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Delivering Benefits in the Great Lakes Region

Delivering Benefits in the Great Lakes Region. Bill Werick, GLOS Board. The problem. The good intent is to manage oceans, and to manage we measure But management is bureaucratized, a good and a bad thing; Fixed division of labor Hierarchy of offices Rational-legal authority

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Delivering Benefits in the Great Lakes Region

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  1. Delivering Benefits in the Great Lakes Region Bill Werick, GLOS Board

  2. The problem • The good intent is to manage oceans, and to manage we measure • But management is bureaucratized, a good and a bad thing; • Fixed division of labor • Hierarchy of offices • Rational-legal authority • Creation of rules to govern performance • Good: a century ago, this helped professionalize governance • Bad: Departmentalization fragments whole management subjects, for instance oceans or the Great Lakes

  3. The issues • There are gaps between those who collect and manage data and those who need it to manage the lakes for the public good • US/Canada; states and provinces; public/ private • Within each geo-political entity, agency authorizations • Corps of Engineers • Environmental Protection Agency • US Fish and Wildlife Service • National Marine Fisheries • Federal Energy Regulatory Commission • Federal Emergency Management Agency Flooding Local government, Developers

  4. Commerce is in charge when salmon are in salt water, Interior in fresh water, more complicated when they’re smoked

  5. Hardened silos • Professional class of data gurus, webmasters, statisticians has developed but without experience in the management area where the data are used • Data integration sites are meant to close gaps, but they are too often one-agency products - incomplete, overlapping with incomplete products from other agencies

  6. For example • There are several agencies “in charge” of flooding, but there is no good record of flood damages in the United States. No one really knows how effective flood programs are. • Ecosystem restoration projects are supposed to address the goals identified in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, but we don’t even have a list of all the projects that have been built, let alone any idea of the services they provide. • There is no “Miss Utility” to call to find out what the minimum lake levels are that impact a new power plant, and mistakes are made.

  7. Director: Jen Read • Board members: • Mark Burrows - IJC, Coast Guard • Murray Charlton - ex Env. Canada • Nancy Frank - Univ. Wisconsin • Frank Kudrna - Kudrna & Assoc. • Tracy Mehan –ex EPA Cadmus Group • Dale K. Phenicie • Don Scavia - Univ. Michigan • Dave Ullrich - director Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative • Bill Werick - ex Corps of Engineers GLOS • GLOS is a public non-profit, Michigan corporation designed to connect the worlds of water users and managers and data providers when necessary to capture benefits that would otherwise be lost. • Regional association of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) • We are a niche player. The Board is all volunteer. Our goal is not to grow, not to become yet another data provider, but to close key gaps between information needed and information provided. • We do data, models and data management • We are a catalyst for improvement, not a competitor to other data developers

  8. The future is about to happen • A storm is coming • High pressure on budgets because of $7 trillion in additional debt projected for the next ten years • Four-fifths of the budget are fenced off • Presidents 2012 budget projections: • 2011: $1.645 trillion, 10.9 percent of GDP; • 2012: $1.101 trillion, 7.0 percent of GDP; • 2015: $607 billion, 3.2 percent of GDP; • 2017: $627 billion, 3.0 percent of GDP

  9. Integration initiative 9. Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Observations, Mapping, and Infrastructure: Strengthen and integrate Federal and non-Federal ocean observing systems, sensors, data collection platforms, data management, and mapping capabilities into a national system, and integrate that system into international observation efforts. • Low pressure from outside silos to reform • National Ocean Council • Collaborative Science, Services and Tools to Support Integrated and Adaptive Water Resources Management MOU (Corps, NOAA, USGS May 2011)

  10. Change is possible Smart money • More money for more data is not in the cards • More effective data management using savings from integration of data programs is possible • Federal budget process, appropriations sub-committee structure by their nature will protect the status quo • The question is, will our house bend or break in the storm? • To best survive, we have to work together to make sure we have • the data we need • delivered in a way that maximizes its utility • at a reduced cost • We can’t do that unless we work together

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