A Geographical Information System for Risk Assessment of Toxic Seabed Dumpsites

A GIS-based data presentation system developed within the framework of the EU-sponsored project SITAR (Seafloor Imaging and Toxicity: Assessment of Risks caused by buried waste) is presented. The data presentation system has the aim of integrating in a meaningful, user-oriented way, the information gathered through the methodologies and techniques investigated in the project. These methodologies allow to include data on location and 3-D acoustic reconstruction of buried waste containers, and accumulated biotoxicity data, in addition to more standard environmental and oceanographic information. The data presentation system has been employed to store the data related to the SITAR experimental site at Moja Soderfijard Bay, in the Stockholm Archipelago. In particular, both SITAR generated and historical data have been included. A final evaluation procedure has been implemented, in which, in addition to test the funcionalities of the final system vis-à-vis the original specification, also a structured subjective evaluation of the GIS interface by a group of potential end-users has been performed. This systematic investigation allows to evaluate the respondance of the presentation system to the needs of the end-user community (not always coincident with the formal system specification) and evidentiate future needs and evolution © 2005 IEEE