Smart Great Lakes Initiative wants your feedback

Smart technologies have great potential to improve our understanding, management, and use of the Great Lakes.

That's the thinking behind the Smart Great Lakes Initiative (SGLi), which wants your input on the recently released Common Strategy for Smart Great Lakes.

The public are invited to read the proposed Common Strategy and give feedback by September 24.

DataStream participates in the SGLi, a collaborative consortium that is organizing the region’s technology ecosystem and network of partners around common policy goals.

The release of the fourth DataStream hub in the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence region this fall represents an exciting step towards realizing the goals of the proposed Common Strategy, particularly those focused on Data and Information (see below).

DataStream’s online, open access platform allows water quality datasets to be viewed and downloaded in a standardized format, supporting data interoperability and reuse. Data contributors, from the smallest community groups to the federal government, can easily share their data on DataStream where it can be explored with map-based search and data visualization tools. Bringing this data together in one place means it can be used to advance science and inform policy for improved water stewardship.

DataStream's work supporting the FAIR and CARE data principles and helping community science groups amplify the impact of their monitoring efforts also aligns with the proposed Common Strategy’s welcome focus on Environmental Justice.

Find the full list of goals from the Common Strategy for Smart Great Lakes below and have your say by September 24.

Read more about DataStream’s work with Water Rangers to accelerate data sharing in the Great Lakes.

Common Strategy for Smart Great Lakes Goals

Environmental Justice in Smart Great Lakes

To support environmental justice, the SGLi goals will:

• Support community science initiatives

• Improve discoverability of Great Lakes data with different delivery formats and education curricula

• Ensure data collection and management follows FAIR, CARE, and OCAP Principles

• Secure data sovereignty for under-represented communities and include privacy-protecting databases and differential access to sensitive information

• Make decision support tools available to rights holders and stakeholders without reliable internet or smartphone access.

Smart Great Lakes Goals

Science, Innovation, and Technology

Goal 1: Develop novel and interdisciplinary research

Goal 2: Support science, innovation, and technology that improve our ability to identify, assess and respond to stressors and change

Goal 3: Build resilient, adaptable observing systems in support of a swimmable, drinkable, fishable, and equitable future

Data and Information

Goal 4: Improve discoverability of Great Lakes data by increasing findability and accessibility

Goal 5: Foster data compatibility by developing a framework supporting interoperability and reusability

Goal 6: Empower data providers to share and access new data by facilitating reuse and access

Policy and Management

Goal 7: Ensure Smart Great Lakes provides opportunities and resources for the Indigenous Tribes, First Nations, and Métis within the Great Lakes basin through respectful engagement

Goal 8: Strengthen Great Lakes-related policies

Goal 9: Invest in Smart Great Lakes

Goal 10: Accelerate SGLi communication, outreach, education, and engagement