The development of a GIS methodology to assess the potential for water resource contamination due to new development in the 2012 Olympic Park site, London

The Initial Screening Tool (IST) has been developed to enable Planners to assess the potential risk to ground and surface water due to remobilisation of contaminants by new developments. The IST is a custom built GIS application that improves upon previous screening tools developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) through the inclusion of 3-D geological data and an enhanced scoring methodology. The key new feature of the IST is the ability to track individual pollutant linkages, from a source of contamination, along multiple possible Pathways to potentially susceptible Receptors. A rule based approach allows the methodology to be easily updated, and as a result the IST has a role in scenario planning. The application provides output in the form of an automatically generated report, in which details of the potential pollutant linkages identified are presented. The initial research area selected was the Olympic Park site, London.

► We describe the Initial Screening Tool, a GIS for identifying pollutant linkages.
► The tool aids the assessment of potential risk to groundwater and surface water.
► The methodology is unique in its use of 3-D geological data.
► Network Analysis is used to model the flow of surface water features.