This article is about the use of GIS to select harvesting sites for stormwater runoff in urban areas. With increased urbanization throughout the world, groundwater resources are being hit harder and harder. Harvesting stormwater runoff helps relieve some of the pressure on groundwater resources, and helps relieve some of the environmental impact of stormwater runoff.
This particular study took place in Melbourne, Australia and involved four primary steps. The first one was to acquire data and identify criteria for suitable harvesting of stormwater. In this step, maps were generated with data such as local rainfall and water demand. The second step was to estimate the environmental flows of the urban waterways. The third step created screening parameters for potential harvesting sites. This took into account things such as demand and distance from collection sites to the aforementioned demand. The fourth step created a ranking system for all of the harvesting options. After these steps were completed, maps were created with layers featuring data for amount of runoff, demand, areas were stormwater could be caught, and drainage networks.
This was a pretty interesting article. It was refreshing to see GIS being used for what seems to be a very sustainable water resource. I would imagine that in the future tools like this will become more and more common as water resources become increasingly scarce.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/science/article/pii/S0301479713003514
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