Abstract

The population in Guam, Mariana Islands tripled between 1960 and 2010. Human induced activities have played an important role in environmental and landscape changes and environmental pollution, including water contamination. This research focuses on how human activities affect groundwater quality in Guam. In order to evaluate the impacts of human induced activities on groundwater quality, LandSat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) image of 1973, QuickBird image of 2006, historical groundwater quality data, and recent ground water quality data from 1996 to 2009 provided by Guam Waterworks Authority are applied. The satellite imagery can be utilized to extract areas affected by human activities and other features. The water quality data stored in spreadsheet format can be geo-coded to GIS data formats, and then can be analyzed with information derived from satellite imagery to evaluate the relationship between human induced activities and groundwater quality in space and time. Conclusions from this research indicate that drinking wells with water quality issues are affected by human activities.