The Great Lakes region consists of both Canadian and United State’s territory, and residents living in the region make use of what the natural lakes have to offer. 

• The North American Great Lakes cover an area of 244,000km2 and account for 18% of the world’s total freshwater supply, making them the largest freshwater system in the world (Kayastha, Ye & Huang et al., 2022). 

• People rely on the lakes as a source of drinking water, to meet transportation needs, and for recreational activities (Bartolai et al., 2015; Seglenieks and Temgoua, 2022). 

• Aside from human needs, the stability of ecosystems and coastal systems are heavily dependent on the levels of the Great Lakes (Kayastha et al., 2022). 

With all of the resources and beneficial qualities that the Great Lakes have to offer for humans, ecosystems, and environmental processes, it is all the more important to ensure that these attributes are protected for present and future generations.

Lake levels not only impact ecosystems and coastal processes (Kayastha et al., 2022), they have connections with the communities in the Great Lakes region as well. According to Seglenieks and Temgoua (2022), the water levels of the Great Lakes are of great concern to people, businesses, and institutions in and around the Great Lakes region. 

Climate change is creating more disturbances to communities in the Great Lakes region such as more extreme storms, warmer water temperatures, and a reduction in ice cover, all of which making it harder for coastal communities to remain sustainable. 

The Great Lakes, like many other places around the world, act as a resource for humans both socially and economically, and are also home to several aquatic species. Climate change is both a social and ecological issue, and as the wicked problem intensifies, the disturbances brought to surface only become harder for communities to respond to (Bergstrom et al., 2022). If climate change is already causing communities to struggle with making appropriate adaptations in response to climate change, then the struggles will only continue unless societal adjustments are made. 

• Climate change exposure refers to how exposed a community is to climate change impacts

• Vulnerability refers to a community’s susceptibility and sensitivity to climate change impacts (Al-Humaiqani & Al-Ghamdi, 2022). Vulnerability can be further analyzed as individual factors of different disciplines:

  • Geographical location

  • Health (ie. access to healthcare; physical health)

  • Environmental factors (ie. proximity to pollutant sources)

  • Social and economic factors (ie. ethnicity, social class, age, race)

• Five Pillars:

  • A community’s threshold capacity refers to the ability to prevent damage through the implementation of preventative thresholds in the community.

  • Coping capacity is the extent to which a community copes with extreme climatic events and reduces the damage attributable to such events.

  • Recovery capacity surrounds the community’s capability to recover from a climatic event, whether this be back to the community’s original state or even creating an improved state.

  • Adaptive capacity indicates the ability in which the community is able to anticipate and prepare for future climate change impacts that are rather uncertain.

  • Transformative capacity is the community’s capability in strengthening stakeholder capacities, creating a well managed environment, and properly transitioning to a climate resilient society (De Graaf & Ovink, 2020). 

In order to effectively apply the Climate Resilience framework to communities and ecosystems in the Great Lakes region, several components need to be measured.

• Threshold capacity: the methods that communities use in effort to reduce environmental or physical damage as a result of a climate change impact will be measured. 

• Coping capacity: the social response of communities to a climate event such as a storm will be evaluated. Because storms often occur unpredictably, evaluating society’s response to such an event would be a true testament to its ability to cope with disturbances. 

• Recovery capacity: the infrastructure situated along the coastline will be the main focus. The condition of the infrastructure prior to a storm will be compared to the condition of the infrastructure following the occurrence of an extreme storm and after remediation measures have been taken. 

• Adaptive capacity: will be measured through the usage and adaptation of climate change models. What models have been utilized as well as the modifications that have been made in effort to improve the effectiveness of models will be analyzed.

• Transformative capacity: analyze what changes society (the Great Lakes region) is making towards transitioning to a more climate-resilient society. This can pertain to mitigation strategies or changes in regional policies. 

Analyzing all five capacity components together will act as an appropriate measure of the overall climate resilience of the Great Lakes region.