ECCC Climate Change & Water Levels Study
Environment & Climate Change Canada have finally released their long-awaited study on Climate Change impacts in the Great Lakes basin, which includes probability-based projections of potential water levels variability from 2025 to 2095. Great Lakes shoreline municipalities, businesses (particularly marinas), ports, and residents should review this report before making any investments in building or rebuilding structures, proceeding with any shoreline infrastructure, or mitigation/adaptation measures to address extreme high and/or low water levels.
The report examines future water levels variability under two climate change scenarios and indicates that there may be more variability for Lake Michigan-Huron levels than for the other lakes. The reasons for this are provided in the full report, but the overriding factor is the much larger size of the M/H basin, retention time* and surface water area, when compared to all the other lakes, which makes it more vulnerable to climate change impacts creating greater variability for the amount of: precipitation in the basin, and evaporation from the surface water.
For more details, please see:
- Full report: Climate-Change-in-the-Great-Lakes-Basin_Seglenieks nov 2022
- Infographic: ECCC climate change impacts infographic nov 2022
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsNQQ6o9cjU
- GLEC website link: https://binational.net/2022/11/07/climate-change-trends-and-impacts/
* The length of time it takes for water entering each lake to leave each lake.
The video and infographic below also accompany the ECCC study.