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Organizational
Structure and Functioning
History, Evolution and Structure of the Great Lakes Program
For nearly fifteen years, the Great Lakes Program has dedicated its staff and funding to protect and preserve the resources of the Great Lakes while serving, on behalf of the University at Buffalo (UB), the research, outreach and educational needs of those who live around these "sweet water seas."
From its early beginnings in the mid 1980s, as a project of then New York State Assemblymen, John B. Sheffer II and William B. Hoyt, the Great Lakes Program has grown in its scope and efforts. Both Sheffer and Hoyt were aware that the future environmental, socioeconomic, industrial and recreational development of the Western New York region were tied to the resources of the Great Lakes. These political visionaries joined forces with then UB Provost, William R. Greiner, to plan the development of a Western New York Center for Great Lakes Resources. According to early correspondence between Sheffer and Greiner, the "principle purposes would be to function as a clearinghouse and resource center for information related to the Great Lakes". Although the Great Lakes Program has since added a significant research component to its mission, education and public outreach remain a very important service-related role of the program. Among the variety of service activities highlighted below, the Great Lakes Program continues to maintain a library which houses Great Lakes information for use by scholars, researchers, educators, students, and the general public.
The Great Lakes Program has been established within the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at UB, and maintains office space in the department. Its directors have come from the faculty of the Department and serve roles both as faculty member reporting to the Department Chair and as Program Director reporting to the University Provost (see Figure 1). Dr. Ralph R. Rumer served as the first Director, from 1986 until 1991. Both he and Dr. Joseph V. DePinto, who took over as Director in 1991, began to add multi-disciplinary Great Lakes research facilitation and direction to the Program’s role within the University and to carve out a new niche within the Great Lakes community. This new niche involved conducting and synthesizing scientific and technical research necessary to aid rational policy and decision-making for the complex Great Lakes ecosystem.
In the spring of 2000, Dr. DePinto made a decision to begin a new phase in his career working as a modeler/consultant with Limno Tech, Inc. (LTI) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. DePinto maintains a research position here at UB, to continue advising graduate students, and he remains very dedicated to Great Lakes issues.
Starting in the fall of 2000, Dr. Joseph F. Atkinson became Director of the Program. Dr. Atkinson brings many years of experience working in the Great Lakes field, and a new vision to expand the Great Lakes Program to a national research center.
Today the Great Lakes Program is one of approximately ten university-based (including U.S. and Canada) Great Lakes research centers. It serves as the University’s main link to the New York Great Lakes Research Consortium, of which UB is one of the founding members. The special capability of the Program to develop and apply ecosystem-level mathematical models of the relationships between anthropogenic and natural stressors and the system responses to those stressors places it among only two or three of those research centers with a similar capacity. In summary, the Great Lakes Program is widely recognized throughout the basin as a major contributor to the scientific and technical knowledge base used for forming public policy and managing Great Lakes resources.
Organizational Structure and Functioning
The institutional setting and basic structure of the Program are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Of particular note is the unique collaborative arrangement between the University and the New York State Sea Grant Institute (NYSG), which has provided for a joint Great Lakes Program Associate Director/Senior Sea Grant Great Lakes Extension Specialist position. Helen Domske has filled that position since the inception of this arrangement in 1993. Her primary responsibility within the Great Lakes Program is to coordinate education and outreach activities. Much, although not all of her activities, overlap her responsibilities for both positions. Funds for her salary and some operating expenses for this position are provided through the NYSG SUNY budget; the Great Lakes Program provides additional operating funds and clerical support for Ms. Domske's activities that relate to the Program. In 1997, NYSG consolidated its Buffalo area extension services by moving into space occupied by the Environmental Engineering and Science Group of the Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering Department. This space is currently located in rooms 228 and 229 in Jarvis Hall, near the Great Lakes Program offices in 202 Jarvis. This space, provided by the School of Engineering and Applied Science, houses three Sea Grant extension staff (including Ms. Domske). This initiative represents a milestone for the Program and UB in terms of cementing a close relationship with NYSG and SUNY Stony Brook, where the central offices are housed. The hybrid position also fosters a relationship between UB and the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service at Cornell University.
Additional Great Lakes Program full time staff includes Monica Moshenko, Senior Staff Assistant, provides budgetary, clerical, editorial, web development, facilitates seminars/conferences and also provides endless assistance to many students supported through the program. Since 1989 Monica has been with the Great Lakes Program providing excellent administrative assistance along with being a well known and valuable ambassador for the program throughout Western New York and the Great Lakes community.
The Great Lakes Program staff regularly collaborates with other faculty and research associates within the University, including other programs such as the Environment and Society Institute and the National Center for Geographic Information Analysis. A number of faculty are associated with the Program (see Faculty Affiliates list) and the Program maintains regular communication, distributes research and seminar announcements, and helps to establish research connections to respond to requests for proposals from various funding agencies, especially those requests involving multidisciplinary research. Various collaborations include research and assessment, publications, conference and workshop organization and facilitation, and seminars on Great Lakes issues. The Program also supports graduate and work-study students who focus their activities on specific projects conducted by the Program.
The Great Lakes Program also maintains an external Advisory Board comprised of individuals who bring to the Program a broad base of knowledge and experience related to the Great Lakes. The Advisory Board is made up of representatives from UB, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the Great Lakes Center at Buffalo State College, SUNY at Albany, McMaster University, NYSG and Cornell Cooperative Extension, SUNY ESF, the Great Lakes research Consortium, Erie County Department of Environment and Planning, and local industry. Advisory Board Members provide valuable insight into the future direction of our research program and the education and outreach activities of the Program relative to its mission and vision, thus ensuring that its perspective is current and inclusive of important Great Lakes problems and issues.
Figure 2. Organizational structure of Program.
Also shown in Figure 2 are the four categories of Program Activities pursued by the Great Lakes Program in an effort to accomplish its mission. They include:
- Facilitate, coordinate, and/or direct multi-disciplinary scientific, engineering, socio-economic, and policy-oriented studies (basic and applied research, synthesis and assessment studies) that contribute to a system-level understanding and have implications on policy formulation and management of the Great Lakes Ecosystem.
- Serve as a Great Lakes information clearinghouse to disseminate news of the latest scientific findings, policy and management decisions, and assessments of the state-of-the-ecosystem to legislators, managers, researchers, and the general public.
- Establish linkages between the development of scientific understanding on the structure and functioning of the Great Lakes ecosystem and the information needs of society through the coordination and sponsorship of workshops, seminars and conferences.
- Facilitate an interest in and understanding of the Great Lakes ecosystem by means of developing and participating in public education and outreach programs for interested stakeholders in our region, especially the citizens of Western New York.
Facilities
In addition to its offices in 202 Jarvis Hall, and the NYSG offices in 229 and 229 Jarvis Hall, the Great Lakes Program maintains a small library and supplies PCs for graduate students and other researchers working on Great Lakes problems. The Program is also establishing connections with the University’s Center for Computational Research, to provide for high-speed computational abilities for Great Lakes applications. Previously, the Program set up a computer laboratory for Great Lakes environmental data analysis and modeling in 1022 Furnas Hall, but because of SEAS needs for that space, this facility was moved into Trailer D, near Jarvis Hall. With funds from both the University and externally-funded sponsored programs, the Program built a laboratory with five SUN workstations, a SUN server, three PC's, and an array of peripherals. Although the SUNs are generally no longer in use, PC capability has been expanded. In addition to access to SEAS and CIT supported software through UB's network, the PC's in this lab also contain a variety of compilers, graphics, wordprocessor, and GIS software. These facilities are available to any faculty affiliate working on a Great Lakes problem.
Mission and Vision
Under Dr. DePinto's direction, the mission statement of the program was developed to reflect its evolution toward science and technically oriented research. The mission was modified recently to incorporate the idea that the Program is designed to facilitate and coordinate various activities, as much as to carry out those activities itself. The present statement reads as follows:
The mission of the Great Lakes Program is to coordinate the development, evaluation, and synthesis of scientific and technical knowledge on the Great Lakes Ecosystem in support of public education and policy formation.
In carrying out this mission, the Great Lakes Program attempts to involve UB faculty from a wide range of fields in multi-disciplinary research, education, service and outreach on the Great Lakes. Among the fields the Great Lakes Program has involved in its activities are: engineering, health sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, social sciences, planning, and law. These fields are reflected in the makeup of the Faculty Affiliates.
The mission of the Great Lakes Program is complementary to and supportive of the mission of the University. The University at Buffalo seeks to be a nationally recognized comprehensive research institution that, among other goals, "will support organized science and technology research in key areas deemed intellectually important, key to our own development because of their empowering characteristics, and with the promise of long-term economic benefit to the region and nation." Included among the science and technology research areas which meet these criteria is "environment." Also, as a major public university, UB insists on using its intellectual resources to provide a range of services to its local and regional communities. There is no more important natural resource for the social and economic well-being of the people of western New York and southern Ontario than the Great Lakes. As such, UB would be remiss by not maintaining a leadership role in research, education, and service related to the health and integrity of the Great Lakes ecosystem.
The Great Lakes Program assists the University in its stewardship of the Great Lakes by serving as a facilitator and "broker" for research, education and service/outreach activities of UB on issues related to the Great Lakes ecosystem. To accomplish this role, the program has joined forces with faculty from the University at Buffalo and other United States and Canada universities throughout the Great Lakes basin. Not only is faculty cooperation international, it is interdisciplinary as well, as previously noted.
Vision for the
Great Lakes Program
The long-term vision for the Great Lakes Program does not involve a major deviation in the program areas or type of programs that make up our ongoing activities. We envision a continuation of our focus on large, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research and synthesis projects and on enhancement of the education and service portions of our mission. The vision statement for the Great Lakes Program can therefore be summarized as follows:
The vision of the Great Lakes Program is to become one of the top three Great Lakes research and education academic centers in the basin. We desire to be perceived as a primary source of knowledge necessary to support the ecosystem approach and sustainable development concepts for stewardship of the Great Lakes.
In order to achieve this vision, the Great Lakes Program must first become recognized as a strong and identifiable research and education unit by the entire University community. It must enhance the interest of more faculty from a wide range of disciplines to direct their expertise to multi-disciplinary Great Lakes activities. At the same time, the Program must work to continue to enhance its identity throughout the basin as an important contributor to and synthesizer of Great Lakes knowledge.
Goals to Achieve Our Vision
In order to move toward the above long term vision, the Great Lakes Program has established, through consultation with it faculty affiliates and University administrators and through advice received from its external Advisory Board, some short term goals/objectives. These short term (two to three years) goals include:
- Work to modify the culture within the University so as to encourage and adequately reward multi-disciplinary environmental research, education and service, particularly that which is focused on Great Lakes issues.
- Increase the involvement of faculty from the natural sciences and from economics/ management in Great Lakes research.
- Focus research development efforts on aquatic ecosystem modeling in the Great Lakes. Managing water resources at the watershed scale and using what is called the ecosystem approach is a major national trend for which the Great Lakes community is a leader. It involves the reasoned integration of physical, chemical, and biological (including man) components in attempting to understand and manage aquatic ecosystem integrity (as measured by multiple end-point indicators) in the face of its exposure to multiple stressors acting in concert.
- Continue to develop collaborative research and education/outreach programs with other academic institutions, federal, state, and local government organizations, and private sector companies that have an interest in Great Lakes issues.
- Work to attain an average annual sponsored programs budget of $500,000 for externally sponsored programs directed or facilitated by the Great Lakes Program. This amount of annual sponsored programs is estimated to justify the University resources necessary to support important Great Lakes Program activities for which external funding is unavailable.
Plans for the Future
Just as toxic chemicals were the focus of Great Lakes research and management in the 1980s and exotic species and habitat destruction caused many environmental changes in the 1990s, there will be new environmental challenges in this century. We believe our past efforts have put us in a position to be able to face new environmental challenges while continuing to deal with problems that will not fade away with the changing of the century. Toxic contaminants in general and contaminated sediments in particular will continue to be a focus area, as they continue to impact the environmental health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Other issues such as avian botulism and toxic algae blooms will continue to gain importance. Taking an ecosystem perspective in research, education and service will be the hallmark of our work. In this way, the Great Lakes Program is poised to face the next century as an important member of the Great Lakes research, education and outreach community.
Program Activities
Research
Consistent with our vision and goals for the Great Lakes Program, research development plans in general focus on aquatic ecosystem modeling in the Great Lakes. We will continue to work with UB and Great Lakes researchers at other institutions throughout the basin to obtain funding for the development and application of mathematical models for support of understanding, management and policy decisions in the Great Lakes. An important example of this type of research is in connection with the on-going water level regulation study conducted by the International Joint Commission. The Program is heavily involved in that effort, and in particular is helping to develop a general ecosystem model for Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River wetlands, to evaluate the environmental impacts of water level regulation. A further project that is just starting in 2003 involves applying a hydrodynamic transport model to forecast the movement of algae blooms in the lower Great Lakes (Lakes Erie and Ontario). This project builds on current research to couple hydrodynamic and water quality models for the Great Lakes.
We expect continued funding for modeling research in cooperation with data collection on the fate and transport of toxic chemicals in large lakes, on the analysis of remediation strategies for contaminated sediments in tributaries and harbors of the Great Lakes, on understanding and managing aquatic systems subject to complex ecosystem interactions, and on incorporation of GIS in systems to analyze and interpret aquatic ecosystem data in the Great Lakes. A list of specific current research projects associated with the Program can be found on the research page of this site.
The single largest Great Lakes research initiative currently involving UB and the Great Lakes Program is to develop a Great Lakes Research Institute, and further information can also be found on the above mentioned research page of this site.
Education, Outreach and Service
The Great Lakes Program is dedicated to building university partnerships that will serve the university, the community and the environment. To that end, we are currently working with the Environment and Society Institute (ESI) to develop a cooperative arrangement that would provide assistance with their outreach and education needs as well as meeting similar goals for the Great Lakes Program. We propose to assist the ESI with development of a brochure, an educational exhibit/display board, assist with some joint programming, and other projects. These steps would help to inform the community about the role of ESI, at the same time we are carrying out Great Lakes Program outreach efforts.
Our future efforts are not restricted to the UB community, but also reflect the needs and interests of the Great Lakes community. Future efforts will find us working on projects with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NYGL Research Consortium, Sea Grant, USEPA, and other agencies that share our commitment to the Great Lakes. Programs such as the Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs), Remedial Action Plans (RAPs), water quality programs, and aquatic exotic species will be areas of involvement. We have developed a strong foundation in these areas and continue to work on cutting-edge programs that deal with these environmental issues. Many statewide and basin-wide agencies consider the Great Lakes Program an important partner and we will continue to work with these groups as collaborators.
202
Jarvis Hall . Buffalo. New York . 14260-4400
(716) 645-2088
(716) 645-3667 FAX
