Abstract

GIS Techniques for Evaluating Land-Use Change
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Brandon Cobb

The relation between land use and shallow groundwater quality has been a focus of groundwater studies conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Changes in water-quality from 31 monitoring wells in agricultural areas in northern Alabama and southern middle Tennessee will be compared to changes in land use within a 500-meter buffer around each well over a 10 year period. Land-use was initially interpreted and digitized from 1997 aerial photography and ground-truthed. Twelve years later, the wells were resampled and the land use in the 500 meter buffer areas was revised in ArcMap with 2007 aerial imagery. Changes in land use will be compared to sample results to better understand the effects of land-use change on water quality in the study area.