Nonpoint Source Pollution Planning
Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) Pilot Study
Greater Egypt Regional Planning & Development Commission has received a Water Quality Management Planning Grant to conduct an agricultural water quality study in Jackson and Williamson counties. The goal of this study is to utilize unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, to compare agricultural land that implements best management practices (BMPs) for water quality with agricultural land that does not. BMPs of interest include grassed waterways, filter strips, riparian buffers, cover crops, and conservation tillage.
UAS will be used to take aerial photographs, create a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and normalized difference red edge (NDRE) crop index for each sample site being examined. Greater Egypt will also conduct water samples near project sites to test nutrient and sediment levels throughout the project duration. This data will be used to analyze water flow, crop yields, nutrient applications, and effects from increased runoff and/or lack of precipitation events.
Greater Egypt also plans to create an Agricultural Working Group for the project. Members of the group will provide farming expertise and assist in the selection of project sites. Any data collected will be made freely available upon completion of the project.
Click here for a map of potential sites and the interest survey
Meetings slides and minutes will be available on this page
Carbondale Urbanized Area Urban Heat Island (UHI) Pilot Study
Greater Egypt is conducting a pilot study to investigate the effects of Urban Heat Islands in the Carbondale Urbanized Area. Goals of the project are to create a priority index to determine which areas of the community have the highest UHI effects and would benefit from green infrastructure implementation and other mitigation techniques. The index will be scored by census block on a variety of criteria, including surface temperature and canopy cover. Greater Egypt will also form a Planning Group with the City of Carbondale and other community organizations to get input and ideas for future projects.
To view details on the project and provide public comment, view the StoryMap at the links below:
Mobile Device Version UHI StoryMap
| Date | Location | Agenda | Materials |
| 12/15/22 | Virtual Meeting (Zoom) | X | Presentation Slides |