My Community’s Water is a web-based interactive tool for geographic information system analysis (GIS) of water resources in the 122 local political jurisdictions of Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties. It can be accessed here or through the website for Ohio·Kentucky·Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI).
Water resource decisions usually occur at the local level even though water resources are more beholden to natural watersheds and aquifer areas than local political boundaries. The main purpose of My Community’s Water is to help citizens and their communities make informed decisions. Water resource data is subdivided by each township, village or city in the four-county study area. The following facts are conveyed through maps, tables, pie charts and text:
- Rivers, streams and, where they are significant, lakes, ponds and wetlands
- Total stream miles
- Total community land area and land area portions for characteristics that follow
- Watersheds
- Aquifers, where they exist
- Impervious surface and road miles
- Tree canopy
- Population and households, for both the entire community and the community’s watersheds
- Floodplains
- General terrain
- Hydrologic soil groups and associated stormwater runoff characteristics
Related knowledge is addressed in a descriptive profile written for each local political jurisdiction.
Staff members of OKI’s Regional Planning Department, Geographic Information System Division and Communications Department jointly prepared My Community’s Water. The State of Ohio funded the project and Ohio EPA administered that funding. In addition to informing the public, My Community’s Water also serves as Chapter 9* of the Water Quality Management Plan for Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties in Ohio (OKI, 2016). Under Section 208 of the federal Clean Water Act, the Water Quality Management Plan is OKI’s main guidance document for its role as a federally designated regional water quality management planning agency.