Best Practices

Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to assist state drinking water and clean water programs and non-government partners

During a webinar on September 5th, 2012, representatives from state agencies in Maine, North Carolina, Oregon, and Utah shared their experiences developing and using GIS tools to improve drinking water protection programs. The following tools and programs were featured:

• The North Carolina Source Water Protection Program developed web-based mapping tools to increase awareness of their source water assessments. The tools both enable decision-makers to easily determine if projects fall within source water assessment areas and help to make the case for funding water quality projects in these areas. Download the North Carolina webinar presentation.
• The Maine Drinking Water Program migrated their spatial data to Google maps in an effort to improve access to the data while also reducing overhead cost. Their web-based tools help to protect drinking water supplies by informing permitting and land use planning decisions throughout the state. Download the Maine webinar presentation.
• Oregon’s Water Quality Division partnered with the Trust for Public Land to develop a sophisticated GIS-based tool that identifies healthy lands most important for conservation and impaired lands most important for restoration efforts to protect water quality. Download the Oregon webinar presentation.
• The Utah Division of Drinking Water designed a brand new nitrate modeling tool in coordination with state partners to model nitrate concentrations at multiple scales through time. Download the Utah webinar presentation.

Watch a recording of this webinar to learn more about these GIS tools and state programs.