great lakes regional integrated sciences & assessments center
GLISA Symposium on November 3, 2011
The Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA) is a collaboration of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and The Ohio State University, with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The economy of the Great Lakes Region and the wellbeing of its residents will be greatly affected by regional and local changes to the climate. Climate change is likely to reduce lake levels, shift patterns of precipitation, and alter average seasonal temperatures.
GLISA spotlights three critical sectors in the region: 1) agriculture, 2) watershed management, and 3) natural resource-based 
recreation and tourism, which are interconnected through issues of water quality and quantity. GLISA focuses on the watersheds of Lake Huron and Lake Erie located in the states of Michigan and Ohio and the province of Ontario, but its reach encompasses the broader Great Lakes basin.
The two overarching goals of GLISA are to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the region in the face of a changing climate and to improve the utility of scientific knowledge to decision making. It pursues these goals through three programmatic areas:
Integrated Stakeholder Networks (ISNs) Program
A core philosophy of GLISA is that scientific analysis must respond to the needs of individuals and organizations affected by climate-related decisions (i.e. stakeholders). We will build a database of stakeholders in the region and identify their existing networks. GLISA and its projects aim to “get the science right” and “get the right science” by engaging stakeholders in an analytic-deliberative process, in order to identify research needs and how results of that research can be presented in the most useful manner.
Downscaled Climate Projections Program
The coarse resolution of general circulation models limits their direct use in decisions about resource management and infrastructure expenditures at a local and regional level. Downscaling results in projections at a far finer resolution. GLISA will build an archive of already available climate projections for the Great Lakes region, supplement these projections with additional temporal or spatial detail as appropriate, and extend potential applications of the datasets by expanding them to include variables beyond temperature and precipitation (e.g., snow, snowpack, and snowmelt).
Annual Research Funding Program
The core management team, in consultation with Science and Stakeholder Advisory Committees, will solicit, review, and select research projects for funding on an annual basis. Researchers expressing an interest in participating will be invited as Affiliates and will be eligible for funding through this mechanism. The initial call for proposals was in early 2011. Click here for news about initial research projects being funded through the program.
GLISA Core Management Team
The GLISA is managed by an experienced, interdisciplinary team of researchers and specialists in stakeholder outreach.
Primary Investigators
- Donald Scavia (Lead), Graham Family Professor and Director, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109. (Contact: scavia@umich.edu)
- Thomas Dietz, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy, Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824 (Contact: tdietz@msu.edu)
CO-INVESTIGATORS:
- Jeff Andresen, Michigan State University (MSU)
- Maria Lemos, University of Michigan (U-M)
- Richard Rood, University of Michigan
- Julie Winkler, Michigan State University
- Melinda Huntley, The Ohio State University (OSU)
- Charles Pistis, Michigan Sea Grant, Michigan State University
- Michael Staton, Michigan State University
For more information, please click here to visit the GLISA website. You may also contact the GLISA Program Manager, David Bidwell at dbidwell@umich.edu or (734) 647-6278.