The Water Encyclopedia: Hydrologic Data and Internet Resources - Chapter 1 pps

This third edition of The Water Encyclopedia: Hydrologic Data and Internet Resources started from a premisethat most of the information provided within this publication could be found on

“Just do an Internet search.” “It’s on the Internet.” How often have we said or been told that we could find it on theInternet This third edition of The Water Encyclopedia: Hydrologic Data and Internet Resources started from a premisethat most of the information provided within this publication could be found on the Internet As our team of contributingauthors started reviewing each section within each chapter, it soon became apparent that you cannot always find it on theinternet This edition represents many hours of effort to identify the most current information on a wide range of water-related topics whether it can be found on the internet or in other sources

The Encyclopedia has retained many of the elements of the previous editions but has also been expanded to reflect themany changes within the environmental industry as well as the current and topical water-related matters of the lastdecade Prepared by scientists and engineers, this publication is intended to serve as a valuable resource to allprofessionals dealing with water-related issues as well as the general public The material presented has been footnoted

to provide the user with the opportunity to return to the original source material for additional research Where possible,

an Internet URL address is provided to guide the user to the appropriate source

The third edition of the Encyclopedia has been significantly expanded beyond the previous edition The first twochapters of this edition are new and discuss data management and international data collection Data managementconcepts are presented to review the use of databases, geographic information systems (GIS), data reporting andmetadata Data repositories and availability vary around the world and range in ease of access and usability Theinternational data collection provides some direction on potential data sources in less developed areas as well as casehistories of actual project work and Internet sources for international water-related data

This edition contains more than 1100 tables and 500 figures providing data related to weather, surface water,groundwater, water use, water quality, waste water, pollution, and water resource management The pollution chapteralone has grown to contain some 450 plus tables and figures Wastewater, previously included within the pollutionchapter, is presented as a stand-alone chapter to facilitate use of this reference A chapter of useful conversion factors andconstants concludes this edition

Whether you are looking for a specific piece of information or exploring one or more of the many topics related towater, this edition provides its users with a tremendous wealth of data whether on the Internet or not

q 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

We want to extend our thanks and appreciation to the many individuals, publishers, and organizations that have madethis third edition a reality Without their time, cooperation, collaboration, this work would not have been possible Mostimportantly, the support and access to resources for the management of this compilation provided by ARCADIS G&Mwas invaluable, and their on-going support and encouragement to undertake these efforts are deeply appreciated

A number of individual contributors were involved in compiling the relevant information for each of the chapters andthey are identified at the start of their chapters Our thanks and appreciation to you and your families for the timecommitted to completing this task Behind the scenes and the backbone of keeping everything organized, we want toextend a special thanks to Chris Worden and Carla Gerstner for their encouragement, patience, and the occasional sternword Additionally, we want to acknowledge Barbara Kelly and Amanda Fierro for their efforts in preparing materialsfor the manuscript

q 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

The Editors

Pedro Fierro, Jr.is a hydrogeologist and associate vice president with ARCADIS G&M, Inc., where he is involvedwith a wide variety of environmental assessments and remediation programs He has been responsible for the direction ofseveral hundred sites addressing environmental issues Fierro has addressed various audiences on topics ranging fromsampling methodologies, regulatory compliance, site assessment techniques, liability management, and remediationtechnologies

Fierro received his bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York and hismaster’s degree in geology with an emphasis on groundwater studies from the University of Kentucky He currentlyholds geological professional licenses/registrations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, andTennessee He is a certified groundwater professional and a certified professional geologist He was a contributing author

to In Situ Treatment Technology

Evan K Nyeris a senior vice president with ARCADIS G&M, Inc., where he is responsible for maintaining andexpanding the company’s technical expertise in geology/hydrogeology, engineering, fate and transport, and remediationtechnologies He has been active in the development of new treatment technologies for many years He has beenresponsible for the strategies, technical designs and installations of more than 400 groundwater and soil remediationsystems at contaminated sites throughout the United States Nyer also lectures, provides expert testimony, and serves asthe public spokesperson for one technically complicated site

Nyer received his graduate degree in environmental engineering from Purdue University and has authored five books:Practical Techniques for Groundwater and Soil Remediation, published by Lewis Publishers, Inc.; GroundwaterTreatment Technology, first and second edition, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold; Groundwater and SoilRemediation, and In Situ Treatment Technology (now in its second edition) published by CRC Press; and is co-author ofBioremediation, published by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers Nyer is a regular contributor toGroundwater Monitoring and Remediation having had his own column “Treatment Technology” in the periodical for thepast 20 years

q 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ARCADIS G&M, Inc.

West Palm Beach, Florida

Daniel J McCarthy

ARCADIS G&M, Inc

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Melvin RiveraARCADIS G&M, Inc

Tampa, Florida

Christopher SpoonerARCADIS G&M, Inc

Tampa, Florida

Gustavo˜ SuarezARCADIS G&M, Inc

Tampa, Florida

Katherine L ThalmanARCADIS G&M, Inc

Tampa, Florida

Daniel ZellDewberry & Davis, LLCFairfax, Virginia

q 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CHAPTER 1 Data Management

Daniel J McCarthy

CONTENTS

1.1 Introduction 1-11.2 Database Overview 1-11.3 Geographic Information Systems Overview 1-31.4 Understanding Data Management Needs 1-41.5 Data Categorization 1-51.5.1 Spatial Data 1-51.6 Temporal Data 1-61.7 Data Validation and Verification 1-71.8 Data Reporting 1-71.8.1 Querying Data 1-71.8.2 Reporting Data 1-81.9 Metadata 1-81.10 Conclusions 1-9

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Data management encompasses many tasks, priorities,

and decisions Underlying these activities is the need

for an accurate data from sampling and monitoring

programs designed to measure the effects of

oper-ational activities To understand the value of good data

management, it is helpful to understand the nature of

how this information is generated and used to support

management decisions

So what is data? The American Heritage Dictionary

defines data as factual information, especially

infor-mation organized for analysis or used to reason or make

decisions, or values derived from scientific experiments

Scientific professionals generate huge quantities of data

every day It is estimated that scientists spend 80% of

their time managing the data and 20% analyzing and

interpreting By establishing sound data managementpractices, more time can be spent in data analysis andinterpretation

Throughout this chapter, we will provide examples ofdata management practices within the context of aninvestigation of contaminated groundwater and surfacewater These practices are directly applicable tomanaging other types of data, such as those found inthis book

various media organized in a way that allows easy

search and retrieval of subsets of the items of

information.” Note that, strictly speaking, a database

does not have to be electronic: Boxes containing recipes,

telephone books, or paper address books are all

databases A database used for environmental purposes

might be composed of a combination of paper copies of

information along with items of information contained in

electronic form, with perhaps some sort of paper or

electronic index to or inventory list of all of the data

Electronic data are nearly always organized into

tables Consider the example shown in Table 1.1

Each row of this table represents a single data point;

in this case the first row provides data about location

SW-1, and only SW-1 Each column of this table

represents a type of data that is stored for each row In

our example, the Area of Concern column identifies the

spatial group that each location belongs to

The rows in a database table are typically called

“records,” while the columns are called “fields.” Thus, a

useful definition of an electronic database is “A

collection of related items of data organized into one or

more tables.” Each field is constrained to a single data

type Table 1.2 lists the most common data types

Electronic databases are typically either “flat file

databases,” in which the entire database resides in a

single table, or “relational databases,” in which the dataare distributed into more than one table, which are thenlinked together by a common key field The tables will berelated to one another according to a one-to-one (eachrecord in one table has a single matching record in theother table) or one-to-many relationship (each record inone table may have one or more matching records in theother table, but not the reverse)

One significant advantage of relational databases toflat-file databases is the ability to query the data indifferent ways A query is defined as a statement toretrieve database records that match certain criteria Bystructuring the query statement a certain way, differentinformation can be returned from the data set

The most popular general-purpose software formanaging data is an electronic spreadsheet programsuch as Microsoft Excel Electronic spreadsheets areexcellent tools for managing electronic data that fit in asingle table However, spreadsheets are cumbersome orinadequate tools for managing relational data, wheremore than one table is required For managingrelational data, other more powerful data managementprograms should be used There are many popularrelational database management systems available,including Microsoft Access It should be noted that,

in contrast to flat-file databases, which typically can bemanaged by the casual computer user, large relationaldatabases require management by trained individuals,and will usually be beyond the capabilities of thecasual user

The field of database management is continually influx, and would have changed by the time this book ispublished Thus, it is impossible to cover all the facets ofdata management and database theory here However, itcan be said that the relational database model over-whelmingly dominates large-scale data management anddatabase theory For further information about relationaldatabases, the reader is directed to any of the numerousreferences on this subject A particularly helpful bookdesigned for the casual database user is by Michael J.Hernandez (2003) entitled Database Design for MereMortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational DatabaseDesign, Addison–Wesley Developers Press

Table 1.1 Groundwater and Surface Water Location Data

Table 1.2 Common Data Types

Integer Typically stores numbers that relate to counts

quantities, or, ID numbers

percentages or rates Floating point Numbers with a scientific notation that can be

calculated approximately, such as distance

or weight Fixed length

character

Names, descriptions, addresses Date/Time Storage of date and/or time or intervals of

dates or times Boolean Explicit constraints (Yes/No, True/False) or

logical constraints (AND/OR) Unstructured

data

Images, video, audio

THE WATER ENCYCLOPEDIA: HYDROLOGIC DATA AND INTERNET RESOURCES 1-2

1.3 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

OVERVIEW

Data are often presented in a tabular format

Some-times, a visual representation is helpful in drawing

conclusions, particularly if the data have a spatial

component A Geographical Information System (GIS)

is a way to display information with a spatial

component GIS can be defined as a software package

that manages and displays information in a database

composed of data that are associated with spatial

information That is to say, there will be both tabular

and spatial information in the database, it will be

possible to query the database for specific data, and

the user will be able to display the data spatially, as

a map

The software package comprising the GIS may be a

single program, a set of programs from a single vendor,

a combination of programs that together constitute the

GIS, a custom-programmed software package, or any

combination thereof

In the groundwater arena, the tabular data could

typically be depth to water data, water table elevation

data, water chemistry data, and water quality data In

addition, the tabular data will have some spatial

component in either two or three dimensions, as x–y–z

coordinates Spatial data, in addition to the x–y–z

coordinates mentioned above, often will include digitally

processed air or satellite photographs, computer-aided

design (CAD) drawings, or other electronic spatial

entities Clearly, depth to water data and water chemistrydata, which can be displayed in both plan view (two-dimensional) and side view (three-dimensional), are wellsuited to management using a GIS Table 1.3 is anexample of data from a GIS system representing depth

to answer a question For example, the temporarywells in the previous figure were not measuredduring the August sampling event By querying theGIS system only for locations that were measuredduring the August event, we return a subset of the data,shown inTable 1.4

From this set of data, our map would look like

Figure 1.2.The literature on GISs is voluminous BecauseGISs have a wide applicability throughout manydisciplines, the reader is directed to the internet,where search engines associated with any popularinternet portal (Yahoo! or America Online, forexample) may be used to find literally thousands ofreferences on the subject

Table 1.3 Depth to Groundwater Data from GIS System

q 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

1.4 UNDERSTANDING DATA MANAGEMENT

NEEDS

Initially designing a data management program for an

investigation or experiment requires significant scientific

expertise However, after design and implementation,the processes generally follow a well-defined andstraightforward cycle In our groundwater contaminationexample, samples are routinely collected and sent tolaboratories where they are analyzed with the resultsreported in the form of a hard-copy analytical resultsreport From this point on, the data are put to multipleuses to meet a variety of needs Some portion of the dataare collected and reported under the requirements ofenvironmental permits, while additional data aregenerated voluntarily to further the objectives of soundenvironmental management Accountability for effec-tively managing the collection and utilization of thisinformation according to well-defined processes within

MW135 18.78

MW136 16.71

MW134 18.13

MW131 19.21

MW138 20.38

MW137 21.4

Groundwater elevation (ft MSL)

Groundwater elevation contour (dashed where inferred) 21.07

18

Figure 1.1 Example of groundwater elevation data from GIS System.

Table 1.4 Subset of Table 1.3 Data for August Events Only

Well_Id Loc_Type X_Coord Y_Coord Date Gwelev