Groundwater and the Great Lakes: A Coordinated Binational Basin-Wide Assessment in Support of Annex 2001 Decision Making
The project team developed a 3-D tool to illustrate surface and groundwater systems in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. With groundwater modeling complete and preliminary 2-D and 3-D illustrations developed, the team’s visualization tools effectively illustrate the linkage between the ground and surface waters of the Great Lakes basin. The team also created basin-wide maps of long-term, indirect groundwater discharge into the Great Lakes as well as methods to compute ongoing discharge estimates. This allowed the team to predict impacts of water withdrawals on Lake Michigan hydrology. The project team launched a successful website to disseminate products. This work raised awareness of Great Lakes groundwater in visually compelling ways that can be easily understood at many levels.