NYC Seasonal Enterococcus Assessment

NYC Seasonal Enterococcus Assessment

GIS Project

Sherif Kamal

Microbial Aerosols and Water to Air Transfer:

.Sewage released gets restricted to the surface in a density-stratified layer.

.Sewage and antibiotic resistant bacteria are present in HRE surface waters.

.Any surface disruption of the contaminated waters may cause the release of raw sewage in the air.

Questions:

 Do we meet EPA standards in the HRE region in regards to levels of Enterococcus?

  Are there areas at more risk than others close to CSO?

 Do the Patterns show any form of environmental discrimination?

  Any Year long similarities?

Sources:

  Bytes of The Big Apple http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtm

  MapPluto

  American FactFinder http://factfinder2.census.gov

  The RiverKeeper http://www.riverkeeper.org

Methods:   Weekly Samples were collected from Previous Personal research and the

River Keeper of levels of Enterococcus in the Hudson River Estuary.

  Data from 2008 to 2012 were averaged from the exact same months and time of sampling and Coordinates verified using Google Earth.

  Excel spreadsheet was created with values for every season and X and Y Long and Lat.

  Maps of NYC area were layered to give desired look added to GIS and attributes tables matched and joined

  Thematic maps created for each season with EPA standards and then put together for analysis

  Income attribute table from Census joined to maps to show low to high income regions and Hazard ranking was established for each season.

  Ranks where placed over income maps to compare values

  And a year long danger map was clipped and created

Levels for Spring.

Levels for Summer

Levels For Fall

3 Seasons Comparison:

Ranking Danger Level Fall:

A Ranking Map Was Created For Each Season

Income Level Spring

Income and Danger Levels

Income Level Summer

Income and Danger Levels

Income Level Fall

Income and Danger Level Comparisons.

Year Long Danger.

¶

Year Long High Danger West Harlem Peirs

[

0 0.65 1.3 1.95 2.60.325Miles

1 in = 1 miles

Danger Zone

¶ High

Income Level

Low

Results:

  Enterococcus EPA Acceptable levels are not met.

  Some values are extremely high.

  Low income level location suffers most bacteria levels.

  Spring and Summer seasons are worse than Fall due to precipitations.