TOP

Resilient Communities, Economies and Tourism | Ohio Sea Grant

[ ☰ ] Ohio State University

The Ohio State University

Ohio Sea Grant

/research/issues/resilient

Resilient Communities, Economies and Tourism

Lake Erie communities thrive when the lake is healthy and attracts tourism

Regional economies depend on the resources of the Great Lakes, and Ohio Sea Grant programs facilitate an understanding of this dependence. Our extension agents and researchers work to connect users to recreational activities in the Great Lakes – boating, fishing, natural and historic sites, etc. – and assist the associated businesses.

CURRENT PROJECTS


Beyond the medicine cabinet: Public perceptions of the risks of pharmaceuticals and personal care products to aquatic systems and related disposal behaviors

RECORD:
R/SEL-002
2018
Principal Investigator:

Victoria Campbell-Arvai

Institution:

University of Michigan


Research in progress.

Occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in source and finished waters for public supply in Northeast Ohio

RECORD:
R/PS-054
2018
Principal Investigator:

Xiaozhen Mou, Professor, Kent State Department of Biological Sciences

Institution:

Kent State University


Research in progress.

Valuing Lake Erie Beaches and the impact of Impairments on Beach Users

RECORD:
R/ME-040
2018
Principal Investigator:

Brent Sohngen, Professor, The Ohio State University

Institution:

The Ohio State University


Research in progress.

Making the Future Bright: Solar Technology Curriculum Workshop for Educators

RECORD:
E/TE-002-PD
2016
Principal Investigator:

Kristen Fussell, Associate Director, Ohio Sea Grant College Program

Institution:

The Ohio State University


RELEVANCE: Solar thermal and photovoltaic systems currently supply hot water and energy for Ohio Sea Grant's (OSG) research facility, Stone Laboratory. Encouraging renewable energy use is critical, yet there is a void of locally relevant, inquiry-based lessons accessible to Ohio educators. With its solar energy infrastructure and support from the Center for Great Lakes Literacy and OSU Cares grant, OSG filled a void and advanced renewable energy education across Ohio.

RESPONSE: Bringing together OSU's Office of Energy and Environment, Department of Facilities, Operations, and Development, and Energize Ohio, OSG formed a Solar Energy Curriculum Consortium (SECC). OSG lead the group in developing a Solar Technology Curriculum and facilitating two workshops. Twelve informal and 68 formal educators from Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan were trained to implement four data-driven lessons (addressing energy transformations, circuitry, systems modeling, and data analysis) supported by three content-driven presentations using the Nearpod interactive digital learning platform.

RESULTS: With lessons freely accessible online, educators have greater awareness of and access to exemplary solar technology lessons. Responding to immediate post-workshop evaluations, educators plan to implement lessons with 5400 learners; informal educators with Ohio Energy Project now incorporate lessons into their programming reaching more than 200 teachers annually. This project further cultivated a partnership with Nearpod allowing OSG to use current educational technology to foster energy and environmental education.

BOTTOM LINE

To fill a void in solar energy education, Ohio Sea Grant developed the Solar Energy Curriculum Consortium that created four hands-on solar technology lessons to be used by 80 trained educators potentially reaching more than 5400 learners.

  •  Summary

A study of special event: Annual Walleye festival at Port Clinton

RECORD:
R/SEL-001-PD
2015
Principal Investigator:

Bob Lee, Program Coordinator, BGSU Education and Human Development

Institution:

Bowling Green State University


RELEVANCE: Many small towns along the coast of Lake Erie suffered some level of economic downturn due to structural issues after the manufacturing economic recession in the last century. The regeneration and reinvention of community economy have become crucial to sustaining community development.

RESPONSE: Tourism and special events have been recognized across the country as powerful tools to reshape community economies. We investigated the impacts of the walleye festival to the local communities in Ottawa County.

RESULTS: The survey research has concluded. It resulted in 519 survey interviews collected from festival goers. The findings revealed the impact of the festival was tremendous. It generated 67 jobs; $1.8 million in labor income, $2.1 million in value added income (GDP), and $3.8 million of total economic output.

BOTTOM LINE

The results from this research provide evidence and information that will help the festival organizers and the local community governments to plan future events with a vision for improvement and sustainability for long-term development of the local economy.

  •  Summary

Early flood warning system for the Community Safety against Flood Hazard using High Resolution Datasets: A Case Study of Coastal Region of Lake county, Ohio

RECORD:
R/EM-032
2014
Principal Investigator:

Suresh Sharma, Assistant Professor, YSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Institution:

Youngstown State University


RELEVANCE: Flooding is causing significant damage for lives and property both in winter (due to ice jam flooding) and summer.

RESPONSE: A flood warning system is being developed using water's travel time from upstream to the downstream flood. Also, ice jam flooding near the vicinity of bridges has been detected by the warning system.

RESULTS: It is expected that property damage and loss of life can be minimized significantly in the future by using this flood warning system.

BOTTOM LINE

Ohio Sea Grant supported the project leading to the development of a flood warning system. Researchers from Youngstown State University have developed the warning system which is ready to be added to a national portal of flood warning systems.

  •  Summary

Linking Agricultural Production and Great Lakes Ecosystem Services: Modeling and Valuing the Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Erie

RECORD:
R/ME-038
2014
Principal Investigators:

Jay Martin, Professor, OSU Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Wendong Zhang, Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State University

Elena Irwin, Associate Professor, OSU Department of Agricultural, Environment and Development Economics

Michael Fraker

Seyoum Gebremariam

Institution:

The Ohio State University


RELEVANCE: Since 1995 harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, and in many inland Ohio water bodies, have become more severe affecting ecosystem and human health. 40% reductions for the discharge of phosphorus to Lake Erie have been identified by a bi-national committee to reduce algal blooms to safe levels. Now, management plans capable of meeting these reductions must be identified and applied to the watersheds that discharge into Lake Erie, most importantly, the Maumee River Watershed.

RESPONSE: Dr. Martin's research group has collaborated with regional partners to use watershed models to evaluate the potential of individual and bundled management plans to meet these prescribed reductions.

RESULTS: They have identified subsurface application of phosphorus fertilizer as the individual management practice with the greatest potential to reduce phosphorus runoff. Since no single management practice would reduce phosphorus to the recommended levels, they analyzed several bundled scenarios of management practices. While most of these bundles still did not reach the recommended reductions some did. In all cases, practices would be need to be adopted by at least 50% of the row crop acres in the Maumee watershed.

BOTTOM LINE

Watershed models were used to assess the ability of agricultural management practices to reduce nutrient runoff and improve downstream water quality and decrease harmful algal blooms.

  •  Summary