FINAL REPORT - International Joint Commission

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
RIPARIAN – Of, relating to or found along a shoreline.
RIPARIANS – Persons residing on the banks of a body of water.
RIVERINE – Of or relating to a river or a riverbank.
RUNOFF – The portion of precipitation on the land that ultimately reaches streams and lakes.
SCOURING – Erosion, generally in the form of downcutting in front of shore protection or other coastal
structures that may be temporary or permanent.
SEDIMENT BUDGET – An accounting system for all of the sand and gravel within a defined study boundary
(spatial extents).
SHARED VISION MODEL – A decision-making tool used to develop a collective representation
(image or view) of the future a group aspires to create.
SHOALS (SCANNING HYDROGRAPHIC OPERATIONAL AIRBORNE LIDAR SYSTEM) – A LIDAR system
that uses a green laser to profile underwater terrain and an infrared laser to detect water surfaces.
The system is used to obtain bathymetric and topographic data.
SHORELINE – Intersection of a specified plane of water with the shore.
SILLS – Underwater obstructions placed to reduce a channel’s flow capacity.
SOCIAL DESIRABILITY – The continued health and well-being of individuals and their organizations,
businesses, and communities to be able to provide for the material, recreational, aesthetic, cultural,
and other individual and collective needs that comprise a valued quality of life. The satisfaction of this
objective includes a consideration of individual rights, community responsibilities and requirements,
the distributional impacts of meeting these needs, and the determination of how these needs should
be achieved (paid for) along with other competing requirements of society.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEY – A survey measuring the basic characteristics of a community, from which
statistics can be compiled.
SPATIAL EVALUATION FRAMEWORK – The classification and delineation of terrestrial, wetland and aquatic
environments in spatial units meaningful to an assessment of fluctuating levels and measures.
STAKEHOLDER – An individual, group, or institution with an interest or concern, either economic, societal
or environmental, that is affected by fluctuating water levels or by measures proposed to respond to
fluctuating water levels within the Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence River Basin.
STANDARDIZED HYDROLOGIC STATIONS (SHS) – Water level measurement stations operated by a
governmental agency where water depth that was measured at specific geographical locations is
translated into International Great Lakes Datum as updated in 1985 equivalent data.
STEADY STATE – No change over time.
STOCHASTIC SUPPLIES – Simulated sequences of water supply conditions that reflect climate variability.
STRATEGY – A general conceptual framework for guiding action based upon a particular purpose and
selected means for achieving agreed upon ends.
SUBMERGED MACROPHYTES – Plant species that grow under water during their entire life cycle (not
including algae).
260 Options for Managing Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Water Levels and Flows