UNESCO HELP Lake Ontario Basin
UNESCO Hydrology for the Environment, Life & Policy (HELP)
HELP is a joint UNESCO/WMO programme which is designed to establish a global network of catchments to improve the links between hydrology and the needs of society. It is a cross cutting programme of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and will contribute to the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), and the Hydrology and Water Resources Programme of WMO.
The vital importance of water in sustaining human and environmental health has been recognised in numerous national and international fora (e.g. the 1997 UN General Assembly Special Session), policy reviews by the UN (e.g. the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 1994) and non-UN agencies (e.g. the European Commission, 1998). Several recent international conferences culminating in the Second World Water Forum on Water Security in the 21st Century (The Hague, March 2000) have highlighted 'water' as the emerging, most critical environment issue of the 21st Century. The greatest pressure on freshwater resources has been identified as the continued escalation of the global population. Climate variability and potential climate change further exacerbate water scarcity. At the same time, degradation in water quality is causing a critical reduction in the amount of fresh water available for potable, agricultural and industrial use.
However, despite this plethora of high profile activities no international research programme in hydrology has been forthcoming which would address key water resource issues in the field and integrate them with policy and management needs. HELP will change this by creating a new approach to integrated catchment management. The new approach is to use real catchments, with real water related problems as the environment within which hydrological scientists, water resources managers and water law and policy experts can be brought together.
Lake Ontario HELP Summary
The Lake Ontario basin is home to numerous scientific investigations probing components of the basin's hydrological, ecological, and socio-economic systems. The Lake Ontario basin also contains multiple regional, federal, and international management agencies directing, coordinating, and integrating these research efforts to improve the basin's overall health and function. Considering this wealth of scientific and management experience in Lake Ontario in light of the United Nation's goal to facilitate dialogue and learning between a diverse collection of Hydrology for Life, Environment, and Policy (HELP) demonstration and application research basins, the Lake Ontario basin should well serve as a HELP basin. The mission of the Lake Ontario HELP Initative is twofold. First, there are feasibility and coordination efforts, funded by the Great Lakes Research Consortium , to identify completed and ongoing research projects for which the Lake Ontario basin could demonstrate success and failure of management plans that integrate hydrologic, ecologic, and socio-economic objectives. Second, an interdisciplinary team of Lake Ontario researchers is working with UNESCO backing to advance Lake Ontario to a HELP demonstration basin by coordinating new research initiatives and requests for proposals that would advance HELP research objectives.
The Lake Ontario drainage basin is home to nearly 3 million United States (US) citizens and approximately 5.5 million Canadian citizens. It receives the runoff from all four upstream Great Lakes as well as surrounding land areas and empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The drainage basin is situated between 42N and 45N latitude, and -074W and -080W longitude, has a total basin area of 82,990 km2, of which 18,960 km2 is the lake surface, which has a volume of 1,640 km3.
Learn more about the basin with this background document.
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