Annex 4: Coordination of Monitoring, Research and Information

1. Preamble
2. Goals
3. Results
4. Definitions

To achieve the Agreement's vision of a healthy, prosperous and sustainable Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, it is necessary that the Great Lakes community has access to accurate information regarding trends in environmental quality.

Monitoring and research help to detect and characterize current and emerging issues in the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, and provide the understanding to guide adaptive, scientifically-supported management actions. Monitoring and research activities should be coordinated across the basin in order to ensure the comprehensive base of information is collected and captured over varying time scales and geographic coverage to improve consistency and continuity.

Binational jurisdictions, agencies, organizations and individuals routinely collect and analyze data to report on the state of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. Therefore, data and information must be made readily available to resource managers, decision-makers and the public in a consistent manner, to ensure that decisions are based on the best available data. Standards for metadata (information about data) and interoperability of data must be adhered to, to improve discovery and access.

These activities are all prerequisites for sound decision-making in the Great Lakes Basin and for reporting meaningfully on the progress made in achieving environmental objectives and defining appropriate actions.

The Parties have identified two goals that will ensure coordinated monitoring and research are conducted and that the Great Lakes community has access to accurate information regarding trends in environmental quality:

1. Undertake coordinated and efficient federal/provincial scientific monitoring and research; and
   
2. Continue to improve the discovery and sharing of data, information and trends in the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem.

Canada and Ontario will:

1. Coordinate monitoring and research of federal and provincial agencies as well as local communities in support of Annex 1 to track progress towards the recovery of beneficial uses and achievement of delisting targets in AOCs;
   
2. Coordinate federal and provincial monitoring and research in support of Annex 2 to determine trends, impacts and sources of harmful pollutants;
   
3. Coordinate federal and provincial monitoring and research in support of Annex 3 to optimize programs and address priorities in the near-shore zones, coastal areas, open waters and tributaries;
   
4. Link Canadian Great Lakes research and monitoring with work being undertaken by other jurisdictions to improve efficiency and effectiveness of programs and to set priorities for future work; and
   
5. Establish a Canada-Ontario water quality and aquatic ecosystem health issue team to coordinate activities.

Canada and Ontario will:

1. Adopt meaningful indicators for reporting trends in ecosystem health and water quality; and
   
2. Report by March 31, 2010 on the status and trends in water quality and aquatic ecosystem health in the Great Lakes Basin.

Canada and Ontario will:

1. Implement best management practices for information management of work conducted under the Agreement and commit to follow the protocols of the Canadian Geospatial Data infrastructure and the Land Information Ontario, where applicable;
   
2. Establish internet-based mechanisms to facilitate access to and sharing of data and information through recognized standards and specifications, such as web mapping and web data services;
   
3. Promote and maintain a web-based inventory (Binational Executive Committee Monitoring Inventory) of on-going monitoring programs and activities and track their status;
   
4. Better utilize existing monitoring data to identify progress in environmental conditions, trends and emerging issues by reporting on indicators such as SOLEC and LaMP indicators using Lake Views;
   
5. Ensure compatibility and interoperability with current federal and provincial information management standards and systems; and
   
6. Provide targeted technical advice to the Great Lakes community to develop common geospatial applications and share federal and provincial data sets, studies and expertise in environmental monitoring and research.