The Great Lakes Futures Project: Principles and policy recommendations for making the lakes great

The Great Lakes Futures Project (GLFP) created a space for dialogue among stakeholders regarding the basin's past, present, and future. The GLFP used scenario analysis to paint alternate futures and engage stakeholders in a discourse on how to move away from an undesirable future and toward a desired one. Here, we (1) synthesize the results of a process that helped stakeholders collectively understand challenges and identify barriers to more effective policy; (2) provide a set of principles as tools to help overcome these challenges and shape strategic policy formulation; and (3) recommend broad policy directions, using the principles as a guide, to move the basin toward one that thrives ecologically, socially, and economically.