Optimizing data management for municipal source water protection

Julia Cyr-Gagnon and Manuel J. Rodriguez

Land Use Policy, 2021, vol. 100, issue C

Abstract: Municipalities face considerable challenges implementing source water protection strategies, a key component of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). In Quebec (Canada), these challenges have further increased with the implementation of a new regulation concerning water withdrawals and protection that requires mandatory watershed-scale management. The integration of spatially-referenced land use data with source-to-tap water quality data is a crucial step for source water protection (SWP). This information is provided by several stakeholders who use different data sources and data structures that are not always compatible. The main objective of this article was to test and improve a water quality data management system to integrate reliable data required to estimate source water vulnerability. The system offers a flexible data collection and sharing software platform enhanced by the implementation of international metadata requirement-based standards. We applied the software to the first steps of the regulatory requirement for source water protection (SWP) in the Province of Quebec, Canada, based on a case study of a municipality supplied by a surface water source. The main focus of this study was to test the software on the first three steps of source water protection: (1) Description municipality water intake; (2) Delimitation – Source Protection Area; (3) Characterization – Source water vulnerability. We experimented these steps with the two main challenges faced by water managers responsible for applying source water protection: (i) data management; and (ii) data validation.

Keywords: Source water protection; Source water vulnerability; Data quality; Water quality data management; GIS; Water regulation; Metadata; Quebec; Canada (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:100:y:2021:i:c:s0264837718303223

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.12.035

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