FINDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE STATE OF A SEWER NETWORK AND SUBSURFACE POLLUTION USING GIS TOOLS

The process wastewater sewer network lacking of regular maintenance could represent a potential source for soil and groundwater contamination for industrial sites. In order to verify the presence of possible connections between known soil and groundwater contamination within a site area and its sewer network conditions, it could be useful to develop a tool for collecting and linking data on characterization and remediation activities performed on site, sewer physical characteristics (construction materials, installation year) and results of sewage inspection/maintenance activities. The development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be the right solution. GIS is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced, consisting in a database integrated with a cartographic front-end through which a user can perform data visualization, editing and analysis. This system can improve data mining capabilities of an environmental analyst that can query alphanumerical datasets containing environmental data as well as spatial datasets containing site maps that can be integrated with model outputs (i.e.: location of sewer pipes and contamination plumes, etc). The GIS system allows to view and query overlying thematic layers looking for spatial trends (i.e. correlation between the location of the oldest sewer pipes and the known contaminated areas). The results of such kind of analysis can allow industrial sites to plan a well-focused sewer maintenance program.