App: Harvest H2O
Hosted on GitHub:
Hosted in ArcGIS Online:
- Mission Statement Storymap: https://arcg.is/0jSiKK
Mission statement
Stormwater runoff has become a serious and growing problem in Canadian cities, overflowing sewage treatment plants, polluting waterways, causing flooding, and other damaging impacts. Impervious surfaces in urban landscapes, like parking lots, streets, sidewalks, and other concrete exteriors prevent rainwater from infiltrating into the ground. As these urban surfaces are frequently polluted by toxic chemicals, oils, and trash, this negatively affects water quality as it becomes concentrated with toxins, pathogens and pollution from the surfaces it runs off.
The rainwater picks up pollutants including harmful chemicals, trash, metals from urban surfaces through storm sewers into local waterways. A sustainable technique that urban residents can participate in to mitigate stormwater runoff and conserve water is rainwater harvesting.
Rainwater Harvesting is the practice of collecting rainwater from a roof or hard surface through gutters or conduits and diverting it to a storage container for future reuse. Although rainwater can be treated to a potable water standard, in urban settings it is typically used for non-potable water uses such as flushing toilets, urinals, washing laundry, vehicle washing, gardening, and irrigation. In urban areas, rainwater harvesting has the potential to provide a number of benefits to users and the municipal water utility system including a reduced volume of stormwater runoff, conserve water, reduce municipal energy costs for pumping water, and costs savings on utility bills.
For the Esri Canada GIS Centres of Excellence (ECCE) App Challenge 2019, our team created an ArcGIS Web App called Harvest H20. Our app seeks to show the residents of the City of Toronto the benefits of sustainable water conservation through practicing rainwater harvesting in their single detached houses. Our application will demonstrate to users how much money they can save annually and the percentage of water that can be saved compared to the average annual consumption by adding a rainwater harvesting system by selecting on homes or searching addresses.
Video Presentation
Documentation
Team Members
MinJee Kim: (left) I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at McMaster University in the Honours Geography and Environmental Science program. I am interested in using GIS applications for urban planning. During my free time I enjoy riding horses and meeting friends.
JunLi Hu: (middle left) I am a fifth year Honours Earth & Environmental Science Co-op student with specialization at GIS. My career interests focus in GIS, Urban Planning, Environmental Assessment and Hydrogeology field. I have successfully completed the course including Introductory GIS, Advances in Geospatial Techniques, Advanced Raster GIS, Remote Sensing and Statistical Analysis. My previous Co-op work experience allows me to gain extensive experience in spatial data mapping/analysis, census data analysis, and electrical vehicle researches.
Todd Wong: (middle right) I am a fourth year undergraduate student studying both Geography and Anthropology at McMaster University. My interest in GIS sparked in my third year of university after taking the introductory course. Over the past two years I have taken numerous GIS courses at McMaster University along with submitting projects to the ESRI Young Scholar Contest. This year I thought I would test my abilities by participating in the App Challenge.
Maryose D’Arienzo: (right) As a fourth-year undergraduate studying biology and environmental sciences, I am interested in improving the environmental challenges we face, resulting from the coexistence of rich biodiversity, industry, and human population. Learning to use GIS has strengthened my spatial thinking abilities when solving problems and it has been an invaluable tool for analysis and communication in my studies. I am excited to participate in this year’s app challenge as a culmination of my GIS courses at McMaster. Additional hobbies include photography and playing guitar.