New research says that water levels in the Great Lakes may continue to rise over the next 50 years. A new model, presented by Michigan Technological University professor Pengfei Xue last month, has outlined several scenarios–one of which predicts a rise of up to 34 inches in certain areas over the next three decades.
What would that mean? Dr. Alan Stienman is the Director of the Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University.
He says, a rise in water levels like that could result in significant flooding on the lakeshore, which in turn could have a domino effect throughout West Michigan, leading to disrupted ecosystems, dropping tourism, and damaging erosion.
“The hydrology, the hydrography, are really critical issues. We are the water state here in Michigan, and sometimes I think we become complacent. And we need to avoid complacency.”
But, Dr. Stienman adds, the study is just a scenario, a possibility–and while water levels have been reaching all time highs compared to summers between 2010-2019, there’s no guarantee that they will continue to.
“Models are done to see ‘what if.’ If it did happen to that degree, what we would see obviously is a lot of the current infrastructure that we have in these coastal communities would certainly experience flooding–significant flooding.”
Officials say that shifting efforts to combat future high lake levels will be imperative going forward.
