Best Practices Library
Welcome to the searchable Best Practices Library! To submit a Best Practice from your municipality, click here.
To use the Best Practices Library, combine any of the below search methods:
- Enter a term in the left-hand “Search” box
- Select a Category (or Categories) under which you would like to find resources. Categories sort by topic of interest.
- Select a Tag(s) under which you would like to find resources. Tags sort by Program, Region, or Type of document.
- Documents may be sorted by Name or by Date via the dropdown menu under the “Search” box.
The Cities Initiative also maintains a French version of the Best Practices Library. Click here to access the French library.
The Best Practices Library is a dynamic, searchable database of Best Practices, Tools, and Information Documents that are specific to municipal issues in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Region. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact admin@glslcities.org.
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The Marquette Plan – Improvements along Northwest Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline
The Marquette plan is a comprehensive land use vision intended to achieve tangible quality of life improvements along Northwest Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline and beyond. “At the heart of this planning initiative is the creation of a green ribbon of connected dune and swale landscapes, river corridors, lakes, beaches, reclaimed industrial canals and a range of diverse habitat that provides the natural counterpart to the industrialized setting that has dominated Northwest Indiana for the past century.” 2005.
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Green Bay Smart Growth 2022 – Natural Resources
“The Smart Growth 2022 Natural Resources Plan provides guidance to the City in the management of wetlands, floodplains, woods and natural areas. […] Water is the focus of the plan since the city is at the
foot of a major bay and the mouth of several rivers or creeks.Goal: Improve wetlands, streams and wildlife habitat in Green Bay for the sake of sustainable development, ecological responsibility, quality of life and economic development.”
For more information, visit the website.
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Grand Rapids waterfront
This part of Grand Rapids Master Plan focuses on the Grand River as a spine for the City's development. This chapter explains how the City plans the territory in function of this great asset. 2002.
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Energy Management with Water Loss Control – Leak Detection
Date of publication unknown
The City of Thunder Bay developed an electronic leak detection program; the program has conserved the city's water and provides rapid response to leaking pipes in municipal water infrastructure. This program is also economically beneficial for the city. The strategy was submitted to the Cities Initiative as part of the Water Conservation Framework Program.
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Durham Region Sustainable Municipal Water Management Assessment
Date of publication unknown
This booklet outlines Durham Region's progress on the Cities Initiative Sustainable Municipal Water Management framework. This Ontario municipality provides an assessment of its stormwater and other water management practices under this six-part framework.
In addition, here is the progress indicator chart of the project:
Durham SMWM Progress Indicator Chart
And here is a pamphlet that summarizes the project:
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Lake Superior Climate Adaptation, Mitigation and Implementation Plan: For Communities in the Lake Superior Watershed of Michigan’s upper Peninsula
Date of publication unknown
The Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) has developed the Lake Superior Climate Adaptation,Mitigation and Implementation Plan specifically for coastal communities in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The plan provides a summary of current conditions, potential impacts and recommendations for mitigating and adapting to climate change in the Lake Superior watershed.
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Green Pipeline to Fuel Water Reclamation Facility
Date of publication unknown
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has built a pipeline that brings natural gas produced by a landfill to its water treatment plant. This infrastructure helps both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the energy check for the water treatment plant. When the plant doesn't run to its full capacity (in dry weather for example), the electricity generated is sold to the power company.
Visit site Green Pipeline to Fuel Water Reclamation Facility
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Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA)
Date of publication unknown
Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA)® is an online mapping tool for coastal pollution cleanup, restoration, and response efforts in the Great Lakes Basin, from Minnesota to New York in the United States and from Ontario to Quebec in Canada.
In addition to information on natural resources, habitat, weather, water levels, and currents, it includes the most comprehensive collection of environmental contaminant data in the Great Lakes. Great Lakes ERMA gathers all of this data from NOAA and our partners into a centralized, easy-to-use map for environmental responders, resource managers, and decision makers.
NOAA, as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, collaborated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, and University of New Hampshire to develop Great Lakes ERMA. Great Lakes ERMA is helping expedite cleanup and restoration of Areas of Concern (AOCs) by combining environmental contaminant data from NOAA's Great Lakes Query Manager database with ecological, recreational, tribal, commercial, and manufacturing information.
By comparing environmental conditions over time and between locations, ERMA helps to illustrate progress in restoring the health of the Great Lakes, both across the basin and in Areas of Concern. This online mapping tool also improves planning, communication, and coordination for emergency responses to pollution incidents, such as oil and chemical spills.
NOAA continues to work with federal, state, regional, and non-governmental partners in the Great Lakes to incorporate additional regional data and information into Great Lakes ERMA, including spill response plans, potential climate change impacts, and environmental modeling and forecasts.
Visit site Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA)
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National Compendium of Water Adaptation Knowledge
Date of publication unknown
The National Compendium of Water Adaptation Knowledge is an online tool that provides access to information from a variety of sources about climate change adaptation and water. The goal of the compendium to “provide relevant information to users to help overcome knowledge barriers related to climate change adaptation and water”. The target audience consists of a broad range of groups and individuals including municipalities, rural communities, watershed organizations, private sector groups, advocacy groups, and provincial and territorial agencies.
Visit site National Compendium of Water Adaptation Knowledge
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Pileus Project – Climate Science for Decision Makers
Date of publication unknown
The overarching purpose of the Pileus Project is to provide useful climate information to assist decision makers. The current focus is on two leading industries in the Great Lakes region: agriculture and tourism.
The benefits of the Pileus Project include:
- Provide a better understanding of historical climate trends, variability, and their past impacts on people and industry
- Evaluate how future climate trends and variability may impact people and industry, using newly developed, climate-related models
- Create an economic framework, which explicitly incorporates climate into the decision making process
Visit site Pileus Project – Climate Science for Decision Makers
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real-time hydrometric data
Date of publication unknown
Real-time hydrometric data from the Government of Canada: “This site provides public access to real-time hydrometric data collected at over 1800 locations and access to historical data collected at over 7600 stations (active and discontinued) in Canada.”
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City of Chicago Sustainable Development Policy
Date of publication unknown
This chart outlines how the City of Chicago allocates financial assistance for various sustainable development projects.
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Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT)
Date of publication unknown
Developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) is a software tool to assist drinking water and wastewater utility owners and operators in understanding potential climate change threats and in assessing the related risks at their individual utilities. CREAT allows users to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on their utility and to evaluate adaptation options to address these impacts using both traditional risk assessment and scenario-based decision making.
CREAT provides libraries of drinking water and wastewater utility assets (e.g., water resources, treatment plants, pump stations) that could be impacted by climate change, possible climate change-related threats (e.g., flooding, drought, water quality), and adaptive measures that can be implemented to reduce the impacts of climate change.
The tool guides users through identifying threats based on regional differences in climate change projections and designing adaptation plans based on the types of threats being considered. Following assessment, CREAT provides a series of risk reduction and cost reports that will allow the user to evaluate various adaptation options as part of long-term planning.
Visit site Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT)
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Ashland/Northern States Power (NSP) Lakefront Superfund Site
Date of publication unknown
The Superfund Site is a contaminated area in the heart of the City's waterfront. Its rehabilitation is part of the City's Waterfront Development Plan and Comprehensive Plan: the Making of an Exceptional City. To do so, Ashland created a partnership with the Northern States Power Compagny-Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources. All agreed that a collaborative approach would be the best to achieve the revitalization of that site.
You can download the brochure of the project and access these resources:
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When It Rains, It Drains – Information brochure on stormwater
Date of publication unknown
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has published that brochure to help citizens understand how stormwater is managed in cities and how they can contribute to water runoff's quality.
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City of Superior’s Special Area Management Plans & Wetland Preservation (SAMP)
Date of publication unknown
The City of Superior is managing the development and the protection of its wetlands through a program called Special Area Management Plans and Wetland Preservation (SAMP II). It worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers to implement it.
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US Drought Portal
Date of publication unknown
The US Drought Portal allows practitioners to access and interact with drought and climate related data, including maps and graphing capabilities, to help understand drought and how it changes over time. It's meant to provide early warning about emerging and anticipated droughts, assimilate and quality control data about droughts and models, provide information about risk and impact of droughts to different agencies and stakeholders, provide information about past droughts for comparison and to understand current conditions, explain how to plan for and manage the impacts of droughts, and provide a forum for different stakeholders to discuss drought-related issues.
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E-Learning: Adapting Your Infrastructure To Climate Change
Date of publication unknown
Municipalities, and those that provide services to them, must become familiar with the resources available to help assess and address climate change implications on infrastructure services within a given region. Intended for those responsible for/involved in impact assessment, risk evaluation and response planning in support of climate change adaptation of infrastructure (e.g. Municipal staff, Elected officials and Professional service providers), the Canadian Standards Association’s Adapting Your Infrastructure to Climate Change, provides a roadmap of available tools and techniques that support vulnerability assessment, risk evaluation and response planning
Visit site E-Learning: Adapting Your Infrastructure To Climate Change
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Clean your Streams
Date of publication unknown
Clean your Streams is an activity held along streams in the Maumee River Watershed coordinated by Partners for Clean Streams. Taking place every year since 1997, the clean-up day gathers almost a thousand of volunteers that remove tons of trash on the riverbanks.
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Stormwater Flood Control Program
Date of publication unknown
The City of Superior, Wisconsin, has implemented the Stormwater Flood Control Program (SFCP) to help its citizens to protect their houses from flooding. Inspections and plumbing modifications are part of that program.
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Toronto Waterfront
Date of publication unknown
The City of Toronto is completely renewing its waterfront, and to do so, it must at first decontaminate polluted soils. Follow this link to access all the documents related to Toronto's waterfront: http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/
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High Rate Treatment Facility
Date of publication unknown
In 2007-2008, the City of Niagara Falls, Ontario, has implanted a high rate treatment facility that separates solids from water during severe storms or snow melt in order to avoid these components to flow with runoff water. The City also closed the Muddy Run combined sewer overflow, leading to a 62% reduction of sewer discharge.
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Coin Operated Solar Powered Water Dispenser
Date of publication unknown
The town of Penetanguishene, Ontario implemented a Coin Operated Solar Powered Water Dispensing station, which was submitted to the Cities Initiative as part of the Water Conservation Framework program. The program conserves municipal water and economically benefits the community.
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Impacts of Climate Change on Public Health
Date of publication unknown
Climate Change in the Great Lakes region could lead to a wide range of health effects related to heat, air quality, pollution, and disease vectors. In general, climate change will likely magnify existing health risks associated with air quality and water pollution. A publication from GLISA and Huron River Watershed Council.
