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Shallow Aquifer Conditions In The Greater Barrington Region: Assessing Groundwater Elevations And Municipal Water Use (2014-2024)
No full textGroundwater in the Greater Barrington area is sourced from shallow “sand and gravel” (Henry Formation) and “bedrock” (Silurian dolomite) aquifers. Because the area has a high reliance on private wells tapping these sources, their sustainable management is critical. The Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG) maintains a comprehensive monitoring network to track groundwater levels. This report updates a previous analysis (2014–2019) by incorporating data through 2024 to assess recent changes in groundwater levels and municipal water use. Methods include analyzing municipal withdrawal data from the Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP), analyzing hydrographs from United States Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring wells, performing Seasonal Mann-Kendall (SMK) tests for statistical trends, calculating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for precipitation context, and developing annual potentiometric surfaces using geographic information system (GIS) interpolation tools.
Groundwater levels in the study area from 2020–2024 showed stabilization or decline, shifting from the generally increasing trends observed up to 2019. While the overall configuration of the potentiometric surface remained consistent — with a groundwater high west of the Fox River and lower levels east of the Fox River, where the aquifer system is confined — SMK analysis revealed statistically significant decreasing trends over the last five years at the South Barrington (approx. -1.25 to -1.5 ft/yr) and Deer Park (approx. -0.5 to -0.75 ft/yr) USGS wells. This recent shift towards stabilization or decline coincided with moderately to severely dry conditions indicated by SPI analysis, suggesting climate variability is a significant factor influencing recent groundwater levels. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that regional municipal withdrawals from shallow aquifers continued along the generally declining trend observed since 2010.
Potentiometric change maps reveal complex patterns influenced by climate and measurement protocols. Specifically, within the BACOG boundary, groundwater levels declined, on average, by approximately 3 feet over the 2019-2024 period due to contrasting wet and dry end-year conditions. Over a seven-year static comparison (2017-2024), groundwater levels increased, on average, by 0.8 feet. The ten-year comparison yielded a mean apparent increase approaching 4 feet. However, this value is significantly biased by the comparison of initial pumping levels to later static levels at municipal wells, therefore limiting definitive conclusions about the true decadal trend.
The findings highlight the shallow aquifer system's sensitivity to climatic fluctuations. Continued comprehensive monitoring is crucial to differentiate climate-driven changes from potentially unsustainable water demand trends. Recommendations include continuing to maintain BACOG’s planned consistent static water level measurements, prioritizing water quality investigations, further analysis of localized declining trends, enhancing data coverage, and considering the development of a numerical groundwater flow model to better understand system dynamics and future outcomes under varying conditions.The Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG
Effectiveness of Geosynthetics in Soil/Aggregate Stabilization—Evaluation Using Bender Element Sensor Technology
No full textThis report presents laboratory evaluations of the effectiveness of geosynthetics in stabilizing unbound aggregate layers and develops design guidelines for using geosynthetic-stabilized pavements in Illinois. The research focused on quantifying benefits from geosynthetic mechanical stabilization and incorporating those benefits into pavement analysis and design procedures. An experimental program was conducted, including laboratory triaxial testing and large-scale test bed evaluations. Twelve geosynthetic products, including ten geogrids (integral or punched and drawn, welded, and woven) and two geotextiles (woven and nonwoven), were tested. Six common aggregate materials were evaluated, including dense-graded aggregates (e.g., IDOT CA 6, CA 6/10, partially crushed gravel, recycled concrete aggregate) and open-graded aggregates (AASHTO No. 57, IDOT RR 01) with selected geosynthetics. Bender element sensor technology was used to quantify modulus enhancement due to geosynthetic inclusion through increased shear wave velocity measurements. The study found that geosynthetics can enhance the modulus of aggregate layers, and both integral and welded geogrids generally outperformed woven geogrids and geotextiles. Proper matching between geogrid aperture size and aggregate particle size was essential for achieving effective interlocking in open-graded materials. The zone of influence for geogrids to form a mechanically stabilized layer was typically about 4 in. The results were integrated into finite element analysis (FEA) models to simulate pavement layered structures and solve for the response behavior. The vertical deviator stress computed on a subgrade using FEA was typically reduced when a geosynthetic was present at the base-subgrade layer interface, indicating a response benefit. Design guidelines were developed to recommend reduced aggregate base thicknesses when geosynthetics are used. These guidelines are intended to update IDOT’s Subgrade Stability Manual and the Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual for Class IV low-volume roads. This study provided ready-to-use recommendations for geosynthetic selection and its benefits based on the laboratory quantification of modulus enhancement used in the mechanistic pavement analysis.IDOT-R27-23
We Need to Talk About How We Compensate School Staff
No full textMost of public school operational budgets are dedicated to compensating staff, and school staff are important for schools and students. Yet discussions about teacher shortages and teacher quality have tended to ignore many important aspects of school staff compensation beyond broad generalizations about average teacher salary levels. Consequently, these discussions are often muddled. In this essay, I highlight five important choices about school staff compensation faced by school district boards and other policymakers that are commonly neglected: the choices (1) to hire more staff rather than to pay staff more; (2) to replace salary with benefits; (3) to backload rather than frontload compensation; (4) to make compensation contingent on education; and (5) to compensate staff uniformly rather than to strategically differentiate compensation. How school systems navigate these choices, and their trade-offs, has implications for their ability to recruit and retain high quality staff. Rather than taking for granted the decisions of stakeholders in the past - which has tended to obscure potential solutions to staff recruitment and retention problems – school leaders and policymakers should make these choices actively and explicitly on an ongoing basis. Additionally, researchers should do more to inform their decisions
Drug Use and Misuse: A Community Health Perspective
No full textWith technical editors Janet Swatscheno and Heejoung Shin.
Drug Use and Misuse: A Community Health Perspective provides students with an introduction to the biological, psychological, and legal aspects of drug use and misuse through the lens of community health and discusses the impact of drug use and misuse on community health. The book contains eight distinct chapters addressing the background of drug use and misuse, including key terms, as well as an introduction to different categories of drugs including gateway drugs, opioids, and prescription drugs, and a conclusion that describes evidence-based prevention and treatment models. Originally developed for use in the popular undergraduate survey course “Drug Use and Abuse” taught at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the book is aimed at students learning about community health and the effects of drug use in a variety of contexts, such as survey courses for pharmacology, psychology, or public health.
The authors would like to thank Sara Benson and the University of Illinois Library for providing the funds and guidance to support this project.
Please cite this book using the DOI: 10.21900/wd.1
Planning for Encounters with Special Management Areas: Characterization, Management Approaches, and Syntheses
No full textThe Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) manages land with considerable conservation value. Some IDOT roadways contain, or are near, special management areas (SMAs): places that have legal protection, are habitat for species with legal protection, or contain valuable biodiversity. Although SMAs are important for IDOT’s environmental objectives, historically, IDOT has addressed the management of SMAs on an as-needed basis with no broad-scale management plan or characterizations. We investigated SMAs on or near IDOT property, aiming to compile information and to help set the stage for a cohesive management strategy. We used mapping, policy and literature review, and a survey of roadside stakeholders to better understand SMAs and their management. We identified over 8,000 SMAs across Illinois on or near IDOT roadways. Municipal parks, habitat with protected species, and Illinois Natural Areas Inventory sites were the most frequent SMA types. SMAs tended to consist of forest, grassland, or wetland habitats that were geographically concentrated in northeastern and southern Illinois. We received survey responses from stakeholders across 20 states. The most reported practices for managing SMAs included mowing, herbicide application, native seeding, and brush/tree cutting. Participants noted the difficulty of controlling invasive plants, insufficient funding, logistical constraints, and limited staffing as obstacles to achieving management objectives. We created a template of best management practices—conventional sets of practices that are effective for conserving sensitive biological resources. We overview frequently encountered scenarios in common natural areas encountered by IDOT and provide suggested management practices based on the literature and survey responses. Broadly, we suggest management can be improved by carefully timing activities, hiring or training specialized staff, communicating spatial information on SMAs, and considering a prevention-based rather than reactive management doctrine. Our efforts can be a foundation for more detailed best management practices and formulation of an integrated roadside vegetation management plan.IDOT-R27-SP6
Patron Comparison of Psychological Well-Being Impact: GenAI Tool vs. Librarian Consultation - Version 1
No full textThis instrument compares patrons’ psychological experiences when seeking help from a human librarian versus a generative AI (GenAI) tool. The scale includes seven items that assess stress, emotional discomfort, clarity, confidence, sense of being unstuck, and overall satisfaction. Respondents rate each dimension on a 6-point comparative scale (from “HL is much worse than GenAI” to “HL is much better than GenAI”), with an additional “Not sure” option.Library Assessment Gran
AEMS News and Reviews: Fall 1998 (Vol. 1, No. 2)
No full textThis issue of AEMS News and Reviews (Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 1998) features reviews of educational media including "Hello! From Around the World!: Bali," "Japanese: The Spoken Language," "Fish is Our Life!," "The Confucian Tradition," "China: The PBS Series," "On Common Ground: World Religions in America," "Between Two Worlds: A Japanese Pilgrimage," and "Inside Burma: Land of Fear," each offering insight into language, culture, religion, and daily life across Asia and beyond.Center for East Asian and Pacific Studie
AEMS News and Reviews: Fall 2005 (Vol. 8, No. 2)
No full textThe Fall 2005 issue of AEMS News and Reviews (Vol. 8, No. 2) features reviews of educational films covering diverse global topics. "Pandemic: Facing AIDS" explores the worldwide AIDS crisis through personal stories from various countries including Thailand, India, Brazil, Uganda, and Russia. "Global Villages: The Globalization of Ethnic Display" examines how ethnic cultures are presented and commercialized in theme parks in China and Japan. "Nuclear Nightmare: Understanding North Korea" delves into the geopolitical tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the country's internal dynamics. Finally, "City Life: The Long March" highlights urban environmental challenges, specifically a major water pollution clean-up project in Chengdu, China.Center for East Asian and Pacific Studie