Western Lake Erie Restoration Assessment Composite Model

Well-established conservation planning principles and techniques framed by geodesign were used to assess the restorability of areas that historically supported coastal wetlands along the U.S. shore of western Lake Erie. The resulting analysis supported planning efforts to identify, prioritize, and track wetland restoration opportunity and investment in the region. To accomplish this, publicly available data, criteria derived from the regional managers and local stakeholders, and geospatial analysis were used to form an ecological model for spatial prioritization (Western Lake Erie Restoration Assessmente (WLERA)). Within the 192,618 ha study area that was bounded by the mouths of the Detroit River, MI to the north and the Black River, OH to the south, the model identified and prioritized 6,600 hectares of land most suitable for coastal wetland habitat restoration.