Geographic information system-based selection of health risks for waterborne disease resulting from environmental exposure to wastewater

Local decision makers need an unbiased process to determine small communities at risk from inadequate wastewater treatment. The geographic information system (GIS) enables decision makers to identify impacted communities and establish a fair and equitable approach to allocation of resources for remediation strategies. The use of GIS in this manner is demonstrated for Tennessee, USA, but the methodology is applicable broadly. GIS was used to develop methodology for identifying communities with a population of 10,000 or less in which there existed public health, water quality and/or aesthetic impacts associated with inadequate wastewater treatment. The GIS approach, normalized by population, identified communities with the highest ranking problems, as well as control communities that had no known health, water quality or aesthetic problems due to inadequate wastewater treatment.