Geoinformatics tool with an emergy accounting approach for evaluating the sustainability of water systems: Case study of the Lerma river, Mexico

Abstract

Emergy theory provides a basis for assessing the added value of water resources as a function of their origin and quality. From this perspective, the sustainability of a water system and its supply to end users may be classified according to the products, services, and energy necessary for its operation, which are incorporated from the corresponding socioeconomic system and form an important aspect of its evaluation. In the present study, the development of a geoinformatics tool with an emergy accounting approach and its corresponding methodology are described, focusing on a spatial-temporal analysis of water resources and their allocation to domestic, industrial, and agricultural uses. In addition, different water provision scenarios that involve several levels of infrastructure in the basin of the Upper Course of the Lerma River (UCLR) are evaluated, and existing water deficits are considered in order to assess their economic impact and offer a perspective on regional environmental sustainability. To achieve this, the water supply processes with the greatest relevance for the UCLR basin are evaluated, which include the extraction of groundwater and the treatment of surface and wastewater for subsequent use. The evaluation of the proposed scenarios indicates that the water supply system where treated water is recycled for agricultural, industrial, and urban uses (with restrictions) has the highest value according to the environmental sustainability index. Beyond this, it is possible to establish a series of strategies to transition from the current scenario where the water supply largely comes from an overexploited aquifer, to one where wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are capable of implementing additional units in their processes to achieve drinking water quality. Finally, the proposed methodology and the geoinformatics tool developed in this study showed their effectiveness as instruments for achieving an integrated management of water resources, which would facilitate a more objective decision making process based on current and projected scenarios.

Proportional Variation of Potential Groundwater Recharge as a Result of Climate Change and Land-Use: A Study Case in Mexico

“…Nevertheless, no distinction is made between a sub-surface and surface flow [83]. Given this lack of distinction, in this work, the production function for PGR estimation (step 6) and its variation over time (step 7) is carried out by another GIS environment module [84]. As well as other models, this tool estimates PGR by abstracting from the precipitation, the potential evapotranspiration (PET) and the surface runoff monthly.…”

Emergy and Water Policy

“…The contribution of Fonseca et al, (2017) is the framework of a software system used to simplify the emergy evaluation process through a case study the Lerma River in Mexico. This is an extension of research conducted by Diaz-Delgado et al, (2014).…”

Sustainability assessment for an offshore coral reef island based on scenario simulation and emergy analysis

“…This method converts resources, environment, economy, and energy factors in an ecological system into solar energy values, making it possible to compare various energy sources in a unified solar energy value, overcoming the limitations of traditional approaches, and providing a metric and scientific basis for the rational utilization of natural resources and evaluation of ecological system sustainability. Emergy analysis is useful for assessing the systematic sustainability and making comparisons among different systems (Fonseca et al, 2017;Alkhuzaim et al, 2021). In addition to the applications in regional sustainability assessment and ecological system evaluation (Su et al, 2020;Deymi-Dashtebayaz and Norani, 2021), it has been widely used to provide a new perspective for sustainable development research in offshore island tourism (Wei et al, 2020;Alkhuzaim et al, 2021;Zhu et al, 2022).…”