Application of GIS to the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) data from Long Island Sound
- Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI (United States). Environmental Research Lab.
Data from EPA`s EMAP-Estuaries monitoring study (1990--1993) were used in conjunction with GIS (Geographic Information System-ArcInfo) to establish the association of point source discharges and discrete land use activities with specific environmental impacts. All permitted discharges were identified by geographic location, type, volume, likely waste products, and land use characterized as to developed, agriculture, forests, wetlands, and water. Environmental parameters that were measured as part of the EMAP-Estuaries data set include: concentrations of specific chemical pollutants in sediments that exceeded the Effects Ratio-Median (ER-M); sediment toxicity to the amphipod, Ampelisca abdita; a measure of the diversity and abundance of benthic infauna (Benthic Index); and the presence of adverse physical conditions (e.g., low dissolved oxygen (D.O.), high organic carbon content in sediments). Results indicate that areas within the Sound that exhibit sediment toxicity and ER-M exceedences are generally in small embayments associated with high human population densities. Several other stations exhibiting toxicity and ER-M exceedences are at the mouths of river systems (Housatonic and Quinnipiac) that receive large volumes of effluent from municipal and industrial dischargers. Impacts on benthic communities occur both in several small embayments and in Long Island Sound (LIS) proper. Within the Sound, impacts are strongly associated with low D.O., principally in the Western Sound where the largest population centers are located, flushing is poor and the land use category is primarily urban. Specific chemical contaminants, sediment toxicity and infaunal impacts can be related to quantitative land use and effluent characteristics.
- OSTI ID:
- 390182
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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