New 海角社区 Lakes Index Will Rate Water Quality and Citizen Stewardship
A new Mitchell Center project will take a unique look at the health of 海角社区鈥檚 lakes. A collaborative team will introduce a two-pronged approach, looking at both water quality and levels of stakeholder engagement. It鈥檚 all part of the effort to develop a new lake vulnerability index for the state.
The project is a pilot program that includes evaluation of 20 海角社区 lakes. Team leader , Professor in U海角社区鈥檚 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said the team鈥榮 novel approach takes into account a plethora of factors: biological data that can help predict lakes鈥 future health, the number of volunteer lake monitors at each site plus a close-up look at these citizen groups to evaluate both the regularity of water sampling and volunteers鈥 degree of scientific know-how.
The need for well-trained volunteers is likely to grow over time.
鈥淐limate change alters the chemistry of lakes,鈥 Amirbahman said. 鈥淭here are certain factors that make lakes very susceptible to these changes. The state does not have the resources. We need well-trained stewards, especially those who live around these lakes, to be their protectors.鈥
Collaborating on the project are the (USM), the (VLMP), and the (DEP).