Unified matrix for environmental impact assessment applied to water resources, Chicamocha River case study.

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment – EIA, makes a preventive and corrective study possible to avoid damages resulting from anthropogenic activities. Different methodologies are used taking into account criteria at the discretion of the professional, and the application of qualitative and quantitative parameters, particularly for water resources, the proposed methodologies and tools that allow a deep analysis to be carried out are limited. In this sense, the goal of this study is to design a tool for Environmental Impact Assessment applied to the Vado-Castro sector by means of Transparency Overlay Methods, Leopold, and Battelle-Columbus. The development of these methods was performed based on a diagnosis and monitoring of the water resource, articulating the characterization and quantification of the environmental impacts generated by economic, mining, agricultural and livestock activities. Finally, a unified standard methodological tool was formulated, which is applicable to the water resource sector and considers all the necessary criteria and attributes when carrying out a comprehensive EIA, as it is possible to demonstrate its applicability to the case of the Chicamocha River tributary area. The results obtained will allow this research to be used as a source of consultation for academic and technical studies that need to assess the effects of the water resource, in addition to being a tool with projection of application to any other body of water.