title: Development of a geographic information system-based decision support toolset to assess the feasibility of on-site wastewater treatment and disposal options in low permeability subsoils.
abstract: Traditional on-site wastewater treatment systems have proven to be unsuitable in areas of low permeability subsoils, representing a risk to human health and the environment. With large areas being covered by low permeability tills, Ireland needs to consider alternative treatment and disposal options to be able to allow further development in these areas and to deal with polluting legacy sites. The paper describes the development and structure of a geographic information system (GIS)-based decision support toolset to evaluate possible alternative strategies for these sites. The programme takes as its initial input the location of an existing house located in an area of low permeability subsoils. Through a series of interconnected GIS geoprocesses the model outputs appropriate solutions for a site, ranking them in terms of environmental sustainability and cost. However, the final decisions are still dependent on on-site constraints so that each solution is accompanied by an alert message that provides additional information for the user to refine the output list according to the available local site-specific information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail: dubberd@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: Donata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dubber
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail: dubberd@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pilla
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Geocomputation, Iontas Building, National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Maynooth, Ireland.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Geocomputation, Iontas Building, National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Maynooth, Ireland.
authors.forename: Nadeem
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Qazi
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Geocomputation, Iontas Building, National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Maynooth, Ireland.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail: dubberd@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: Laurence W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D005191:Family Characteristics; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D010539:Permeability; D012987:Soil; D062065:Wastewater; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D062065:Wastewater