ESTIMACIÓN DEL VOLUMEN DE AGUA DE ORIGEN SUBTERRÁNEO PARA UN HUMEDAL COSTERO

Abstract

One of the outstanding activities in the water resources management in recent years is the consideration of the environment as a major player within the watershed. To move from theory to practice in this topic, it is necessary to establish a diagnosis in terms of water volume. In other words, to associate each condition that sustains the environment, mainly the inflow of water into the basin. This work shows the case of the zone known as Soconusco in the cost of Chiapas state, in south Mexico, where there are four main rivers: Cintalapa, Despoblado, Vado Ancho and Huixtla. Those rivers drain most of the running off in the basin, first to the biosphere reserve (BR) La Encrucijada and then to the Pacific Ocean, interacting with the lagoon system there. A groundwater balance was done, estimating the volume that the aquifer Acapetahua discharges into the sea. Subsequently, the draining volume was estimated by precipitation and the result was checked with the hydrometric record. In the dry season period the difference between the last two values provides the volume of water that comes from the underground source. Its annual average value is acceptably close (20 % difference) to the volume of natural drainage obtained from the groundwater balance. Therefore, it was assumed that the minimum value drains into La Encrucijada BR (average per year) with the available information.