ABSTRACT
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (1987) specifies that the governments of the United States and Canada take an “ecosystem approach” for lake management and restoration of the areas of concerns under the Remedial Action Plans (RAPs). Th e Hamilton Harbour RAP (the fi rst in Canada) defi nes this approach as:
Th e intention of a holistic or ecosystem perspective is to look beyond the man-made political boundaries, involve all the stakeholders concerned in coming to a solution and have a multi-disciplinary approach. In the water management arena, advocacy for a systems approach led to the emergence of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
