Environmental Effects of Aquifer Overexploitation: A Case Study in the Highlands of Mexico

Alberich, María Vicenta Esteller; Díaz-Delgado, Carlos

doi:10.1007/s00267-001-0024-0

Cited by 55 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The overexploitation of wetland resources has also been reported by [58]. Our results on ecosystem services and drivers of change in the study wetland are amongst the first for wetland areas in Asia and are therefore an important indication of the state of ecosystem services in wetland areas of this region.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India

Bhatta

Chaudhary

Pandit

et al. 2016

Land

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Abstract:Wetlands provide a diverse range of ecosystem services supporting livelihoods of many people. Despite their value, wetlands are continuously being degraded. There is scant information on individual wetlands, people's dependency and their exploitation at a local scale. We therefore assessed wetland ecosystem services, the drivers of change and impacts of those drivers on ecosystem services and people's dependency through a case study of the Maguri-Motapung Beel wetlands of Assam, India. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and community workshops. The analyses showed a total of 29 ecosystem services, and high dependency on these with five out of seven livelihood strategies sourced from ecosystem services. Over-exploitation of wetland resources and siltation were reported as the major direct drivers of change with impacts on both ecosystem services and people's livelihoods. Drastic decreases in availability of thatch, fish stocks, fodder and tourism were observed. This suggests that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive participatory management plan. Actions are needed to maintain the Maguri-Motapung Beel wetlands and the flow of services in order to sustain people's livelihoods in the area. With an estimated 50% global loss of wetlands in the last century and the loss of 5,000 square kilometers a year in Asia alone, the loss of ecosystem services and livelihood impacts shown in our study may be typical of what is occurring in the region and perhaps globally.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India

Bhatta

Chaudhary

Pandit

et al. 2016

Land

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“…Spatially analyzing the data, it was observed that Ca From the values obtained in this study, it could be concluded that the hydrogeochemical feature of the water in the area of study is the predominance of bicarbonate and sodium ions, which is consistent with other studies in the Toluca Valley [3,6,10,11]. The relative abundances of the major ions in water were found in the following order: Na + >Mg 2+ >Ca 2+ >K + =HCO 3 ->>Cl ->SO 4 2-.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Groundwater hydrochemistry of an overexploited aquifer: the case of the Toluca Valley, Mexico

Jiménez-Moleón

Fuentes

Mota-González

et al. 2010

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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The demographic, industrial and agricultural growth of recent decades in the State of Mexico has caused a considerable increase in groundwater extraction and the overexploitation is mainly due to drinking water, because it is the supply source for the two densely populated zones in the country: the metropolitan areas of Toluca City and Mexico City and its conurbation. In this work, 49 groundwater sources of drinking water were analyzed in two sampling periods (dry and rainy seasons). According to the Electric Conductivity data, 67% of the samples in the dry and 63% in the rainy season presented weak mineralization and the rest of the samples showed medium mineralization. In addition, the values of hardness showed that the water had good quality, with the exception of 3% of the wells in the rainy season, which had medium quality. The corrosion coefficient showed that two samples in the dry season and four in the rainy season had aggressive characteristics that might damage the extraction and distribution networks. The concentrations of major ions (measured by ionic chromatography) in both sampling periods showed this relative abundance: Na + >Mg 2+ >Ca 2+ >K + =HCO 3 ->>Cl ->SO 4 2-. It was found that the HCO 3 -concentration increased with the groundwater flow in the area. Moreover, it was also possible to establish the principal species in solution and to corroborate the hydrochemical change in the area of study. Although there continues to be clear predominance of the Mg-Na-HCO 3 type, the Na-HCO 3 facies showed a progressive increase.

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“…To these negative results, resulting from the overexploitation of the aquifer determined in previous studies (Esteller and Díaz-Delgado 2002), others should be added, such as degradation of groundwater quality, due to an increase in either its salinity or in the concentration of certain chemical compounds (Custodio 1992;Baretta et al 1992;Martinelli et al 1998). Monitoring of exploitation is performed by the Water National Committee by means of a piezometric network, which at present consists of 50 monitoring wells, and from which only annual data are available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Anthropic effects on hydrochemical characteristics of the Valle de Toluca aquifer (central Mexico)

Alberich

Andreu

2005

Hydrogeol J

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The Valle de Toluca aquifer, located in the Highlands of Mexico, is subject to intensive exploitation to meet the water demand in the valley, as well as for part of Mexico City. This intensive exploitation has produced a decline in groundwater level, land subsidence problems and a decrease in river and spring flows. This study is aimed at determining the extent to which the intensive groundwater abstraction is able to affect and modify the chemical characteristics of the water, using statistical techniques and historical data on the main physicochemical parameters. Some changes in the chemical characteristics have been verified; initial water abstractions were mainly derived from a local flow zone (rainwater recharge and lateral flows from other aquifers), but currently the chemical characteristics are those of a regional flow zone, revealed by waters of sodium bicarbonate type. An increase in nitrate content has also occurred, although only occasionally is the limit for potable water (50 mg NO 3 -L Resumen El acuífero del Valle de Toluca, localizado en el Altiplano Mexicano, se encuentra sometido a una intensa explotación para cubrir las necesidades de agua en el propio valle, así como parte de las de Ciudad de MØ-xico. Los altos niveles de explotación han provocado el descenso del nivel piezomØtrico, problemas de subsidencia, disminución de caudales en ríos y desecación de manantiales. Este estudio pretender determinar en quØ grado esta intensiva extracción del agua subterrµnea es capaz de afectar y modificar el quimismo del agua. Para ello se han empleado tØcnicas estadísticas y datos histó-ricos de los principales parµmetros físico-químicos. Se ha podido comprobar que existen algunos cambios en el quimismo, ya que, inicialmente, el agua extraída del acuífero estaba ligada en gran medida a un flujo local (recarga por agua de lluvia y por alimentación lateral desde otros acuíferos) mientras que ahora el quimismo es característico de un flujo regional, puesto de manifiesto por aguas de tipo bicarbonatado sódico. Adicionalmente, tambiØn se ha producido un aumento del contenido de nitratos, aunque sólo de forma ocasional se sobrepasa el límite para agua potable (50 mg NO 3 L 1 ).

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Environmental Effects of Aquifer Overexploitation: A Case Study in the Highlands of Mexico

Cited by 55 publications

References 2 publications

Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India

Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India

Groundwater hydrochemistry of an overexploited aquifer: the case of the Toluca Valley, Mexico

Anthropic effects on hydrochemical characteristics of the Valle de Toluca aquifer (central Mexico)

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