More than 700 experts from around the world will descend on SUNY College at Brockport this week for the International Association for Great Lakes Research’s 62^nd annual conference.

“It’s not only scientists that are here," said Dr. James Haynes, a professor of environmental science at Brockport. "It’s managers who have responsibilities for things like lake levels, administrators that serve in the agencies that manage the lakes.”

While many topics will be discussed, flooding of Lake Ontario and the other Great Lakes will be top of mind.

“There are some sessions about it, but I’m sure in the hallways a lot of people will be talking about it,” Haynes said.

After all, the issue isn’t isolated to Western New York.

“People’s cottages, and beaches being worn down," Dr. Trevor Pitcher, Canadian professor at the University of Windsor said. "A lot of the marinas in Canada have closed recently because they’ve been flooded so areas that have docks that aren’t floating have had to close businesses down and people have lost jobs over this.”

Experts say the conference is a great place to exchange information, best practices and to find solutions to deal with a changing ecosystem.

“Lakes haven’t always looked like this. Sixty years ago there were higher lake levels and lower lake levels," Dr. Michael Twiss of Clarkson University said. "A lot of these homes being flooded now likely didn’t date older than 60 years.”

Experts say with a long history of changing water levels in the Great Lakes, communities will have to adapt.

“We have to have a different perspective on how we model the next 50 years," Pitcher said. "I think before we had a very narrow model but now we have to have a different perspective on how far back we need offset some of these homes.”

Like our ancestors did.

“There’s been archeological studies done in Lake Huron that showed hunting grounds that are now 40 meters below sea level," Twiss said. "So there were people living in this region at the time when the water was a lot lower.”

They say it's all about communities coming together.

“There’s really no one solution but together we can actually do practical things to make our houses safe, our fishing communities safe and our beaches still reliable,” Pitcher said.

The conference, which officially begins Tuesday, is open to everyone.