A new research project at Ohio State University integrates
biological, physical and social sciences to develop a complete
picture of what drives decision-making processes and
environmental conditions in the Maumee River watershed. The
four-year, $1.5 million project, funded by the National Science
Foundation, will combine decision-making models with
hydrological modeling and future climate change scenarios to
examine how people’s actions in the watershed affect water
quality in Lake Erie. Researchers from six different departments
at two universities – Ohio State and Case Western Reserve
University – are working together to examine how watershed
management practices like the application of agricultural
fertilizers impact water quality in Lake Erie, how public
perception of the health of the lake may influence those
practices, and how these relationships are likely to change
under climate change scenarios. “Not many people have looked at
different populations within a watershed and what drives some of
their de