Climate change is one of the most challenging issues the world faces today. This project examines how to improve communication about the effect of climate change on municipal water supplies. To do this, the team will study California’s Mono Lake, one of Los Angeles’s main water supplies. They will combine hydrology and geochemistry research with community engagement to help make projections of Mono Lake’s future water levels and translate those results into everyday language for the general public. 

Check out more in the Research Highlights

Coastal ice cover has been changing at a rapid pace throughout the globe.  In the Laurentian Great Lakes, coastal regions have had to adapt management protocols to an increase in ice cover variability over the past 20 years.  Our research on this topic has focused on developing statistical models that forecast seasonal ice cover onset, with the ultimate goal of supporting regional management decisions.

Funded by the NOAA Weather Program Office, this Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) project aims to improve the spatial resolution of  existing North American Lake Bathymetric data to be input into weather forecasting models. These models are used to predict flood events with a 2-3 day lead time based on heavy rainfall events. 

A database of lake temperatures developed through this project can be found here through the Deep Blue Archive

The Laurentian Great Lakes represent the largest system of lakes on Earth, and contain roughly 20% of all the world's fresh surface water.  Our team leads research aimed at understanding short- and long-term changes in Great Lakes water level variability, including pathways through which climate change impacts the major components of the Great Lakes water balance.  This research extends into other Great Lakes regional projects, including model and dataset development for water quantity and quality management.

Data Available on University of Michigan DeepBlue Repository

Data Citation: Do, H. X., J. P. Smith, L. M. Fry, and A. D. Gronewold. 2020. Seventy-year long record of monthly water balance estimates for Earth’s largest lake system. Scientific Data 7(1):276.

Research Paper: Gronewold, A. D., J. P. Smith, L. K. Read, and J. L. Crooks. 2020. Reconciling the water balance of large lake systems. Advances in Water Resources 137:103505.

Supported by the USGS Wesley Powell Center, graduate student researchers are working to estimate groundwater flux and its impact of groundwater on  Great Lakes water cycle processes and circulation patterns.  By combining datasets and hydrologic models, we are also working to better understand the role of groundwater in the recent shift in water availability; water levels were below average from 1998 through 2013 and reached all time highs in 2017 and 2019. 

Read more about this project here 

Ensuring continued access to freshwater is an essential part of managing consumptive use, withdrawals and diversions in the Great Lakes system. This is primarily accomplished through the Great Lakes Compact Agreement, administered by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers' Regional Body and Compact Council. 

A team of graduate student researchers use the latest findings from the Large Lake Statistical Water Balance Model to better understand historical trends in precipitation, evaporation, runoff and inter-lake flow. These findings will be incorporated into the next iteration of Cumulative Impact Assessments in support of informed decision making by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers. 

Aging urban infrastructure is increasingly unfit to handle heavy rains and high water levels. Road flooding interferes with access to health services, work commutes, and disproportionally affects households without multiple transit options. In  partnership with NOAA, South East Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), and members at Fernleaf Climate Resilience and Support, we are working to integrate equity into SEMCOG's transportation planning.  Using SEMCOG's data on  mapped flood risk and major transit/commute routes for households in the SE Michigan region, we perform a spatial analysis of households characteristics along high risk roads and busy commuter routes to understand patterns within and among demographic groups (e.g. public transit-dependent households, elderly households) that could point to inequitable levels of risk. 

The Great Lakes Investment Platform serves as a searchable database for projects and ventures that provide economic investment  with a focus on  environmental sustainability. Launched in 2022 by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, these projects revolve around economic revitalization, improving water quality, water conservation, water related socio- economic impacts, and energy efficiency. 

Read more about SEAS role in the project here

Building on our extensive research on the Laurentian Great Lakes, our group has launched a collaboration with the Malawi Department of Fisheries to understand drivers of water level change on Malawi's largest lakes.  Our approach is based on customizing a statistical water balance model with new and legacy datasets in East Africa to understand and forecast seasonal water level dynamics.

The Niagara River transports a continental-scale flow of over 6,000 cubic meters per second (on an annual average basis) and links the two most downstream lakes of the Laurentian Great lakes (Lakes Erie and Ontario).  Our work on this project has focused on employing legacy and novel remote sensing bathymetry data to extend the domain of an existing model to improve water management planning capabilities for this region, which includes two prominent hydropower facilities located along Niagara Falls.

Working with planners at the Macomb County Department of Planning & Economic Development, our group created a conceptual floodplain model, using HEC-RAS, for the North Branch of the Clinton River in southeast Michigan. This model provided a summary of potential future floodplain scenarios in this rapidly developing Michigan county. Our work on this project was used to help inform community decision makers of potential future flooding in Macomb County as they continue to plan for future flooding hazards amid land use changes and rapid urbanization.