Glossary

Adapted from the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study

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GABION - An open-ended, cylinder-shaped wire mesh container which is sunk into a bottom and filled with rocks to form a structure such as a dike used to prevent erosion.

GENERAL CIRCULATION MODEL (GCM) - A three-dimensional computer representation of climate and its various components, used to predict climat scenarios.

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) - An information system used to store and manipulate (sort, select, retrieve, calculate, analyze, model, etc.) geographical data.

GEOMORPHOLOGY - The field of earth science that studies the origin and distribution of landforms, with special emphasis on the nature of erosional processes.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) - A navigation system based on the transmission of signals from a network of satellites, which allows users anywhere on the planet to determine their exact location at all times.

GOVERNANCE SYSTEM - The complex, dynamic mosaic of governmental and non-governmental entities having some authority to manage, or the ability to influence the management of Basin resources.

GREENHOUSE EFFECT - The warming of the earth's atmosphere associated meteorological effects due to increased carbon dioxide and other trace gases in the atmosphere. This is expected to have implications for long-term, climate change.

GROUNDWATER - Underground water occurring in soils and in pervious rocks.

GULLIES - Deep, V-shaped trenches carved by newly formed streams, or groundwater action, in rapid headward/forward growth during advanced stages of accelerated soil erosion.