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Recent trends in demography and land use, such as population shifts from urban to rural areas, conversion of forest land to agricultural or urban use, and increased development have emerged as key issues affecting natural resource management in the Lake States.

The need for data and tools for sound government decision-making has become critical. At the scale of the Lake Superior Basin, common geographic data sets to meet even the most basic information needs for sound planning are not available. Among the missing fundamental data layers are: comprehensive coverage of land use and land cover, transportation infrastructure, hydrography, demography, and the bathymetry and shorelines of Lake Superior.

Government often embarks on land use planning efforts with few tools at its disposal. Although computer simulation models, draft ordinances, and decision support tools are receiving wider use in planning, these tools are often out of reach of local governments, which lack the equipment and expertise required for their use.

Moreover, in natural resource management, the public is frequently faced with information biased in favor of the perspectives of one or another advocacy group. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for data gathered for general purposes, to allow the public to develop informed opinions on current issues.

The purpose of the Lake Superior Decision Support Project is to improve access to data and to improve its interpretation with respect to land use planning in the Lake Superior Basin.

The project has three objectives, to develop:

• Common, comprehensive databases in the Lake Superior Basin (defined as the US and Canadian portions of the Lake Superior watershed, plus a 50 kilometer buffer) and to make these data available through the Internet and other data distribution formats.

• A decision support CD-ROM, to assist local units of government in land use planning activities. The CD-ROM will contain detailed spatial data for specific regions of the basin, data manipulation and visualization software tools, and other resources, such as prototype planning documents and flowcharts to guide users through the planning process.

• Touch screen-based information kiosks deployed in visitor centers, museums and other public locations around the Lake Superior Basin.

The project is funded by the USEPA Region 5 Coastal Environmental Management Grant Program through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

For more information:

Dr. George E. Host

Natural Resources Research Institute

University of Minnesota - Duluth

Duluth, MN 55811

(218) 720-4264, fax (218) 720-4328

Email: ghost@sage.nrri.umn.edu

Web site: http://www.nrri.umn.edu/lsgis