Building Climate Knowledge Collaboratively
Climate change is threatening water resource sustainability in communities around the globe. The GCTW is committed to building climate knowledge with partnering regions to effectively adapt to climate change impacts and build capacity for resilience.
“Transboundary waters account for 60% of the world’s freshwater flows” - UNWater, 2021
GCTW Research Vision
Climate change poses an existential threat to freshwater resource sustainability in communities around the world. The Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters (GCTW) is an international research center designed to help manage aquatic resources in transboundary regions by using traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and advancements in western science.
The Center’s research addresses regional needs for water resource management and supports community and ecosystem sustainability. By establishing adaptive management frameworks, the GCTW helps communities address gaps in the governance of regional transboundary water systems characterized by diverse political structures and stakeholder groups. The GCTW uses collaborative scientific methods such as model development and water quality predictions to better understand and foster community resilience, with the North American Great Lakes serving as an initial focus point.
Through the consideration of TEK and western science, the GCTW enhances community resilience across three core themes:
1) Development of reliable predictions of future hydrologic conditions in response to climate change
2) Co-production of research that complements Indigenous knowledge, using water quality monitoring and modeling frameworks
3) Capacity-building for governance and management systems that incorporate the input of marginalized communities to increase disaster resilience across multiple scales
These three themes have inspired the creation of the Center’s three core research clusters.
International Support for GCTW
Currently centered along North American geopolitical boundaries, the GCTW engages communities around the globe. The Center’s objective is to continually broaden its reach to connect with transboundary communities in some of the planet’s most climate-impacted regions.
Support for the GCTW comes from a funding collaboration between the National Science Foundation (U.S.) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada). Combined, they form a new branch of the National Science Foundation’s Global Centers Initiative that supports interdisciplinary work to better understand climate impacts on global transboundary waterways. This funding supports GCTW research and engagement and provides critical resources for at-risk communities.
Our Researchers
The GCTW brings together a highly qualified science leadership team with expertise in both research and practice related to climate change analysis, ecosystem monitoring and modeling, and transboundary water governance at multiple scales. Combined with a multinational advisory board consisting of diverse transboundary organizations, this interdisciplinary team makes significant regional and global contributions to knowledge and practice at the science-policy interface.
The GCTW is a collaborative, multi-institutional venture formed by the University of Michigan, McMaster University, Cornell University, Toronto Metropolitan University, College of Menominee Nation, the Six Nations of the Grand River, Brock University, and Wilfrid Laurier University, the Red Lake Nation Department of Natural Resources, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Only 24 countries report that all their transboundary basins are covered by cooperation arrangements” - UNWater, 2021
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