrodynamics, and sediment transport. In particular, the presentation will discuss the various sediment sources and sinks, the estimated rate of sediment bypassing at the long jetty structures at Sodus Bay and Little Sodus Bay, and how this information feeds into the sediment budget for the reach of shoreline from Great Sodus Bay to Oswego.

Appetizers provided.