ASABE Technical Library - Abstract
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USING GIS EFFECTIVELY IN WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PLANNING
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 701P0104, . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15819)Authors: R.A. Apfel, T.T. Barnett, D.E. Eder and P.J. McNulty
Keywords: Geographical Information Systems, Wastewater Management Planning, Environmental Planning, Planning Tool, Onsite Wastewater Treatment, Decentralized Wastewater, Soil Interpretation, Environmental Protection
With ever increasing pressure on our landscape and natural resources, there is a growing
emphasis on good land use planning. Rural development outside the service areas of municipal
sewerage has a significant impact on land use planning efforts. In many areas, sanitary codes
that regulate onsite wastewater treatment servicing these developments have been utilized to
control unsewered growth. However, with the availability of improved treatment technologies,
the physical characteristics of sites are no longer the barriers to growth as they once were.
Therefore, counties and other local units of government should include wastewater management
plans as part of their comprehensive planning efforts.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide the planning platform for efficient and
comprehensive evaluation of a variety of resources. Typical inputs include aerial photography;
topographic, parcel, soil, and water resource mapping and associated data; and other resources.
However, these resources often require careful review and interpretation beyond what the
resource materials provide. For example, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
soil suitability interpretations for wastewater treatment assume traditional technologies in
establishing recommendations. To be useful today, the soil mapping units need to be
reinterpreted for their suitability to the technologies available today.
This paper will present the GIS planning tool developed in McHenry County, Illinois. It will
describe how resource materials were edited and adapted for wastewater management planning.
It will also discuss the results of this planning effort and demonstrate the value of critical editing
of resource materials.