LAND & PROPERTY Remediation Prioritisation Scoring New Mexico
Project Summary
Remediation Prioritisation Scoring New Mexico
Key Project Elements Multiple Criteria Geographic Information System (GIS) Model Remediation Prioritisation Scoring
A number of sites across the State of New Mexico were considered for remediation and a method was required to determine remediation prioritisation. A GIS model was designed by CRA to provide a multi-criteria score, ranking sites based on risk to their surrounding environment. Criteria examined via publicly available data sources included:
Depth to groundwater (USGS National Well Information System) Proximity to surface water (USGS National Hydrography Dataset & U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wetland Inventory) Soil permeability (USDA NRCS SSURGO Soil Surveys) Sensitive habitats (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Critical Habitats) Proximity to residents (U.S. Census Bureau Census Blocks & USGS NWIS assumption) Property ownership (Bureau of Land Management)
These datasets were broken down to the county level to allow faster computation and modified to a common coordinate system as a final step. The data remained in vector format, and each criteria was linked to one another allowing final scoring via a field calculation. The output score polygons could be used to rank existing locations but also used as a base layer when considering land acquisition. The final deliverable was the GIS outputs, an e:DAT and a g:DAT allowing easy interaction with the scores.
Ref: 070336