What GIS does
One common misconception is that a GIS is simply a computer package to make maps. While maps are one product of a GIS, there is much more
that a GIS can do. GIS has become recognized as a tool of unlimited potential.
At the most basic level, a GIS manages information about locations and their physical relationships to each other. It also looks at how
things move through space, whether they are animals, humans, or pollutants. A GIS then combines information about where things are with what things are.
This management of spatial information allows a GIS to create new knowledge about something.
A GIS is called a system, because rather than than just software, it is an integration of five basic components:
The most important component of a GIS. People make a GIS work. These include not just technical specialists to run the system, but planners, managers,
scientists, and engineers. People must develop procedures and define the tasks of a GIS
Data is a very important, and often the most expensive component of a GIS. Data includes any information that relates to geography and specialty fields.
This could include information about air and water quality, parcels, flood zones, or census data. The quality and accuracy of data is an important consideration, as is
information describing the data itself, or metadata.
Hardware is the computer system on which a GIS operates. GIS software runs on a wide range of hardware types.
GIS software provides the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display geographic information. It can include other non-GIS
software such as databases, drawing, and statistical software.
A successful GIS operates requires well-designed implementation plans and business rules describing how the technology is applied
GIS can be useful in discovering sources of environmental pollution.
By displaying potential contaminating sources in an area, you can quickly assess visual relationships that could help identify
possible pollution sources.
This map shows the waters off of Bellows Air Station and the locations of cesspools, septic tanks, streams and storm drains.
These sources may have contributed to elevated levels of
enterococcus bacteria at DOH monitoring stations in Waimanalo Bay.
Underground Injection Control Line
The Underground Injection Control (UIC) Line is a line that separates areas above drinking water and non-drinking water groundwater resources. It is meant to protect
Hawaii's precious aquifers from possible contamination by chemical, physical, radioactive, or biological material due to
injection well activity.
Well construction is permitted and regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Branch
's UIC Program based on the potential for contamination due to the siting of injection wells.
Click here for more information about the UIC
Program and UIC permits.
To use the map below, use the navigation tools to zoom to your area of interest. Click on the map to find the UIC Code for that location:
Code1 - BELOW (makai) UIC LINE
- Underlying aquifer not considered drinking water source
- Wider variety of wells allowed
- Injection wells need UIC Permit or Permit Exemption
- Permit limitations are imposed
Code100 - ABOVE (mauka) UIC LINE
- Underlying aquifer considered drinking water source
- Limited types of injection wells allowed
- Injection wells need UIC Permit or Permit Exemption
- Permit limitations are imposed and requirements are more stringent
View Larger Map
Using GIS to discover historic areas of contamination
The Department’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response (HEER) Office
has been investigating soil contamination from Historic sugar plantation sites
in Hawaii for a number of years. When a HEER staff member came across photos taken in 1914 showing a plantation worker standing amidst containers marked
“poison” at Kilauea, Kauai, efforts began to investigate the site.
The Kilauea Sugar Company had operated at this location from 1877 to 1971. After the
plantation had closed, the land was put up for sale and later developed into a residential community. The HEER Office obtained old fire insurance maps of
the site showing buildings that were formerly used for pesticide mixing and storage. Although these buildings had been torn down since, several other original
warehouse buildings in the area were surprisingly still standing.
The scanned maps were overlaid onto an aerial image of the area and georeferenced using
the warehouses as reference points.
Since the map image was now properly spatially located, it could be placed on a parcel
layer showing property boundaries. This allowed the property owners and addresses in the area to be identified.
HEER staff contacted property owners and conducted soil testing in the vicinity of the former pesticide mixing/storage facility. Soil samples showed
high levels of arsenic and moderate levels of
dioxin residues. These levels exceeded State and
Federal Environmental Action Levels (EALs) at two residential
properties and in a stormwater drainage ditch behind a commercial warehouse.
An extensive cleanup program began, resulting in the removal of 814 tons of contaminated soil in the area. Sampling of other
properties in the community showed that the surface and subsurface soils did not pose a health risk. The contaminated soils were removed and replaced with new
clean soil. The drainage ditch was capped with a concrete barrier to provide stormwater drainage while continuing to isolate any additional contaminated soils.
230 air samples were taken throughout the process and showed no detection of any contaminants being released by the work.
This project involved the cooperation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Hawaii Deparment of Health, the Kilauea Community, and the County
of Kauai. Cleanup activities were completed on September 17, 2012. The HEER Office will oversee implementation of
Environmental Hazard Management Plans to ensure long-term protectiveness of the remedies at the affected properties.
A story detailing the discovery of the Kilauea site and its resolution was recently published in the Hawaii Journal of Public Health. It can be found
If you have any questions, please contact:
Environmental Planning Office
919 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 312
Honolulu, HI 96814
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Last update: 10 April 2013