As climate change threatens global water systems, a new research initiative aims to leverage Indigenous expertise to manage cross-border water resources.

Climate change puts people’s access to water in jeopardy. Extreme weather events like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and extreme, damaging infrastructure and affecting water quality. Often, rivers, lakes and bodies of water affected by these crises cross international borders.

Now, researchers across North America are coming together to help communities adapt. The new Global Center for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters is a team co-led by researchers from the University of Michigan and McMaster University. The team will work with Indigenous people to protect bodies of water that cross international lines — starting with the Great Lakes.

TMU professor Carolyn Johns will co-lead the Global Center for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters as the social science principal investigator.

Gail Krantzberg, a professor and program lead from McMaster’s Masters of Engineering and Public Policy program, is co-leading The Global Centre for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters.

The new Global Center will draw on relationships and policies from transboundary watersheds and Indigenous Territories along the entire US- Canada border (orange and green regions, respectively). The Great Lakes basin (blue) serves as an initial area of focus. Directly funded project partners are identified as black dots, with Indigenous partners highlighted by a purple ring. All of North America’s transboundary basins are highlighted in light grey for reference Image credit: University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and Office of the U-M Vice President for Research