Monitoring Water Quality Using ArcView GIS

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Monitoring Water Quality Using ArcView GIS

• Lindsay Chischilly
• Mentor Dr. Don Huggins
• Will Spotts
• Jeff Anderson
• Kansas Biological Survey
• Haskell Indian Nations University

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Overview

• Nonpoint Source Pollution
• Water Quality Research Methods
• Geographic Information Systems
• Results of Monitoring Program

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Definition of Terms

• Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPSP)- the broad range
  of pollution with no specific point of origin.
  Sources of NPSP include agriculture, industries,
  and mining. NPSP is weather dependent and not
  yet subject to federal regulations.

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Definition of Terms (continued)

• Point Source Pollution-point sources generally
  enter receiving water bodies at some identifiable
  site(s) and carry pollutants whose generation is
  controlled by some internal process or activity,
  rather than weather.

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Clean Water Farms Project

• 33 farms in eastern Kansas were given federal
  grant money to address local water quality
  management issues.
• 8 farms are monitored by the Kansas Biological
  Survey.

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Purpose of CWFP Monitoring Program

• Detect changes in NPSP at the field level.
• Relate changes in nutrient and herbicide
  concentrations to changes in land management.

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Participating Farms
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Methods

• Sampling Devices
• Lysimeter
• Automatic Runoff Sampler
• Geographic Information Systems

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Methods (continued)

• Lysimeters-uses a vacuum and then pressure to
  collect groundwater at depths of one, four, and
  eight feet. The eight foot tube are the most
  reliable samplers.

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Methods (continued)

• Automatic Runoff Sampler-used to collect eight
  samples of surface runoff over the first three
  hours of a storm.

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GIS Overview

• Computer system capable of holding and using
  data to describe places on the earths surface.
• Manipulate, analyze, store, and display spatial
  data.
• Links data to geographic locations

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Monitoring Water Quality Using GIS
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Monitoring Water Quality Using GIS
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Monitoring Water Quality Using GIS
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Monitoring Water Quality Using GIS
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Monitoring Water Quality Using GIS
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Results
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Sources of Variation

• Seasonal Land Management
• Tilling and Planting
• Herbicide Application
• Compost Spreading
• Crop Rotation
• Rainfall Event Frequency, Intensity and Duration

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Conclusions

• GIS is a creative tool to help visualize and
  analyze the issues affecting water quality.
• There are many contributing factors in the
  overall water quality in agricultural landscapes.
  
• Groundwater concentrations of TP are more
  variable than TN over space and time.
• Need more time to identify and quantify the
  specific effects of land management on
  agricultural water quality.