Lake Erie Nearshore Waters Assessment with Stressor Categories

Lake Erie, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and Detroit River nearshore waters are assessed for cumulative effects under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The dataset integrates water quality, ecosystem health, and stressor data within a 15-meter coastal depth zone using a three-phased assessment approach. It was published by Environment and Climate Change Canada and was last updated on 2026-07-07.

Use Cases

• Modeling cumulative stress on nearshore ecosystems based on integrated stressor categories.
• Classifying coastal regional units based on physical processes and lake characteristics.
• Assessing human use impacts based on metrics like beach postings and fish consumption.
• Analyzing water and sediment contaminant levels based on water quality and benthic community data.
• Evaluating nuisance algae blooms based on cyanobacteria and cladophora measurements.

Strengths

• Assessment is structured around a defined three-phased methodology.
• Data is presented within a specific 15-meter nearshore depth zone.
• Measures are organized into four concrete categories: Coastal Processes, Contaminants, Algae, and Human Use.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data format is HTML, which may require parsing to extract structured data.

Provenance

Source

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Collection Method

Data used for a cumulative effects assessment in support of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-07 15:01:32.995950; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lake Erie, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and Detroit River nearshore waters.