Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
The Application of GIS in Watershed Planning:
The Case of the Western Lake Erie Basin
Kathryn Rousseau and Patrick L. Lawrence
Abstract The Western Lake Erie Basin has been targeted as a major contributor of
non-point source pollution into Lake Erie largely due to its predominant land use;
agriculture. An increased use of GIS among planners in watershed related issues is
needed in order to improve their decision-making capabilities to address the overall
health of the watershed. An online GIS system had been created for data sharing
and management across the Western Lake Erie Basin. The object of this study was
to conduct a survey examining the usage of GIS across the Western Lake Erie Basin
in order to advance the knowledge of civic leaders, agency administrators, and
planners involved in managing the watershed. Survey participants were asked about
their current use of GIS, spatial data resources, data distribution, data sharing, data
exchange, and future use of GIS. The survey analysis indicated that while the
current online GIS system was a good start, there needed to be more training on
how to use GIS among the watershed planning community.
Keywords GIS Non-point source pollution Watershed planning
9.1
Introduction
The Western Lake Erie Basin has been targeted by United States Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) as a major
contributor of non-point source pollution into Lake Erie. In 2005, NRCS developed
a plan to use Rapid Resource Assessments, Area Wide Planning, and acceleration
of USDA Farm Bill programs to address the resource concerns for the Western
