Management priorities for aquifers in El Bajío in Guanajuato state, Mexico

Abstract

The arrival of new industries in some municipalities of ‘El Bajío’ in Guanajuato state, Mexico, has brought about appreciable economic development and human impacts, but has also caused changes in the management of the aquifers from which they get water for their operations. In some cases, the aquifers are overexploited and contaminated at different levels. A number of agencies have the main responsibility for managing, protecting and conducting studies on water use in both municipalities and the state and, in this context, experts from these agencies were consulted as part of this study about what environmental, social, economic and hydrological aspects had the highest priority when considering the establishment of a new industry in the zone. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology was used. Results show that hydrological aspects were the most important and, within them, treatment and reuse of water had the highest priority. It was concluded, therefore, that for the experts to reuse water in some activities and productive processes must be an option to decrease the water extraction from aquifers, supposing that the treatment process complied with the required regulations. Given the present conditions in the region, we can affirm that these results are applicable to the whole of El Bajío.

Assessing Industrial Impact on Water Sustainability in El Bajío, Guanajuato State, Mexico

“…It is necessary to give the responsible institutions for the management of water, such as Ground Water Technical Committee, Water Councils and others [21], a higher operative, economic and punitive capacity. This, with the goal of prioritizing the management of natural resources, mainly water, should be considered above economic and political criteria.…”

“…In this study, we start from the premise that the reason for allowing the establishment of industries in the study municipalities, according to what was stated by the authorities, was to better manage the available water (aquifers), and improve the income and standard of living of its inhabitants [21].…”

“…Below is the decision tree (Figure 2) that was defined during the application of the AHP [21]. On the left hand side is the study problem, and on the right are the criteria (C) and the sub-criteria (SC).…”

Delineation of Groundwater Potential Zones (GWPZs) in a Semi-Arid Basin through Remote Sensing, GIS, and AHP Approaches

“…A few studies have used remote sensing, GIS, and AHP for monitoring and assessing GWPZs in Mexico. Studies realized by [28][29][30][31][32] have been reported.…”

El modelo económico y su influencia en el desarrollo sustentable de cinco municipios de Guanajuato

“…En estudios anteriores realizados por Delgado-Galván, Izquierdo, Benítez, Pérez-García & Martínez (2012) y Flores, Morales, Mora-Rodríguez, Carreño & Delgado-Galván (2018), se aplicó la metodología de análisis jerárquico de procesos para determinar los diferentes niveles de importancia de un conjunto de parámetros que podían afectar la disponibilidad de agua en ciertas localidades de Guanajuato, siendo necesaria la participación de expertos en cuestiones hídricas y realizar un análisis un tanto complejo de la información para la obtención de los resultados.…”