Freshwater Colloquium: Is Remediation and Restoration Improving OneHealth Along Great Lakes Coasts?
The School of Freshwater Sciences’ Freshwater Colloquium creates a platform for students, faculty and scientists to discuss their research and emergent issues related to freshwater resources. Presentations are open to the public.
All events will take place on Mondays from 3:30-4:20 p.m. in-person in the GLRF Ballroom.
The School of Freshwater Sciences Great Lakes Research Facility, is located at 600 E. Greenfield Ave.
The OneHealth approach recognizes the importance of interconnections between human health and the environment. An exemplary international effort of this nature is the long-standing U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), which aims to restore and protect roughly 21% of the global surface freshwater supply. Since its inception in 1972, the U.S.-Canada GLWQA has set forth the bi-national environmental and scientific goals to protect and restore the Laurentian Great Lakes. Through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a U.S.-led multi-federal agency program that begin in 2010 and which is aligned with the GLWQA, partner organizations have laid the groundwork for identifying, remediating, and restoring degraded coastal areas and putting them on the path to revitalization by communities. However, while nearly 10,000 projects have been completed to date, a systematic understanding of environmental and human wellbeing changes resulting from these projects is yet to be developed, and impacts, when measured, are typically documented at a project-level. In this seminar, I will discuss new approaches for measuring human wellbeing and environmental impacts from remediation and restoration projects, as well as share recent research documenting impacts at both the project- and ecosystem-scale. These studies reveal both design-based trade-offs in project outcomes as well as on-the-ground improvement in ecological health and human wellbeing factors.
Dr. Joel Hoffman is the Director of Research at the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI; 2025-current). He provides strategic leadership for development of the NRRI research portfolio, guiding scientists and engineers to develop innovative solutions that address pressing challenges affecting communities, the environment, and the economy across Minnesota and the nation. As an environmental scientist, Dr. Hoffman leads integrative research to support the development and implementation of sustainable, ecosystem-based management of natural resources. His research expertise includes ecosystem services, characterizing energy and contaminant flows through ecosystems, and developing biodiversity assessments, including biosurveillance of invasive species. Prior to his current role, Dr. Hoffman led social-ecological systems research at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development (2006-2025). Dr. Hoffman is a two-time winner of the Chandler-Misener Award, which honors the most notable peer-reviewed paper published in the most recent complete volume of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. He represents Minnesota as a citizen advisor to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, is a member of the Great Lakes Coalition science advisory board, and routinely contributes to scientific efforts led by the International Joint Commission.