Positioned to Address Climate Change

• The Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition is a coordinated federal/state partnership between the geological surveys of the eight states that border the Great Lakes and the U.S. Geological Survey to produce state of the art, three-dimensional geologic maps of the region. Geologic maps help governments, planners, industry, and communities develop energy initiatives, protect public safety, promote sustainable economic development, and protect water supplies and other natural resources. All these objectives are important as the region continues to further understand, mitigate, and prepare for the uncertain effects of global climate change.
  
  Information gathered and interpreted for the three-dimensional mapping program is directly linked to climate change scenarios. In the face of warmer and drier climates, new knowledge will be acquired by the Coalition on the location and yield capacities of adequate underground water supplies for (1) meeting growing energy needs, (2) protecting sensitive ecosystems, and (3) growth and development.
  
  About 80 percent of water use in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio is for energy production. New ethanol, coal-bed methane, geologic CO₂ sequestration, coal-to-liquids, and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal plants either have been constructed or are included in near-future plans, each of which increase demand for water resources. Maps from the Coalition provide planners with detailed information on appropriate siting of these energy initiatives, where they will not impinge on household, municipal, and agricultural water use. Regarding growth, development, and ecosystem issues, the maps and information provided by the Coalition position our states (as well as others) to adapt to a changing climate. These maps characterize water supplies for (1) sustainable growth, (2) identifying aquifer recharge areas, (3) constructing, maintaining, and sustaining wetlands and other ecosystems, and (4) enabling effective land- and water-use planning by local and state agencies. The Coalition also addresses the issues surrounding declining water levels in the Great Lakes and associated shoreline problems, many of which are related to near-shore geological materials and conditions.
  
  Finally, geologic maps reveal the glacial and postglacial record of climate change during the past 20,000 years, particularly in the last few thousand years. These sediments make up some of the thickest and most widespread and variable glacial materials in the United States. Past climatic changes are revealed well beyond the current 150-year period of human record keeping, and both long-and short-term trends are placed within a better perspective.