Selection of Indicators for
Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health
Version 4 - March 2000

The report, Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health, describes the process of developing a consistent, easily understood suite of indicators that will objectively represent the state of major ecosystem components across the Great Lakes basin. A detailed description for each of the selected indicators is also included. The overall goal is to provide a set of indicators that are necessary, sufficient and feasible to report on the state of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. These indicators are intended to provide the basis for assessing the state of the Great Lakes every two years.

This is the fourth version of the SOLEC report Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health released by the SOLEC steering committee. The four versions of this report represent a continuum of work on indicators for determining Great Lakes ecosystem health.

The concepts and ideas contained in this paper were first assembled for discussion at SOLEC 98 (October 21-23, 1998). Participants reviewed the SOLEC 98 document prior to SOLEC and provided comments during and shortly after the conference. These comments were considered during the preparation of the revised post-conference SOLEC Indicator List (Version 3). Major changes included the deletion of a few indicators, additions of a few others, revisions to the indicator descriptors of all, summary of a criteria assessment and the inclusion of a section of the different ways the SOLEC indicators may be sorted and organized.

In Version 4 of Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health, a few indicators have been dropped, added or moved to another category, the short descriptions of each indicator have been modified and individual indicators have been refined.

The SOLEC indicator list is a "living" list - meaning that indicators may be added or deleted as the need arises while other indicators may be revised to better fit the needs of the Parties to the GLWQA and other Great Lakes stakeholders. It is anticipated that the SOLEC indicator list will be reviewed at least once per year. With this in mind, comments and suggestions may be sent to Nancy Stadler-Salt (nancy.stadler-salt@ec.gc.ca) or Paul Bertram (bertram.paul@epa.gov). Comments received will be kept for future revisions of the SOLEC indicator list and subsequent reports.

Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health (Version 4), is available in 10 parts:

• The Main Paper - Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Ecosystem Health. This paper provides background and context for the proposed SOLEC indicators. The process for selecting SOLEC indicators and brief descriptions of the indicators are presented for each of 7 groupings: nearshore and open waters, coastal wetlands, nearshore terrestrial, land use, human health, societal, and unbounded. 28 pages. pdf size: 90kb (mainpaper-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 1 - Descriptor Information for Each Entry in the SOLEC Indicator List. For each of the 80 proposed SOLEC indicators, information is provided on the indicator measure, purpose, ecosystem objective supported, endpoint, features, illustration, limitations, interpretation, general comments, "unfinished business," and relevancies. 121 pages. pdf size: 395kb (appendix1-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 2 - Listing of All Indicators Entered into the Database. This appendix is a long table listing the indicator name, measure, program sponsor, and SOLEC status for each indicator that had been considered for the SOLEC list. Over 850 entries. 24 pages. pdf size: 110kb (appendix2-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 3 - Relevancies. The SOLEC indicators have application to many other programs or projects. Each of the proposed SOLEC indicators has been evaluated for relevance to several other organizational categories, including indicator type, environmental compartments, issues, GLWQA Annexes, GLWQA Beneficial Use Impairments, IJC Desired Outcomes, and Great Lakes Fish Community Objectives. 9 pages. pdf size: 45kb (appendix3-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 4 - Criteria used for Selection SOLEC Indicators. Explanations are provided for 21 criteria that were used during the indicator selection process. 2 pages. pdf size: 15kb (appendix4-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 5 - SOLEC Indicator Database. This is a description of the electronic SOLEC database of indicators, its features and database fields. 4 pages. pdf size: 15kb (appendix5-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 6 - Acronyms & Abbreviations. Lists of acronyms and commonly used abbreviations used throughout this document are presented. 2 pages. pdf size: 10kb (appendix6-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 7 - Documents. This is a table of the primary Great Lakes documents from which the initial list of indicators was derived, and the applicability of the documents to the Core Groups. 5 pages. pdf size: 25kb (appendix7-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 8 - SOLEC 2000 Organizational Structure. A simplified organizational chart for SOLEC 2000. 1 pages. pdf size: 35kb (appendix8-v4.pdf)
• Appendix 9 - Comments on Version 3 SOLEC Indicators and Report with Responses. This is a compilation of comments received on version 3 of the report and on specific indicators, followed by responses. 26 pages. pdf size: 120kb (appendix9-v4.pdf)