What We Do
What We Do
The Oak Ridges Moraine Groundwater Program (ORMGP) maintains a hydrogeological knowledge system that is relied upon by our partners including public sector agencies, consulting companies and academia. The breadth of the ORMGP is extensive, as a rigorous hydrogeological understanding requires knowledge of how water moves through the subsurface (geology, water levels, water takings, water quality), how much water is available to enter the groundwater system (climate and topographic data), and how much water is leaving the system (streamflow).
Data Management
The ORMGP advocates for data-driven decision-making, emphasizing the importance of ready access to high-quality data. The program’s extensive database, one of Canada’s largest actively managed groundwater databases, contains a wealth of geological and hydrogeological data.
Interpretation
Data alone only partially informs water-related decisions. The program includes interpreted products to understand subsurface geology and groundwater flow. It has developed an authoritative understanding of the geological layering, groundwater flow system, and its linkage to surface waters, which is continually refined and improved.
Decision Support
ORMGP uses its extensive database to make skillful interpretations, enhancing the knowledge of subsurface geology and groundwater flow. This information is integrated into online decision-support tools, providing clarity and effective communication. Partner agencies and consultants benefit from this cooperative approach, advancing groundwater knowledge in Ontario. ORMGP—a decision support system that saves time and money!
To maintain and build upon the overall achievements of the ORMGP, the following steps are regularly undertaken:
- Coordination of disparate datasets to investigate relationships between different types of data (e.g., geologic descriptions, groundwater levels, climate, and streamflow).
- Regular imports of data from partner agencies (and others) into our database to ensure it is up-to-date.
- Regular analyses of the data to investigate spatial, vertical, and/or temporal trends, which are then offered to technical partners.
- Maintenance of the ORMGP interactive website portal to enable access to information in various ways (e.g., raw data download, mapping, graphing, stories) for technical staff to investigate and better understand the subsurface and water resources across a large part of south-central Ontario.
Detailed descriptions of the work that has gone into the data assembly/management, interpretation and decision support work are available through the links provided below. Note that this work is ongoing and descriptions for the entirety of the website are not yet complete. As we continue to complete full descriptions of different aspects of the program, they will be added here.
- Mapping
- Overview of ORMGP Mapping – Theme Maps
- Geology Theme Map
- Land Use Theme Map
- Land Use Properties – Solris Version 3 Mapping
- Water Table Theme Map
- Overview of ORMGP Mapping – Theme Maps
- Numerical Modeling
- Technology/Tools
- Mapping
