The Blue Communities Initiative: Empowering communities to instill the value of water at the heart of all they do

Abstract

Freshwater plays a vital role in our day to day lives. It provides us with sustenance, acts as a key driver of our economy, and supports the natural resources that often provide us with a sense of place. However, climate change, urban sprawl and a host of related problems threaten to degrade this vital resource. As a result, the Blue Communities Initiative is a framework for collaborative watershed management that aims to promote long-term water stewardship in community decision-making across the Great Lakes, beginning with a pilot in the Grand Traverse Bay region of northwestern Michigan’s lower peninsula. Throughout our project, we identified a set of best practices for sustainable water management relating to water resources management, water-sensitive infrastructure, and collaboration. Through literature reviews, we established a set of principles for water resource management that can be integrated into a Blue Community’s decision-making processes, such as the Public Trust doctrine, water values, measurement, and governance. Geospatial analysis and case studies enabled us to evaluate the growing threats of urban sprawl and climate change within the Grand Traverse Bay region and to identify potential green infrastructure solutions to mitigate the impacts. Stakeholder discussions, surveys, and interviews gave us insight into local freshwater issues and collaborative processes. Overall, we were able to identify gaps in current water management and community decision-making processes in order to inform the initial development and next steps of the Blue Communities Initiative. However, the success of a Blue Community ultimately depends on local stakeholders and their concern for water resources, support for collaborative initiatives, continual dialogue and cooperation, and ability to unite behind common water stewardship goals and measures.