The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted an assessment of Great Lakes wat
er resources impacts under transient climate change scenarios. The integrat
ed model linked empirical regional climate downscaling, hydrologic and hydr
aulic models, and water resource use sub-models. The water resource uses in
clude hydropower, navigation, shoreline damages, and wetland area. The stud
y is unique in that both steady-state 2xCO(2) and transient global circulat
ion model (GCM) scenarios were used and compared to each other. The results
are consistent with other impact studies in that high scatter in regional
climate among the GCM scenarios lead to high uncertainty in impacts. Nevert
heless, the transient scenarios show that in the near-term (approximately 2
0 years) significant changes could occur. This result only adds to the urge
ncy of creating more flexible and robust management of water resources uses
.