OVERVIEW

Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management (MCZM), within the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), has compiled a water quality sampling GIS coverage for the Parker River/Essex Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) project. The purpose of the project was to develop a regional picture of water quality information. The coverage has an associated database including information on who is collecting the samples and the parameters being measured for each site. The focus area for this project includes the areas between Salisbury and Gloucester. In ArcSDE the layer is named WQMSTAT_PT.

CZM gathered existing information from agencies and organizations doing water quality sampling in this area, most of which was not in a GIS format. These agencies included: Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF); Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Environmental Law Enforcement (DFWELE) Division of Watershed Management (DWM); Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA); Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS); Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (MVPC); Parker River Clean Watershed Association (PRCWA); and Woods Hole/Marine Biological Lab. Data was then compiled in ArcView as Shapefiles and joined with each agency's database. This process varied for each agency depending on their existing data format, described as follows:

DEP DMF: Data points were downloaded from MassGIS as an ArcInfo Export file and imported to ArcView. The associated database was compiled as a spreadsheet and joined with the shapefile.

DFWELE DWM, MVPC, Woods Hole/Marine Biological Lab: Data points and attributes were compiled by each agency and sent as an ArcView shapefile.

IRWA, MAS, PRCWA: Data points were identified by each agency on USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle maps and were then on-screen digitized using scanned quad images from MassGIS. The associated database was created from existing reports and reports that are in the process of being completed by agency staff.

This data layer has a point attribute table with the following items:
 

ID		ID NUMBER FROM THE VARIOUS AGENCIES
STATN_CODE		STATION ID ASSIGNED BY WATERSHED TEAM
STAT_CODE		STATION CODE INCLUDING ORGANIZATION
STAT_NAME		STATION NAME AS GIVEN BY THE ORGANIZATION MONITORING
HOW_OFTEN		HOW OFTEN SAMPLES WERE TAKEN
PARAMETERS		PARAMETERS BEING SAMPLED
STREAM		NAME OF WATER WHERE STATION IS LOCATED
TOWN		NAME OF TOWN WHERE STATION IS LOCATED
METHOD		HOW PARAMETERS WERE BEING TESTED
REPORT		REPORT FROM WHICH THIS INFORMATION WAS RECEIVED
SOURCE		HOW STATION WAS LOCATED ON THE MAP
FECALCOLI		DETERMINES IF FECAL COLIFORM WAS SAMPLED FOR
DATE_START		DATE SAMPLE COLLECTION BEGAN
DATE_STOP		DATE SAMPLE COLLECTION ENDED
CONTACT		ORGANIZATION RESPONSIBLE FOR SAMPLING SITE

MAINTENANCE

All project work has been archived at MCZM offices. For further information, please contact the Data Manager at (617) 626-1222, MCZM, Boston, MA.

Last Updated 6/8/2007
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