Floods in Tabasco Mexico: history and perspectives

Abstract

Tabasco is located in one of the ten more important basins of North America. One third of all water resources in Mexico passes through here. Flooding events are part of the natural history of the basin; however floods have increased spatially and in magnitude. Data regarding total annual rainfalls as high as 4000 mm are registered regularly within the border of Tabasco and Chiapas. The most important wetlands of Mexico are located here on the low river basin of the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers. Since ancient times, people in this part of Mexico are related to this flooding system in a variety of ways. A system of dams generates most of the electricity power used on Southern Mexico. Oil exploitation, cattle breeding and agriculture are the main economic activities and are responsible for an important loss of the natural ecosystems and ecosystem services. The objective of this research was to study flooding causes in this area. Geomorphology, climate, topography, hydrology and soil maps were constructed. A historical review of floods, river courses, and land use as well as an analysis of meteorological data were performed. Ecosystem vulnerability was evaluated. Results show that there has been a loss of 90% of the original biodiversity of tropical forest due mainly to farming and poor cattle management activities. Road infrastructure, unplanned urban growth and oil exploitation infrastructure has caused an important impact especially on the hydrodynamics and coastal areas. Extraordinary events with more than 200 mm in 24 hours are more common each year. The amount and intensity of floods today has increased and put at risk a great number of the population. Climate change : would increase the possibility of floods. Results propose conservation policies to protect or recover ecosystem services.

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“…Este resultado mostró que la cuenca Usumacinta era más húmeda and dry periods on seasonal, annual and three-year bases near the rivers of the Grijalva and Usumacinta basins. In this region, degradation has been reported, associated with anthropogenic intervention in various areas (Gama et al, 2010;Haer et al, 2017).…”

“…1960 al 2016 a diferentes escalas de tiempo (3, 12 y 36 meses) permitió identificar periodos húmedos y secos sobre la base estacional, anual y trianual cerca de los ríos de las cuencas Grijalva y Usumacinta. En esta región, la degradación ha sido reportada, en asociación con una intervención antropogénica en varias áreas (Gama et al, 2010;Haer et al, 2017).…”

Historical precipitation patterns in the South-Southeast region of Mexico and future projections

“…Climatic events associated with climate change and variability, such as floods, represent one of the relevant problems in southern Mexico's transboundary basins (García and Kauffer, 2011;Kauffer, 2006;Arreguín-Cortés et al, 2014). Gama et al (2010) and Valdés-Manzanilla (2016 discuss the extent of the adverse effects of flooding events in the states of Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz, while Audefroy (2015) addresses the potential effects of climate change in the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Yucatan. The institutional and socio-economic response capacity to these phenomena is limited in the region (CAFS, 2018); this area's challenges are shared to a greater or lesser extent by all southsoutheast Mexico states.…”

Flood severity along the Usumacinta River, Mexico: identifying the anthropogenic signature of tropical forest conversion.

“…Here we analyse 55 years of climate and discharge data from the Usumacinta River sub-basin in southeastern Mexico, which provides an opportunity to study the hydrological impact of large-scale tropical forest conversion in isolation. The past 20 years have seen an increase in the severity of flooding in the States of Tabasco and Chiapas in southeastern Mexico (Atreya et al, 2017;Gama et al, 2010Gama et al, , 2011, which encompass the connected river basin of the Grijalva and Usumacinta Rivers. Unlike the Grijalva sub-basin, which has several large hydropower dams along the main channel, the flow of the Usumacinta sub-basin is unobstructed for the entirety of its course from the Guatemalan highlands to the Gulf of Mexico.…”