Eugene Z. Stakhiv
US Co-Director, IJC LOSLR Study Board
Institute for Water Resources/US Army Corps of Engineers
"Analytical Collaborative Planning - International Joint Commission (US-Canada) Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River (LOSLR) Study"
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Grace Conference Room
Dr. Stakhiv will speak about the recently completed LOSLR study, discussing the planning, evaluation, public involvement and the technological innovations that resulted. There are numerous permutations of watershed/river basin management approaches; mostly dependent on the institutional setting of the basin. There is a significant recent momentum towards grassroots watershed management organizations that, in the absence of a dominant institution, attempt to coordinate programs. Each of these approaches has its merits and transferable lessons that could be added to the "toolkit" of future approaches to integrated water resources management and sustainable development. This study represents a traditional approach to watershed/river basin management, relying on a long functioning institution, the International Joint Commission (IJC), to develop a binding solution to an important subset of continuously evolving or emergent problems of the basin (water diversions and export, system operations, navigation improvements, water quality, and invasive species, among others). Within this context the LOSLR Study was able to develop a "Shared Vision" planning framework that involved an extensive public participation effort.