With the ever daunting presence of global warming much of our landscape, especially in areas around water, will drastically change in the coming decades. The Great Lakes is a substantial natural resource for fresh water. It contains more than 20% of the fresh water in the world and more than 80% of the fresh water found in North America. Over 40 million people rely on it for clean drinking water.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Great Lakes Century is calling on people to come up with a vision of what the Great Lakes region will look like in 100 years. Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council added in their own ideas of what the Great Lakes will look like in 100 years.
Some of these ideas include:
Stronger coordination between governments, local and federal, and public and private sectors. With stronger coordination comes more room for higher potential.
Preserving our resources and using the cleanest and more efficient technologies to transport and manufacture the water.
Finding the best techniques for purifying drinking water.
Preserving the lake front.