|
Track: Environmental Management
Brian Murray
IDEM OSHWM HW Geology
100 North Senate
PO Box 6015
Indianapolis, IN 46206-6015
Telephone: 317-233-1509
Fax: 317-232-3403
E-mail: bmurr@opn.dem.state.in.us
Roger Koelpin, Kevin Miller
A Method Using GIS Coverages and GPS Equipment for Determining Monitoring Well Locations for Regulated Facilities in Northwest Indiana for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Hazardous Waste Geology Section
Defining Issue: Determining well locations as accurately and economically as possible for a regional GIS. GIS Solution: Use Esri's ArcInfo software, with facility maps and GPS equipment, to locate the wells instead of surveying each point using traditional survey methods. Methodology: The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) received a grant to develop a GIS for the region of northwest Indiana as part of the U.S. EPA Great Lakes Initiative. Part of this initiative was to develop a groundwater quality data set for the area. The problem the group faced was how to incorporate 1,500 wells at fifty-eight facilities into the database. Each facility that IDEM is working with had been surveyed as part of its involvement with the regulatory process. These maps were accurate within the confines of each facility survey. However, there was no way to relate them spatially, as each individual site survey had been conducted in a unique coordinate system. A common coordinate system was needed.
Traditional survey methods would be too time-consuming and costly for this task. However, GPS equipment and Esri's ArcInfo software could be used to accomplish this task more efficiently and economically. Each facility submitted either a paper or digital facility map with well locations. The maps were field-checked to determine suitable locations for GPS control points. They were then rectified using the surveyed control points and Esri's ArcInfo software by digitizing and transforming them into UTM coordinates. This project took two years to complete and included fifty-eight regulated facilities, more than 1,500 wells, and 162,000 water quality records. By transforming the facility maps into a real-world coordinate system, we are now able to integrate these coverages with those developed from other state and federal agencies to assess and determine the impact of these facilities on the environment of northwest Indiana. Software: Locational data obtained in the field were processed with Trimble's
GPSurvey software. Paper maps were digitized with either Autodesk's AutoCAD 13 or Esri's ArcInfo software.
|
|
