Michigan Technological University in Houghton is a partner in a new project with Arizona State University that studies water flow and water use.
It's called the
Virtual Water Accounting project, and is planned to take three years to develop a way to track flow and use in a watershed, funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
Part of the project's goal is to give Great Lakes states and provinces ways to understand watersheds and how to manage their water resources, as they are required to do under an international Great Lakes water agreement. The agreement requires Great Lakes governments to determine whether new water withdrawals or consumption have significant impact on the lakes, but there is not much data available with which to make those decisions. The study aims to fix that problem.
Alex Mayer is the principal researcher for the project, and a Michigan Tech professor of civil and environmental engineering.
"This project will allow us to examine relationships between water consumption and corresponding ecological impacts and economic benefits in the Great Lakes, providing an innovative framework for water resources planning, resolving conflicts among water users, and protecting aquatic ecosystems," Mayer says.
Among the specific goals of the project: to develop a new method for modeling how water use drives the economy, alters water flow and changes ecosystem conditions, to explore ways to account for water consumed in producing goods and services, and to test the new method the scientists come up with. All of this will happen while working with an advisory board of policymakers, watershed advocates, and business and financial leaders.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Alex Mayer, Michigan Technological University
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.