Planner is "Testing the Waters" for New Ways to Map River Quality

Water isn’t a dry research topic for the University of Cincinnati’s Xinhao Wang, associate professor of

planning

.  For almost 10 years now, he’s been working locally, regionally and nationally to improve the safety of the water that goes down our drains when it contains shampoo, detergent, cleanser or other chemical agents that are part of daily life.  This water normally flows to wastewater treatment plants before returning to rivers and streams.   

Corporations, government agencies and universities constantly test these waters for contaminants even after they leave the treatment plants because many ever-fluctuating factors – including seasonal water levels, flow rate, concentration of contaminants, surrounding habitat and even the daily habits of a region’s population – can affect water quality.

In his latest research project, Wang is working with consumer products giant Procter and Gamble to create a model example of easy-to-use-and-understand computer maps that not only show water quality research results using simple, colorful maps and graphics but also serve as a record for scientists wanting the best guidance on sensitive locales that must be tested often.   The current project, focusing on the Yoda River near Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, builds on Wang’s past research in Ohio and in other regions within the U.S. as well as past P&G research monitoring the Tamagawa River near Tokyo.  

“Normally, water quality results are reported using many difficult-to-understand rows and columns of numbers and abbreviations,” explains Wang as he pulls up just such a  screen on his computer.  “It’s not a way of presenting information that’s immediately accessible, instantly understandable,“ he adds.

Thus, his electronic maps are charting a better course for understanding research results whether those results come from community groups that rely on volunteers to test local streams, from corporations or from Environmental Protection Agency scientists.  The maps depict a geographic area’s rivers and waterways and their levels of contamination using primary colors to indicate varying levels of risk.  Said Wang, “This is the kind of information that helps everyone from residents to researchers know where the hot spots are.”

Wang and planning graduate student Yoshinobu Sakano, both of UC's

College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning

, are just beginning to collect the research results available for the Yoda River.  They’ll then map those results using geographic information system (GIS) computer technology, and this will then be used by P&G scientists to hone efforts there. 

“P&G was interested in exploring different environmental models as we’ve done in the past in Europe and the United States.  It was a no brainer for us to connect with Xianho and Yoshi to explore better environmental models for Asia, particularly Japan…Yoshi is from Osaka,” explained Scott Dyer, principle scientist at P&G.  Wang and Dyer have worked together in the past to map research results in the United States after meeting in 1996 when Dyer took GIS classes led by Wang.

Dyer added, “The maps will better tell us where the watershed is most vulnerable, where to monitor for our compounds.  Up till now, we’ve often relied on expert opinion and historical data to ascertain where to monitor.  With the new technology now available and accessible, the entire system of rivers and their water treatment plants can be viewed in a much more systematic way.”

Waterways in Japan are at risk in different ways than those in the United States, according to Wang.  “All wastewater and grey water coming from U.S. homes are treated before returning to their natural sources,” explained Wang.  “In Japan, only the wastewater is specifically treated at water treatment plants before being returned to the environment.  The grey water, which would be water from the kitchen sink, the shower or the washing machine, returns to its source without treatment.”

Wang’s current research project is funded by a $30,000 grant from P&G.