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Methodologies utilized in assessing the characteristics and interactions associated with environmental data need to be able to consider all of the parts of the system simultaneously. This can be a complex procedure, no matter what methodology is utilized. With the relatively recent advancement of computer power has come the ability to write more and more complex software suited to storing, manipulating, and analyzing larger amounts of data. As a result, we now have the ability to work with large amounts of data simultaneously.
Traditionally, data has been analyzed in smaller, more manageable segments. Analyzing data as a body allows one to realize trends and interactions that may not be obvious when they are considered on a smaller scale. Analyzing larger sets of data is also more efficient in that procedures that often need to be repeated for each set of data can be performed for all data sets a single time. There are also great advantages in the ability to store all the data associated with a site in one location. This is not only a more efficient manner to store data, but also provides a mechanism to query data for specific desirable parameters associated with a specific project.
The Microsoft Access® relational database and Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS ArcMap ® program are two such applications that are today accepted as industry standards in data analysis. Each caters to a different aspect of data (i.e. a datum’s inherent relationship among another datum and data’s spatial relationship, respectively). The two are often used in concert to visualize regional groundwater and contaminant characteristics.
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