Clinton River Watershed

Project Description

This project will evaluate ecologically and economically sound approaches to managing the Clinton River. Researchers will utilize stakeholder input, a variety of existing data sources, and hydrologic and economic models to assess the causes, consequences and possible solutions for the current flow regime. The project will evaluate the impact of existing and potential river regulation policies on:

• water quality
• fish and wildlife habitat
• recreational opportunities in and along the rive
• flood control
• property values and insurance costs
• taxes, wages and business income
• the influence of lake level control on adjoining lakes
• the effect on lake level control on the watershed

Expected Outcomes
The overall goal of this Integrated Assessment is to develop a more comprehensive, holistic approach to water level management. The project will develop tools and metrics that can be used by policy makers to identify, evaluate, and build consensus for revised flow management policies. A more natural flow regime has the potential to create long-term benefits such as improved water quality and environmental health, increased recreational opportunities, reduced user conflicts, improved regional economic viability, and lower operational costs associated with lake level controls.

Get Involved
The project team will gather input from all concerned stakeholders including landowners, lake-owner and riparian owner associations, municipal governments, county agencies, watershed managers, permit agencies, businesses and recreational users. For more information about the project and upcoming public meetings contact greatlakes@ltu.edu .
 
For more information about this program go to  http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/ .

Overview of an Integrated Assessment

The goal of an Integrated Assessment project is to synthesize scientific knowledge in order to guide decision-making around a particular environmental issue. These research projects are assessments because they involve a review and analysis of existing information. Rather than running additional experiments, experts summarize what’s known and go a step beyond the facts and offer an assessment or an evaluation of those facts. These research projects integrate:

• Policy-makers, in order to identify scientific information needed to guide decision-making
• Stakeholders, typically community and business leaders with a stake in the issue
• Knowledge from several disciplines, typically physical, biological, and social sciences
• An analysis of the causes of and an analysis of the possible responses to a problem

Integrated Assessments bring together community leaders, industry representatives, scientists, and policy-makers to identify and evaluate policy and/or management options on particularly difficult environmental problems. The kinds of problems/questions best suited to Integrated Assessment are those that have no clear-cut cause and lack an obvious solution. This type of Issue is typically at the center of most environmental sustainability conflicts. 

The focus of the Integrated Assessments approach is data analysis, synthesis, modeling, and stakeholder engagement (e.g., surveys, focus groups, workshops, panel discussions, and interactive policy analysis). Integrated Assessment can take many forms, but many use the framework below. Depending on the needs of decision-makers, certain objectives may be emphasized within the assessment.

• Define the policy–relevant question
• Document the status and trends of environmental, social, and economic conditions related to the issue
• Describe the causes and consequences of those trends
• Identify desired outcomes and policy options
• Provide forecasts of conditions under various policy options
• Provide technical guidance for implementing each option
• Provide an assessment of the level of certainty regarding the previous steps 

See Michigan Sea Grant Website for more information

Background

The 80-mile long Clinton River in southeast Michigan has its headwaters in rural and urbanizing areas and then flows through heavily urbanized sections of southern Oakland and Macomb counties before eventually draining into Lake St. Clair. Although water quality in the Clinton River has improved over the last 30 years, the river faces a number of environmental challenges, including extreme fluctuation of water flow.

Twenty one separate impoundments - or dammed lakes - along the upper reaches of the river interrupt natural flows and block fish movement within the watershed. A majority of the lakes created by the impoundments have a court-authorized water level that is set independently of other lakes in the system and the downstream receiving waters. When lake control structures at the impoundments are adjusted, the result is a sudden, drastic reduction of water flow in the river. Although regulatory agencies are legally required to make these water level adjustments, the resulting abrupt changes in river flow adversely impact fish and wildlife habitat as well as recreational opportunities. Additionally, the presence of the impoundments puts many constituents on opposite sides of the issues; residents often have contrasting opinions about lake level control depending on where they are located in the watershed.