Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessing transformation and sustainability in the Great Lakes Basin

  • Published:
GeoJournal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Great Lakes Basin is a large, complex, diverse system of highly connected social, biological, and physical components. Its long history has culminated today in a variety of environmental, economic, and social problems and efforts to solve them. The idea of sustainability — meeting societal needs and desires without impairing the ability to meet them in the future — is gaining widespread acceptance as an appropriate goal for management of such systems. This paper shows that nonequilibrium systems theories dealing with chaotic and self-organizing behavior can provide some insight into the dynamics of complex sociobiophysical systems such as the Great Lakes Basin, and their prospects for sustainability.

A methodology for describing and analyzing sociobiophysical systems is outlined, and used to focus on change, critical variables and transformations in the history of the Great Lakes Basin. Nonequilibrium systems theories are used to develop links between system characteristics and sustainability, ecosystem redevelopment, impact assessment and monitoring, and management of Great Lakes resources. An indicative framework for monitoring change, restructuring, and transformation by assessing the nature of change, evaluating system responsiveness, and monitoring the Basin sociobiophysical system, is presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aberley, Douglas, C.: Bioregionalism: A Territorial Approach to Governance and Development in Northwestern British Columbia. Unpubl. M.A. thesis, School of Community and Regional Planning, Univ. of BC, Vancouver 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Academy for Contemporary Problems: Stimulating the Economy of the Great Lakes States. Committee for Great Lakes Economic Action, Columbus, Ohio 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, P. M.: Evolution, modelling, and design in a complex world. Environment and Planning B, 9, 95–111 (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, P. M.; Sanglier, M.; Engelen, M.; Boon, F.: Towards a new synthesis in the modelling of evolving complex systems. Environment and Planning B, 12: 65–84 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, T. F. H.; Starr, Thomas B.: Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashworth, William: The Late, Great Lakes. Collins, Toronto 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandurski, Bruce Lord: Ecology and economics — partners for productivity. Annals Amer. Acad. Polit. and Soc. Sci., 405, 75–94 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandurski, B. L. Biodancing: the 1-2-3 of Great Lakes Monitoring. In: L. K. Caldwell, (ed.), Perspectives on Ecosystem Management for the Great Lakes: A Reader. pp. 191–241, SUNY Press, Albany, NY. 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beanlands, Gordon E.; Duinker, Peter N.: An Ecological Framework for Environmental Impact Assessment in Canada. Inst. for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie and FEARO, Ottawa 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, Morris: The cybernetic dream of the twenty-first century. J. Humanistic Psychol. 26, 2, 24–51 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertalanffy, Ludwig von: General Systems Theory, Rev'd ed. Georges Braziller, New York 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogue, Donald J.; Beale, Calvin L.: Economic Areas of the United States. Free Press, New York 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borchert, John R.: America's Northern Heartland: An Economic and Historical Geography of the Upper Midwest. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyden, S.; Millar, S.; Newcombe, K.; O'Neill, B.: The Ecology of a City and its People: The Case of Hong Kong. ANU Press, Canberra 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, Tom R.; Baumgartner, T.; Deville, P.: Man, Decisions, Society: The Theory of Actor-System Dynamics for Social Scientists. Gordon and Breach, New York 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland, Peter: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Wiley, New York 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobb, Charles E.; Jr.: The Great Lakes' troubled waters. National Geographic 172, 1, 2–31 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Crutchfield, J. P.; Farmer, J. D.; Packard, N. H.; Shaw, R. S.: Chaos, Scient. Amer. 255, 6, 46–57 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Paul: The Cosmic Blueprint. Heinemann, London 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Bono, Edward: The Mechanism of Mind. Jonathan Cape, London 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • di Castri, Francesco; Hadley, Malcolm: Enhancing the credibility of ecology: interacting along and across hierarchical scales. GeoJournal 17, 1, 5–35 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donahue, M. J.: Institutional Arrangements for Great Lakes Management: Past Practices Future Alternatives. Unpubl. Ph. D. thesis, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorney, R. S.; McLellan, P. W.: The urban exosystem: its spatial substructure, its scale relationships, and its subsystem attributes. Environments 16, 1, 9–20 (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworsky, Leonard B.: The Great Lakes: 1955–1985. In: L. K. Caldwell, (ed.), Perspectives on Ecosystem Management for the Great Lakes: A Reader. pp. 59–113. SUNY Press, Albany 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eigen, M.; Schuster, P.: The hypercycle: a principle of natural self-organization. Parts I–III. Naturwiss. 64, 541–65; 65, 7–41, 341–69 (1977/78)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Environment Canada, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Brock University, and Northwestern University: The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book. U.S. EPA and Environment Canada, Chicago and Toronto 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flader, Susan L. (ed.): The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History. University of Minnessota Press, Minneapolis and Forest History Society, Santa Cruz 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, George R.: On looking towards the future around the Great Lakes. Canadian Water Resources Journal 2, 1, 18–32 (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, G. R.: Great Lakes governance and the ecosystem approach: where next? Alternatives 13, 3, 161–70 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, G. R.: Institutions and ecosystem redevelopment in Great Lakes America with reference to Baltic Europe. Ambio 17, 2, 106–11 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, G. R.; Grima, A. P. Lino; Regier, Henry A.; Talhelm, Daniel R.: A Prospectus for the Management of the Great Lakes Ecosystem. GLFC Tech. Rept. No. 43, Ann Arbor March 1985.

  • Francis, G. R.; Magnuson, John J.; Regier, Henry A.; Talhelm, Daniel r.: Rehabilitating Great Lakes Ecosystems. GLFC Tech. Rept. No. 37, Ann Arbor Dec. 1979.

  • Fritzell, Peter A.: Changing conceptions of the Great Lakes forest: Jacques Cartier to Sigurd Olson. In: Flader, Susan L., (ed.), The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History, pp. 274–94. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and Forest History Society, Santa Cruz 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, Julia E.: Decision-making for sustainable development: Potential in selected approaches to environmental assessment and management. In: J. E. Gardner, W. E. Rees, and P. B. Boothroyd, The Role of Environmental Assessment in Promoting Sustainable Development: Three Views, pp. 1–19. School of Community and Regional Planning, Univ. of BC, DP # 13, Vancouver June 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleick, James: Chaos: Making a New Science. Viking, New York 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, Michael A.: Flexibility and adaptation: some cues for social systems. Geoforum 16, 2, 179–90 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodland, Robert; Ledec, George: Neoclassical economics and principles of sustainable development. Ecol. Modelling 38, 19–46 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Stephen Jay: On replacing the idea of progress with an operational notion of directionality. In: M. H. Nitecki, (ed.), Evolutionary Progress, pp. 319–38. University of Chicago Press 1988.

  • Great Lakes United, Water Quality Task Force: Unfulfilled Promises: A Citizen's Review of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. GLU, Buffalo Feb. 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grima, A. P.: Coping with fluctuating Great Lakes water levels: issues and options. Alternatives 13, 3, 36–41 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Grzybowski, Alex G. S.: South Moresby in Transition. Unpubl. M. A. thesis, Dept. of Geography, Univ. of Waterloo 1986.

  • Grzybowski, A. G. S.; Slocombe, D. Scott: Self-organization theories and environmental management: the case of South Moresby. Environmental Management 12, 4, 463–78 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haken, H.: Synergetics: An Introduction. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Hallet J.; Talhelm, Daniel R.; Magnuson, John J.; Forbes, Anne M.: Green Bay in the Future — A Rehabilitative Prospectus. GLFC Tech. Rept. No. 38 1982.

  • Harris, R. Cole (ed.): Historical Atlas of Canada, Vol. 1, From the Beginning to 1800. Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatcher, Harlan: The Great Lakes. Oxford University Press, London 1944.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, Richard Child; Negrey, Cynthia: Deindustrialization in the Great Lakes. Urban Affairs Q. 22, 4, 580–97 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, Robert B.; MacInnis, Bertram C.: Report on a Framework for Analysing Environment/Economy Linkages in the Great Lakes Basin, for IRPP, Ottawa. WATSERF, Waterloo Nov. 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holling, C. S. (ed.): Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. Wiley, Chichester 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, John: Industrial restructing in a period of change: an analysis of the Canadian automobile industry, 1973–1983. Antipode 20, 1, 19–51 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hull, David: Progress in ideas of progress. In: Matthew H. Nitecki, (ed.), Evolutionary Progress, pp. 27–48. University of Chicago Press, 1988.

  • IJC, Research Advisory Board: The Ecosystem Approach: Scope and Implications of an Ecosystem Approach to Transboundary Problems in the Great Lakes Basin. Windsor July 1978.

  • Jensen, R. V.: Classical chaos. Amer. Scient. 75, 2, 168–81 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, Donald: The emergence of the industrial heartland c. 1750–1950 In: L. D. McCann, ed. Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada. pp. 71–107. Prentice-Hall Canada, Scarborough 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korten, David C.: The management of social transformation. Publ. Admin. Rev. 41, 609–18 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  • Krawetz, Natalia M.; MacDonald, William R.; Nichols, Peter: A Framework for Effective Monitoring. Canadian Environmental Assessment Research Council, Ottawa 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreutzwiser, Reid D.: Managing the Great Lakes shoreline hazard. J. Soil and Water Cons. 42, 3, 150–4 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Laszlo, Ervin: Evolution: The Grand Synthesis. New Science Library, Boston (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Laurent, Jerome K.: Trade, transport and technology: the American Great Lakes, 1866–1910. J. Transport Hist. 4, 1, 1–24 (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Brenda J.: An ecological comparison of the McHarg method with other planning initiatives in the Great Lakes Basin. Landscape Planning 9, 147–69 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leman, Alexander B.; Leman, Ingrid A.; (ed.): Great Lakes Megalopolis: From Civilization to Ecumenization. Ministry of State for Urban Affairs, Ottawa 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, Sally: Environmental constituency building: local initiatives and volunteer stewardship. Alternatives 13, 3, 55–60 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • LesStrang, Jacques: The Great Lakes/St. Lawrence System. Harbour House Publishing, Maple City, MI 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liverman, Diana M.; Hanson, Mark E.; Brown, Becky J.; Meredith, Robert W., Jr.: Global sustainability: toward measurement. Environmental Management 12, 2, 133–43 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, Robert J.: Public concerns and PLUARG: selected findings and discussion. J. Great Lakes Research 6, 3, 210–22 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, Ronald J.: Great Lakes Archaelogy. Academic Press, New York 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H. R.; Varela, F. J.: The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Shambhala, Boston 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, Harold M.: Industrial and urban prospects for the Great Lakes region. In: Donald R. Deskins, Jr., (ed.), Impacts of Urbanization and Industrialization on the Landscape, pp. 232–67. Univ. of Michigan Geogr. Publ. No. 25, Ann Arbor 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meisner, J. Donald; Goodier, John L.; Regier, Henry A.; Shuter, Brian J.; Christie, W. Jack: An assessment of the effects of climate warming on Great Lakes Basin fishes. J. Great Lakes Research 13, 3, 340–52 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Modelling Task Force, Science Advisory Board, IJC.: Great Lakes models — uses, abuses, and future. J. Great Lakes Research 13, 3, 387–96 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, Roderick: Review of Flader and Engel. Amer. Hist. Rev. 89, 2, 535–6 1984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, J. G.; Grigoriew, P.; Smith, P. G. R.; Theberge, J. B.: The ABC Resource survey methodology, the ESA concept and comprehensive land use planning and management. In: Michael R. Moss, ed. Landscape Ecology and Management, pp. 143–75. Polyscience, Montreal 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, J. G.; O'Neil, P., (eds.): The Grand as a Canadian Heritage Heritage Resources Centre Occ. Paper 9, Waterloo Jan. 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicolis, G.; Prigogine, I.: Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems. Wiley, New York 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Neill, R. V.; DeAngelis, D. L.; Waide, J. B.; Allen, T. F. H.: A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. Princeton University Press 1986.

  • Peirce, Neal R.; Keefe, John: The Great Lakes States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Five Great Lakes States. W. W. Norton, New York 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, E. B.; Chan, Y.-H.; Peterson, N. M.; Constable, G. A.; Caton, R. B.; Davis, C. S.; Wallace, R. R.; Yarranton, G. A.: Cumulative Effects Assessment in Canada: An Agenda for Action and Research. CEARC, Ottawa 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philips, D. W.; Veinot, E.: A statistical analysis of Great Lakes conferences from 1959 to 1975. J. Great Lakes Research 3, 3/4, 169–76 (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pincus, Howard J. (ed.): Great Lakes Basin. AAAS Publ. No. 71, Washington 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, I.; Stengers, I.: Order out of Chaos. Bantam, New York 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quimby, George Irving: Indian Culture and European Trade Goods. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rastonis, Stasys V.; Mali, James W.; Allen, Herbert E.: Conceptual framwork for coordinated Great Lakes monitoring. J. Great Lakes Research 4, 2, 117–26 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • Regier, H. A.: Towards better understanding of management. J. Great Lakes Research 9, 1, 1 (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  • Regier, H. A.; Baskerville, G. A.: Sustainable redevelopment of regional ecosystems degraded by exploitive development. In: Clark, W. C.; R. E. Munn, (eds.). Sustainable Development of the Biosphere, pp. 75–101. Cambridge University Press 1986.

  • Regier, H. A.; Francis, G. R.: Reform sustainable development of the North American Great Lakes. In: Nelson, J. G.; Knight, D. (eds.), Research, Resources, and the Environment in Third World Development, pp. 137–46. Univ. of Waterloo Dept. of Geography Publ. Ser. No. 27 1987.

  • Regier, H. A.; Grima, A. P. Lino: The nature of Great Lakes ecosystems as related to the management of transboundary pollution. International Business Lawyer 261–9 (June 1984)

  • Rifkin, Jeremy (with Howard, Ted): Entropy: A New World View. Viking, New York 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, John; Francis, G. R.; Legge, R.; Lerner, S.: Defining a Sustainable Society: Vales, Principles and Definitions. Univ. of Waterloo, Sustainable Society Project, Wrkg. Paper # 1 June 1989.

  • Sale, Kirkpatrick: Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. Sierra Books, San Francisco 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg, L. Anders; Bradbury, John H.: Industrial restructuring in the Canadian steel industry. Antipode 20, 2, 102–21 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saulesleja, Andrej: Great lakes Climatological Atlas. Supply and Services Canada, Ottawa 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schon, Donald A.: The Reflective Practitioner. Basic Books, New York 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serafin, Rafal; Balser, D.; Slocombe, D. S.; Woodley, S.: Ecological Integrity and Management of Canada's National Parks: A Review Essay and Bibliography. Report to CPS, Natural Resources Branch. Heritage Resources Center, Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo March 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serafin, Rafal; Zaleski, Jerzy: Baltic Europe, Great Lakes America and ecosystem redevelopment. Ambio 17, 2, 99–105 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Serwer, Andrew Evan: Banking boom in the hearland (Yes, including Cleveland). Fortune, July 18, pp. 21, 24 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Gordon C.: Changes in Great Lakes shipping since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959. Logistics and Transp. Rev. 14, 3, 309–39 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, R.: Strange attractors, chaotic behavior, and information flow. Z. Naturforsch. 7D, 3–15 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shear, Harvey: Lake Superior in the 21st century. J. Great Lakes Research 4, 3/4, 550–3 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • Slocombe, D. Scott: A Self-Organizational Model of Community Evolution. Unpubl. M.Sc. thesis, School of Community and Regional Planning, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slocombe, D. S.: Holism and Uncertainty in Environmental Planning: From the Great Lakes to the Kluane/Wrangells. Ph.D. thesis, School of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Waterloo 1990.

  • Slocombe, D. S.: Change, Transformation and Sustainability in the Great Lakes Basin. Report to Donner Canadian Fdtn. Great Lakes Project, Waterloo 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steedman, R. J.; Regier, H. A.: Ecosystem science for the Great Lakes, J. Great Lakes Research 10, 2, 99–105 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sweet, William: Great Lakes States: trouble in America's industrial heartland. In: Gimlin, Hoyt, (ed.), American Regionalism: Our Economic, Cultural and Political Makeup, pp. 69–88. Editorial Research Reports, Congressional Quarterly Inc., Washington 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swift, Jamie: Cut and Run: The Assault on Canada's Forests. Between the Lines, Toronto 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thurow, Charles; Daniel, Glenda; Brown, Timothy H.: Impact of the Great Lakes on the Region's Economy. Center for the Great lakes, Chicago August 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmerman, P.: Mythology and surprise in the sustainable development of the biosphere. In: Clark, W. C.; Munn, R. E., (eds.), Sustainable Development of the Biosphere, pp. 435–53. Cambridge Univ. Press 1986.

  • Vallentyne, John R.; Beeton, Alfred M.: The ‘Ecosystem’ approach to managing human uses and abuses of natural resources in the Great Lakes Basin. Environmental Conservation 15, 1, 58–62 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wall, Gregory, J.; Logan, Terry J.; Ballantine, Jennifer L.: Pollution control in the Great Lakes Basin: an international effect. J. Soil and Water Cons. Soc. 44, 1, 12–19 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters, Carl: Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. Macmillan, New York 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, Clyde; Richards, Peter: Planning Canada's role in the new global economy. J. Amer. Plng. Assoc. 51, 1, 43–52 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Weller, P.: Freshwater Seas: An Environmental History of the Great Lakes. Between the Lines Press, Toronto, manuscript, in press.

  • Whillans, T. H.: Historic transformations of fish communities in three Great Lakes bays. J. Great Lakes Research 5, 2, 195–215 (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  • Whillans, T. H.; Berkes, Fikret: Use and abuse, conflict and harmony: the Great Lakes fishery in transition. Alternatives 13, 3, 10–18 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, H. E., Jr.: The environment of early man in the Great Lakes region. In: Johnson, Elden, (ed.), Upper Great lakes Anthropology, pp. 8–14. Minnesota Prehistoric Archaelogy Ser. No. 11, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeates, Maurice: The industrial heartland in transition: its changing role and internal structure. In: McCann, L. D., (ed.), Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada. pp. 109–47. Prentice-Hall Canada, Scarborough 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeleny, Milan (ed.): Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organization. North Holland, New York 1981.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ONtario, Canada

    Slocombe D. Scott Dr.

Authors
  1. Slocombe D. Scott Dr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Slocombe, D.S. Assessing transformation and sustainability in the Great Lakes Basin. GeoJournal 21, 251–272 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02428510

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02428510

Keywords

Search

Navigation