Assessing Nonpoint Groundwater Contamination: Florida caves

Introduction

What is the distribution of land-use practices around caves in Florida that might impair groundwater quality?

The Floridan aquifer is the major source of potable water in Florida. It is a karst aquifer, making it more vulnerable to contamination from nonpoint sources, that is, contamination that does not originate from a single point, such as a leaking gasoline tank, but rather from land-use practices over larger, less identifiable areas. Potential sources of nonpoint contamination include agriculture, pasture, rangeland, poultry farms, urbanization, and golf courses. Because of their areal extent, nonpoint sources pose much more difficult challenges for maintaining quality groundwater than point contamination sources.

This lab assesses the susceptibility of 19 caves in northwest Florida to nonpoint groundwater contamination.

Location

The study area—19 caves in northwest Florida—is located along the Suwannee River.

Time to complete the lab

Using batch processing, this exercise will take approximately three hours.

Prerequisites

Intermediate GIS experience is required.

Data used in this lab

Caves (prepared by Can Denizman for the Florida Geological Survey)

2004 Land Use (Suwannee River Water Management District [SRWMD])

Geographic coordinate system: GCS_North_American_1983_HARN

Datum: D_North_American_1983_HARN

Projection: Albers conical equal area (Florida Geographic Data Library)