SYMBOLS, STANDARDS AND PROGRESS WITH GROUNDWATER DATA

Communicating about groundwater is probably one of the most difficult things to do without a map or a good quality database. The fundamental building blocks have now been placed into the Technical Terms of Reference 2001-2002 for carrying out Ontario’s provincial groundwater studies. The funding was initially provided by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in 1998 prior to Walkerton and has since its inception supported the completion of over 150 groundwater studies of varying scope and detail throughout the province. The presentation will highlight areas where studies are either underway or have been completed. The data scope and descriptions of data used and the availability of metadata will be discussed. The progress on standard legend, symbols and fills will be reported.

The use of the MOE GwISI or Intrinsic Susceptibility to Groundwater Contamination Index addresses ecosystem sensitivity in conjunction with groundwater resource protection. The intention was to develop an index that would be directly related to the information within the database, thus avoiding ranking, weighting of uncertain and unknown factors. The GwISI is applied as a minimum in all groundwater studies providing input to the seamless Ontario groundwater vulnerability map at a scale of 1:50,000. The Municipal Groundwater Studies Technical Terms of Reference 2001/2002 MOE Publication # 4197 is available to the public through the Internet at: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/techdocs/index.htm#groundwater.