Modeling Impact of Urban Development on Water Quality Using Microbial Source Tracking and Pathogen Occurrence

Learn about urban development's impact on water quality through a 17-minute conference presentation from the Georgia Water Resources Conference that examines microbial contamination in Atlanta's Proctor Creek watershed. Explore how researchers used advanced molecular techniques and machine learning to track fecal bacteria sources and predict pathogen occurrence in an urbanized watershed. Discover the relationship between impervious surface coverage and water quality indicators like E. coli and human-associated Bacteroides, while understanding how environmental variables influence pathogen presence. Follow along as the presentation covers sampling methods, quantitative analysis techniques, and modeling approaches that revealed impervious cover as a critical predictor for bacterial contamination. Gain insights into potential water quality management strategies for urban watersheds based on comprehensive data collected from 2015-2018 across 12 sampling sites.