Great Lakes
Regional Data Exchange

Access to accurate and timely data by the public and the scientific, management and policy communities is critical to decisionmaking that affects Great Lakes water resources. However, there is limited emphasis on information standardization across international, state, provincial and county boundaries in the Great Lakes region, and there are few data exchange programs between Great Lakes states, provinces and federal agencies. The Great Lakes Commission, in its role as a binational agency concerned with the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water and related natural resources of the Great Lakes basin, is seeking to coordinate enhancements to the data exchange process among Great Lakes entities. Numerous agencies and individuals throughout the region are involved in this effort, in particular those working with natural resources monitoring and geographic information systems.

Great Lakes Regional Data Exchange Conference

• 2004
  The 2004 Great Lakes Regional Data Exchange Conference will take place October 26-28, 2004, at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center. Tuesday, October 26, will consist of eight training sessions followed by a welcoming reception. Wednesday, October 27, will feature plenary, breakout and brainstorming sessions as well as a luncheon with a keynote speaker, and the Night on Greektown event. The final day, Thursday, October 28, will include the final breakout and plenary sessions, followed by conference conclusions.
• 2003
  Tuesday, July 8, 2003 - Ann Arbor, Michigan
  The Great Lakes Commission hosted a conference focused on the coordination and distribution of GIS data between state, provincial and federal agencies across the Great Lakes Region. There were two primary topic areas for this meeting: online data and distributed mapping tools; and data exchange agreements by lake, state/province and agency.
  Conference Summary | Attendees List

Great Lakes Commission Data Exchange Resolution of April 2003 (PDF)
The eight member states of the Great Lakes Commission adopted this Data Exchange Partnerships and Standardization of Decision Support Tools Resolution at their April 2003 meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Data Exchange (PDF)
An overview of State and Federal Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data exchange agreements. These agreements were used to inform the Commission's resolution and develop the meeting agenda.