Quebec Contaminated-Site Screening: Groundwater-Well Proximity, Site Geometry, and Decision Uncertainty — Data and Reproducibility Code

Description This repository provides the research data, GIS analysis scripts, derived results, and reproducibility materials supporting the manuscript Screening Incomplete Contaminated-Site Inventories: Groundwater-Receptor Proximity, Spatial Representation, and Decision Uncertainty in Quebec, Canada, prepared for the Journal of Environmental Management. The analysis uses public environmental records from Données Québec, including the Répertoire des terrains contaminés (GTC) and the Système d'information hydrogéologique (SIH). The archived source datasets were downloaded on 26 October 2026 and are preserved to support reproducibility because the underlying government inventories may be updated over time. The study examines 11,502 unique contaminated-site records and 263,735 registered groundwater wells. It compares nearest-well distances calculated from published site coordinates with distances calculated from full registered site geometries, including lines, polygons, and multipoints. The analysis considers exploratory screening distances of 100 m, 500 m, and 1,000 m. At 1,000 m, the full-geometry approach identifies 33 additional proximity-screening classifications among the analyzed non-point sites, with no corresponding removals in the reported comparison. For the 11,467 single-region sites, the hypothetical preliminary-review queue increases from 9,170 to 9,203 records. The repository includes: Archived government GeoPackage source files. Derived GIS analysis and screening-classification workbooks. Spatial validation and verification scripts. Preliminary review-queue comparison results. Numerical checks and figure-generation materials. Four research figures in PDF and PNG formats. Data provenance, methodological limitations, dependency specifications, and SHA-256 checksums. The analysis uses a projected coordinate reference system (EPSG:32198) for metric distance calculations. The supplied scripts support verification of the principal screening results from the preserved historical source snapshot. Important limitations: Proximity to a registered groundwater well does not establish groundwater contamination, hydraulic connectivity, actual drinking-water use, exposure, or remediation priority. The screening thresholds are exploratory scenarios rather than established regulatory limits. The analysis is based on Quebec records, and independent validation on a second contaminated-site inventory is not included in this release. The original government datasets are attributed to Données Québec and their respective public-sector data providers. Source-data licensing and separately developed research code are documented within the archive.