Oscar Escolero

Development of a Protection Strategy of Karst Limestone Aquifers: The Merida Yucatan, Mexico Case Study

In many regions karstic aquifers constitute the only available source of drinking water. Due to the high risk of contamination in these aquifers, a comprehensive groundwater protection and control system must be designed and established. It has recentlybeen proposed that Hydrogeologic Reserve Zones (HRZ) can be established as a tool for the groundwater management in these aquifers. The following approach is proposed in order to establish the HRZ in karstic aquifers: including several generalstrategies for the protection of the ground waters within them, as well as the zoning of the land use and the development of acode of practice. A general procedure is proposed for the development of code of practice for ground water protection inkarst aquifers, which is applied as a case study in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Water Management in San Luis Potosí Metropolitan Area, Mexico

The San Luis Potosí Metropolitan Zone, one of the key urban centres of Mexicos semi-arid central region, has experienced remarkable socio-economic development in recent decades, but it confronts inadequate water services in a context of scarcity, inefficient management, and lack of planning, investment and technology. Strategies currently being undertaken include efforts to improve the efficiency of wells, reduce leakage, sanitize the area, and develop alternative water supplies from neighbouring catchments. The challenge today is to move from considerations that focus mainly on supply management, to an approach based on integrated water resources management. This represents an immense task, but innovative water technologies, management systems and institutional arrangements are necessary in order to meet the multiple objectives of equity, environmental integrity and economic efficiency.

The groundwater management plan: in praise of a neglected ‘tool of our trade’

has received very little attention in the literature, compared for example to that dedicated to groundwater flow and pollutant transport modeling. Nevertheless, it will always be the technical adequacy, institutional suitability and implementation efficiency of such plans on which the sustainability of the groundwater resource base depends. Additionally, while a numerical model is critical for improved understanding of groundwater system behaviour, it is only part of the ‘supporting act’ when it comes to practical groundwater management and protection. In some ways groundwater management planning is an art form, and a far from fashionable one! Some say why bother when we live in a rapidly changing world in which plans are rarely fulfilled. However, many recognise that if we are to confront the challenges of global change and scientific uncertainty we need to move to an adaptive style of management, which necessitates a structured and cyclic process of setting realistic targets, implementing planned action, critically reviewing progress and adjusting as necessary. This article is especially focused on ‘emerging economies’ which are subject to rapidly increasing stress on groundwater systems, and where uncontrolled groundwater resource exploitation and unconstrained land-use on recharge zones is leading to unsustainable and inequitable outcomes. In the more arid regions, groundwater resource sustainability is seriously challenged by intensive use of groundwater for agricultural irrigation and the elaboration of a GW-MaP will in effect be a guide towards a desired future and more stable condition which is adopted by the main stakeholder groups. In other circumstances, a rising water table, due to excessive infiltration rates, may be causing serious problems of soil waterlogging and urban drainage. This article aims to put the spotlight on the process of management planning for groundwater by:

Complex groundwater flow systems as traveling agent models.

Analyzing field data from pumping tests, we show that as with many other natural phenomena, groundwater flow exhibits complex dynamics described by 1/f power spectrum. This result is theoretically studied within an agent perspective. Using a traveling agent model, we prove that this statistical behavior emerges when the medium is complex. Some heuristic reasoning is provided to justify both spatial and dynamic complexity, as the result of the superposition of an infinite number of stochastic processes. Even more, we show that this implies that non-Kolmogorovian probability is needed for its study, and provide a set of new partial differential equations for groundwater flow.

Groundwater problems in Mexico

Mexico has two kinds of groundwater problems. The first, which is common to many nations, includes groundwater contamination, saltwater intrusion, and severe drawdown in aquifers. The second, which amplifies effects of the physical problems, is a lack of trained professionals in the hydrogeologic sciences. For a country with a population of more than 80 million inhabitants, this is a serious problem. Of the approximately 2 million km2 of surface land in Mexico, at least 1.2 million km2 are of hydrogeologic interest. Almost 50% of the water used in Mexico comes from groundwater. In many areas, such as the Yucatan peninsula, groundwater is the only source of water available. Approximately 340 aquifers have been identified. Of these, eighty are over-exploited, sixteen have salt water intrusion problems, ten have contamination problems, and five have land subsidence problems associated with groundwater extractions. Drawdowns range from a few meters to more than one hundred meters in the past 50 years in areas of northern Mexico.

Anthropogenic impacts on tropical karst lakes: “Lagunas de Montebello,” Chiapas: Anthropogenic impacts on tropical karst lakes

Grupo de Investigación en Limnología Tropical, FES Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlalnepantla, Mexico Unidad Académica de Ecología y Biodiversidad Acuática, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico Departamento de Dinámica Terrestre Superficial, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México Correspondence Javier Alcocer, Grupo de Investigación en Limnología Tropical, FES Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. de los Barrios No. 1, Los Reyes Iztacala, Tlalnepantla 54090, Estado de México, Mexico. Email: jalcocer@unam.mx Funding information DGAPA‐PAPIIT, Grant/Award Number: IN219215; Fondo Sectorial de Investigación y Desarrollo Sobre el Agua CONAGUA/ CONACYT, Grant/Award Number: 167603