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.
