Planning Proposal for the Lake Erie Center

该奖项为托莱多大学伊利湖中心（LEC）的战略规划工作提供支持。 该中心是一个跨学科的研究和教育机构，致力于解决世界上最大的淡水生态系统-五大湖-的陆地-水界面和海湾-湖泊交换的环境问题。它位于伊利湖西部的海岸，提供了湖泊通道，并靠近农业和湿地栖息地，是通往上五大湖和下五大湖的门户。LEC的研究重点是土地利用，水生资源和生态系统功能和服务之间的联系，使用Maumee河/海湾流域和西部伊利湖盆地陆地-湖泊连续体作为劳伦特五大湖生态系统的模型。LEC汇集了水生物保护，生物修复和恢复，海岸带过程，环境化学和水文学，生态学和生态系统管理，渔业遗传学，地理和土地利用规划，生物经济学，湖沼学，遥感和环境监测方面的计划和专业知识。LEC正在经历活动和生产力的复兴，并将需要扩大其研究实验室和办公空间，以适应预期的增长。该奖项将支持制定一个5年和10年的总体计划，其中包括协调的环境研究，教育和推广计划，并进行正式的需求评估。 该奖项还为扩建的初步建筑计划的制定提供部分支持。

This award provides support for a strategic planning effort by the The University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center (LEC). The LEC is an interdisciplinary research and education facility dedicated to solving environmental problems at the land-water interface and bay-lake exchanges in the Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater ecosystem. Its location on the shore of western Lake Erie provides lake access and proximity to agricultural and wetland habitats at the gateway to the upper and lower Great Lakes. Research at the LEC focuses on linkages among land use, aquatic resources, and ecosystem function and services using the Maumee River/Bay watershed and western Lake Erie Basin land-lake continuum as a model of Laurentian Great Lakes ecosystems. The LEC assembles programs and expertise in aquatic conservation, bioremediation and restoration, coastal zone processes, environmental chemistry and hydrology, ecology and ecosystem management, fishery genetics, geography and land use planning, bioeconomics, limnology, remote sensing, and environmental monitoring. The LEC is undergoing a renaissance of activity and productivity, and will need to expand its research laboratory and office space to accommodate expected growth. The award will support the development of a master 5 and 10-year plan that encompasses coordinated environmental research, education, and outreach programs, and conduct of a formal needs assessment. The award also provides partial support for development of preliminary architectural plans for expansion.