Track: Special Session
E. Perry Thomas
Kentucky Division of Water
Frankfort, KY, USA
Sachinthani Karunarathne
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia
E. Perry Thomas
Kentucky Division of Water
Frankfort, KY, USA
Urban lakes often serve as oases for inner-city communities. These water bodies offer passive and active recreational opportunities and provide a wide array of beneficial ecological and societal functions. In many cases, the communities served by these lakes are underserved, with a long history of environmental-justice-related issues.
While viewed by the community as recreational water bodies, many urban lakes were originally constructed to provide services that directly conflict with recreational use, such as flood control, stormwater management, and even domestic and industrial wastewater management. In addition to negatively affecting users’ health, these activities lead to water quality degradation, environmental perturbations, and trophic state changes. Urban lakes are frequently located in areas where communities lack resources to mitigate impairments, and public sector funding is often unavailable due to the perception of these water bodies as second tier. Consequently, impairments persist and the user community’s expectations and needs fail to be met.
Another benefit provided by urban lakes is their potential to introduce youth and adults to science and engineering. These lakes can become focal points for science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) programs suitable for grammar and secondary school students as well as a means of bringing the community together via citizen-science programs and hands-on restoration projects.
This Special Session will bring together scientists, educators, and community leaders to explore urban lakes as focal points for community science and action. Panelists will explore challenges of restoring urban lakes and highlight community-based success stories.
Next Steps
If you are interested in learning more about how managers address these challenges in urban lakes and their watersheds, we hope you will join us in person or virtually for technical sessions focused on urban lakes during the 2021 NALMS Symposium. We plan hybrid sessions during the afternoon of Wednesday, November 18th.
To learn more, go to https://www.nalms.org/nalms2021/
The winter 2021 issue of NALMS’s LakeLine will focus on urban lakes. To receive notification of its release, go to https://www.nalms.org/lakeline-magazine/
Presenting Author: Vinicius Taguchi – St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota
Presenting Author: Laura Costadone – Environmental Science and Management, Portland State University
Presenting Author: Meishka Mitchell – Cooper's Ferry Partnership