Using the Internet and GIS for Surface Water Improvement Management

Author: Chaula Jain
Organization: Mecklenburg County

600 4th E. St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
USA

Phone: (704)353-4322
Fax: 704)336-7219
jaincm@Co.Mecklenburg.NC.US

The application is accessed from the Internet  http://ENGBS.CO.MECKLENBURG.NC.US/HTML/EPA/EPA.HTM

The application serves as a tool to access a range of data related to environmental issues pertaining to Mecklenburg County's surface water quality rating. Mecklenburg County's water quality rating (WQR) provides a general summary of water quality conditions in the County's lakes and streams through a measure of chemical, physical, and biological parameters. The WQR is represented on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher values representing better water quality conditions. Only waters with a "good" rating or better are suitable for prolonged human contact. Waters below a "fair" rating will stress aquatic life resulting in significantly reduced fish populations.

In addition, it also will provide the proximity for a specific tax parcel in relation to Mecklenburg County stream buffer requirements. This application will enable the users, primarily builders, to ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the stream buffer ordinance for Mecklenburg County. This will also allow the user to print copies of the maps. Water quality data is queried by date of sampling, which is broken down into quarterly and yearly reports. The query also allows the user to query by address or a tax parcel and acts on varius coverages such as floodplains, streams class, greenways, street centerlines, and buffers.

Software: All the data for the above applications is contained in either ArcInfo or ArcView GIS coverages or AutoCAD files, which have been converted to shapefiles. The applications are built with Visual Basic, MapObjects, MapObjects Internet Map Server, Java scripts, and HTML.

Mecklenburg County is located in the southwest portion of North Carolina bordering the South Carolina State line at its southern end. It is one of the fastest growing counties in the United States and has a full-fledged GIS system, which is being used by several of the County departments.

The Intranet application can be viewed through any Web browser like Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. Upon establishing connection to the right site, a start-up screen with a picture appears. Clicking on the picture icons, the application can be accessed.